eight days ago i launched the tumblelog INTERNET POETRY. it has been received pretty well, already surpassing my personal tumblr account in followers. the screenshots on INTERNET POETRY represent one specific way poetry can be published on the internet: with guerilla tactics. i think it is fun, exciting, and perhaps symbolic of the larger shift in power. the tumblelog as a whole also represents a possible model for literary magazines online, with the potential of viral sharing and subscription built into the siteyesterday i launched my book/website DOWNLOAD HELVETICA FOR FREE.COM. i hope that this collection can represent another way poetry can be published online, and one that is important and practical for individual writers. guerilla tactics are a lot of fun, but they don’t usually build a sustained readership for your poetry. publishing at literary magazines doesn’t usually build a sustained readership for your poetry either, although it may get you some hits. i think you can build a sustained readership for your poetry online by creating websites where the primary thing being shared is your poetry
viral websites and other content models for poetry
from the beginning i had hopes of DOWNLOAD HELVETICA going “viral.” now that it’s here, i’m not sure if “viral” is actually possible for this collection. to go viral, something has to be shared by a certain percentage of people who view it, so that the number of people exposed to it keeps growing and snowballing. therefore, the size of my initial push, by itself, would never be enough to make something go viral
[% of visitors who share the site] x [average number of people invited] x [% of invitations accepted] = n
if n > 1, the site becomes viral
(equation paraphrased from the dragonfly effect, kind of a boring book overall in my opinion, but it had a couple takeaway points)
i’m still interested in creating viral poetry sites, but for poets who want to build an audience over time, it may be most important just to create sites where full works of poetry are available for reading, or sites like spencer madsen’s where new poems are periodically added like blog posts or webcomics—sites where the emphasis is clearly on new poetry. this is different from my blog here and other lit blogs like ron silliman’s or tao lin’s: here, even though i’m a “poet,” i mainly post prose writings about poetry
i think i fell into this blogging model because (1) it’s what most other writers are doing and (2) it’s more compatible with submitting poems to literary journals. but i’m surprised how long it took me to even become critical of this model or aware of other models. at one point, i read blogging advice that said “provide useful content,” and i decided to post about submitting to literary journals. i also considered posting articles like the stuff on thought catalog to drive traffic to my poetry. i didn’t consider just posting a consistent stream of my poems
DOWNLOAD HELVETICA represents a number of things to me: the value of design in literature / the potential of found poetry / the freedom of abandoning conventional publishing / the beauty and notstalgia i feel about being a young vegan, going to college, and being in love with another person. recently it also represents to me the hope that poetry itself can be a solid basis for a content model online: that poetry can excite people enough to subscribe to a website: that poetry can be worth sharing on facebook: that poetry is something people intentionally read☺
share my book if you want
in the first 24 hours, my book had 1,660 visitors, which is pretty exciting in relation to most of my traffic up to this point. but i also know there is even more potential for poetry, and i will keep taking steps to develop the methods to reach the full potential
the value of my site will be primarily long-term; if people really like my site, they will share it, and it will spread. getting an initial burst of traffic is not my main goal with this site… but i figured i would ask for as much support as i can get: if you want to help me, you can try some of these ideas:
1. link: i have twitter and facebook share buttons on the site, so it’s very quick and easy to link that way. if you link from a blog or tumblr, remember the google bombing techniques used to elect the 2011 poet laureate. i recommend linking the whole title, DOWNLOAD HELVETICA FOR FREE.COM or else another combination of those words: “free helvetica download” or “download helvetica.” i’m already on the first page of results for “download helvetica for free” so your links could really help with long-term traffic
2. reviews + interviews: if you have a blog, i would love if you shared your thoughts on the book; if the post goes out to any kind of sizable audience, that’s even better. if you’re a journalist or you have connections with an established blog/magazine, i would be very appreciative of coverage; i’m willing to mail free print books for that purpose. i’d be excited to do interviews discussing internet poetry, public domain self-publishing, or veganism. i’ll link out to the posts on my bonus features page
3. other: remix my book; create an audio version, a video version, or another image-based version. tweet the poems; print them as fliers or hand-outs; chalk them, wheatpaste them, spray-paint them. submit them to image- and type-based tumblelogs; put them as your avatar or profile picture. it’s not really important that i even get credit; just spread the poems in any way you think would be fun
i feel very grateful to my friends and readers… thank you so much for believing in me and saying nice things about my poetry. i hope you think this post is ok and not too much of tooting my own horn, or even tooting our collective Horn
i hope you like me
i like you a lot
