ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

G'day everyone,

The problem of anthologies comes up. What is the general feeling about other people selling books with your work included. So far I have received several books in return for my poem but should we be asking for a fee instead. As each poem was only one of many poems in the book should we be asking for royalties. As a group, should we have a policy of asking for a certain percentage of sales. Also considering the work and costs involved in production and marketing, would we be any better off?

What do you think?

Don't know that one could expect anything in return for having one poem published. I have got a few of mine around like that and have always been happy to help a cause and figure if it is out there being read that is good and it might lead on to bigger and better things perhaps. As long as they acknowledge who wrote it that works for me...the latest one I am waiting on is a book that has been put together to raise money for the Animals that have been affected by natural disasters - it should be out soon I think, and I will be interested to see what it contains.

Hi Zondrae

There's probably not much mileage in this. Unless you have a commercial arrangement directly with a publisher there's unlikely to be any royalty payment for inclusion in an anthology. I've done this, but it's rare with poetry because there are usually quite a lot of contributors involved and it's a fairly small market.

A number of competitions include an anthology as part of the deal and, unless you've won a cash prize, the best you can hope for is a free copy of the book. In a recent short story competition I won third prize and the only reward was a free copy of the e-book they produced. But that was made clear in the guidelines, so I knew in advance what might happen. It's a matter of deciding whether you want your work 'out there' as against the possibility that publication might disqualify that piece from entry elsewhere.

Cheers
David

Thank you for the replies.

I have no problems with giving my permission for any of my poems to be included in any publication. But someone else had expressed, quite strongly, that they objected to someone else gaining from their work. I am still so happy that someone may want to read, perform or include my work in any way. I hope I never come to the day that I am jaded enough to not get a kick out of this.

I have the six or seven books in which I have poems published, sitting on my book shelf, in full view.

Love anthologies! However whether to permit your work to be included in an anthology is and must be a purely personal choice. I think most of us would be very proud to have our work included in a published collection, however I think it is always wise to consider the motives of the publisher.

Vic