Today is where I fess up to the countless times when I check the sales of my book and my press's titles and shout Why aren't you assholes buying these books!?!?! These are good books!
Then I take a deep breath and remember those who have purchased the books, those I need to be grateful for.
Everyone wants to be compensated for their work and effort. I want to be compensated for my work and effort. I'm not sure where people think this compensation is supposed to come from when so little funds are put into "the economy." Hence it only continues as a "gift economy." It can't exist any other way.
Trying to explain this to younger/newer poets and those outside of the poetry community is frustrating. Having to explain it to poets who supposedly have been in the poetry community for years is maddening. Everybody comes up with money for beer and Internet porn.
posted by RL @ 12:27 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Unfortunately, I feel like I perpetuate the gift economy by feeling immense guilt when people buy my book instead of receiving it from me for free, particularly if I know the person, more so if I genuinely like the person.
I give away a lot of books too -- it's the only proven way I found to get them into people's hands.
I like trades. I have quite an extensive poetry library because of it.
As I have mentioned, I'm always trying to get my neighbor onto the idea of books that are meant to bought, not read. That's where the money is!
I'll be making yet another No Tell purchase very soon. Lady Louden's book is a must!
Loudon, that is.
poetry is the least-funded of the major arts, the least-compensated, the least-rewarded . . . >the disparity between funding for poetry and the other arts is shameful——when will poets rise up in protest against this inequity! . . . >if the arts were a class system (and maybe it is) poets would be the slaves . . .
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