Poetry in Our Freebie Culture

At the end of 2010, I had just self-published my fifth collection of poetry.

The release party had been a complete success. Sales were going quite well.

One afternoon, I received a private message on my Facebook Page. (A rare occurrence at the time.) The sender, a random stranger, congratulated me on the publication and mentioned how much they loved my poetry.

So far, so good, right? Well, hold on!

After the first couple of lines, the email went something like this:

I was hoping that you could gift me a copy of your wonderful book. I can't afford to buy it, but I know you have a big heart. Of course, I would tell all my friends about you.

I was so shocked by the request that it took me a while to be able to respond. My message was nice and professional, but I said no—and explained exactly why. The person never followed up.

After the event, I shared the story with a couple of poet friends, who reported similar experiences. A few weeks and more conversations later, something clicked in my mind. It was my nth encounter with freeloaders. I had just brushed off the others because sales were going well.

Poetry books have always had limited readership. However, they still sold decently in the 2000s. All hell started breaking loose in 2011 or 2012, when Facebook and Twitter (among other social networks) became the de facto platforms for people to interact.

Since then, things have gotten from bad to terrible for poets. We are expected to be on every social platform ever created: Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), TikTok, YouTube, Mastodon, CounterSocial, Threads, Bluesky, Flickr, Pinterest, Tumblr, Medium, Goodreads... People also expect us to share all our poems, and curtsy whether they pay us a compliment or write a hurtful or condescending comment.

Poetry must remain accessible and free. You should be ashamed of yourself.

I can't afford to buy your books. I have just spent $7 on a cup of Starbucks coffee.

As you know, I am a multidisciplinary artist. I have experience in several fields: digital journalism, social media marketing, art critiques, editing, proofreading, translation, and freelancing. I also release anthologies and co-run a magazine. I have worked with and interviewed hundreds of indie artists over a span of 18 years. Only poets are expected to release free books and donate their time for projects ad nauseam.

In the artistic world, we get the shortest end of the stick as well. The concept that we should not be compensated for our hard work is so ingrained in people's minds that poets themselves end up lecturing the ones who try to make a living.

And then, there is this:

Audiobooks are a great way to expand your reach! But you should not charge for yours. Poetry needs to remain accessible.

Or this:

Give away your poetry book, you will get tons of exposure. More exposure means more eyeballs on your work. More eyeballs means more sales. It's the only way.

Or this:

I would love to read your book. Tell me when it's on sale or free.

These are a few comments I have had to deal with recently. They came from strangers and people I have known for a while. I spent hours trying to reason sensibly with them. I even redirected them to my articles on the topic of book publishing to show them what they seemed to blatantly ignore. To no avail.

(For those interested in said articles, click here and here.)

Of course, most poets are aware of those conversations. They have been happening on social media and in private exchanges for years. Unfortunately, I no longer have the patience to put up with them.

I am tired of reading everywhere that poets should be ashamed of themselves for publishing and selling books. What saddens me even more is how the constant bashing of our work leads us to devalue our worth.

So, I decided to take to social media to vent my annoyance.

You want others to treat you with respect as creatives? Stop telling them 24/7 that your work sucks or that you are not good enough.

Yes, it's that simple.

Stop spending your days devaluing your worth on social media. Social media is not your diary. It's a public forum. Everyone can see what you post.

Dear poets, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be paid for your hard work.

If someone tells you that you should give away your book(s) to increase your reach, don't listen. Most advice givers are just looking for freebies. They do not care about you and would not support you anyway.

Nowhere else are people expected to work for free. So why is it ok to expect that of poets (and other artists)?

Giving away your books is a personal decision, not a rule set in stone. Period.

I foresaw people coming out of the woodwork to insult me or fight with me. Not only has it not happened yet, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the positivity of the responses. Interesting conversations have been triggered. I hope it is the start of something good.

Poets work their butts off at their craft. We spend an inordinate amount of time polishing our pieces. Publishing a book requires months (and sometimes years) of work and a substantial amount of money. (Without even mentioning how exhausting and demanding marketing can be.) We should feel proud of the result and allowed to celebrate accordingly. Instead, we are repeatedly shamed for it. Our books also receive significantly less exposure than those in other genres.

• For example, my local bookstore no longer has a poetry section. The books are all crammed into the non-fiction section.
• Many online book tour companies automatically refuse to work with poets.
• An increasing number of bloggers will not review poetry books.
• Unless you are traditionally published or know the right people, no large media outlet will be interested in interviewing you.

Expecting us to give away our books, audiobooks, and spoken word tracks is akin to asking for free meals at restaurants or free repairs for your car.

Would you like it if your boss decided that paycheques were now optional for employees?

Sorry, I can't afford to pay you this month. But, hey, I really appreciate your dedication. Please keep up the great work

Infuriating, right? Then, imagine being told the same thing almost daily because you write poetry...

This freebie culture needs to stop. It is not healthy. It does not just promote gaslighting, but it also destroys creative careers. Very few people are willing to put up with never-ending condescending comments. They shouldn't have to, anyway.

Actually, that is the reason why I took a break from poetry for about eight years. I felt as though I did not deserve to make a living, which dried the well of my inspiration. The break was life-saving though, because I got to explore other art forms, gain a healthy level of self-confidence, and understand why I needed to get back to poetry and assert myself.

Without poetry, most of us would have nothing to hold on to when life feels a little too overwhelming. Without poetry, most of the music, books, or movies we revere today would not exist. Imagine a world without the poetic words of Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Kahlil Gibran, Pablo Neruda, Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman, John Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Elizabeth Bishop, William Wordsworth, John Donne, W.B Yeats, Dante Alighieri, John Milton, Homer...

You can't, right? It is because no other form uses the language in the way it does to awake deep emotions within us. The best storytellers have poetic minds. Whether they have written poems or not, they are influenced by poetry. They understand the power of words more than any other writers in their categories.

Artists do not just entertain us. They also force us to think, question, and engage in important debates, often triggering small but vital changes. Their service to society is major. The day they stop creating, the world as we know it will no longer exist.

There is a time and a place for free art. Actually, social media and artists' websites are FULL of it. With that said, it is the prerogative of a creator to decide how their work should be made available. Non-artists and people with a limited understanding of the industry have no right to try and dictate that rule.

Exposure does not pay bills or fill a plate with food. If handing out poetry books was the solution to the dearth of sales in the genre, all the poets who use that tactic would be household names and live comfortably.

Hard work deserves compensation.

The amount is irrelevant. But the principle matters.

It is about respect for our fellow human beings.

Period.

That's it for today! Thank you for reading!

---

Cendrine Marrouat is a writer, photographer, podcaster, blogger, anthology editor, and the co-founder of Auroras & Blossoms and A Warm Cup of Cozy. She has authored and co-authored more than 40 books, including The Train: A Short Story (2023), In Her Own Words: A Collection of Short Stories & Flashku (2022), After the Fires of Day: Haiku Inspired by Kahlil Gibran & Alphonse de Lamartine (2021), Rhythm Flourishing: A Collection of Kindku and Sixku (2020), Walks: A Collection of Haiku (2019-2020), and In the Silence of Words: A Three-Act Play (2018).

Cendrine's work has appeared in many publications. She is the creator of the Sixku, Flashku, Sepigram, and Reminigram; as well as the co-creator of the Kindku, Pareiku, Vardhaku, and Hemingku.