Don't worry, Janice, I do it too. It takes liking more than one poem by an author to get me to buy his or her book, but enjoying what I read in a magazine or online is a big factor for me in spending my measly bucks on books. And Maryann, I guess I'm weird along with you. Reviews with quotes get me to buy books. Then again, I almost never go to readings so of course I don't buy books after them.

The thing is, Maryann, it's harder to not buy a book with the author looking on than it is online, say, where the author may not know which five of the twenty who said they'd buy books actually did. Readings sell books, albeit rarely huge numbers in a go, but so does lugging them around as an author and having a copy available when the book comes up. I've sold books to the guy sitting next to me on the plane, a Basque couple at a Greenwich Village restaurant who thought I "looked like a poet," and at the Cuirt festival in Galway to everyone who expressed regret at missing my launch (I think that was almost twenty sales based on, "Well, I do have a couple copies in my bag...."). And so forth.

Interesting question. What leads to sales? I have no idea, but it would be nice to find an answer... ;)

Let's look at the top selling poetry books in the US from last week:

Swan by Mary Oliver (Beacon Press)
The Shadow of Sirius (paperback) by W. S. Merwin (Copper Canyon Press)
Thirst (paperback) by Mary Oliver (Beacon Press)
Evidence (paperback) by Mary Oliver (Beacon Press)
New and Selected Poems: Volume Two (paperback) by Mary Oliver (Beacon Press)
Ballistics (paperback) by Billy Collins (Random House)
The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems (paperback) by Billy Collins (Random House)
Whitethorn by Jacqueline Osherow (Louisiana State University Press)
The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993 (paperback) by Charles Bukowski (Ecco)
Human Chain by Seamus Heaney (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

The answer is pretty obvious. It's name recognition. What they used to call mindshare in the internet days, or before that, brand image identity. I'd venture to guess that just about everybody reading this message knows all of those names, with the possible exception of one (and there's a delicious irony in that exception, as she does LOTS of formal stuff: sonnets, villanelles, pentameter. And yet, a search of the entire history of this site yields precisely three threads in which she's mentioned!). Also, that one person who has four in the top ten? She's got some others in the top thirty: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/jour...temporary.html

Ok, so how does one build mindshare? It seems there are only a few ways: readings, publications, awards, articles lectures and reviews, buzz among readers. Are there any other ways?

But even reading attendance is dependent on mindshare. And somebody reading to 20 people at a local bookstore may sell a book to twenty percent of her audience, but that's still only four books sold. When Wilbur came to the Folger last spring, he likely got about the same percentage, but there were an awful lot of people there...

Of course, all of this talk about sales may be counterproductive, and we'd have to construct an "as above, so below" argument to say anything meaningful about small presses... most of the books on the top 30 come from established houses. But at first glance, it does look like readings are at least a substantial part of constructing whatever it is that does actually sell books... ;)

Thanks,

Bill

and some of us have to get a book published before we can test it out. LOL

My gut says (since I have no numbers or facts to back anything up) that if someone finally decided to publish my book (best I've done is 2nd runner up) that the people who would buy it would be those that might attend a reading.

Or if I had a fabulous review by a big-name - then I might get a few more buyers.

The rest of my readers would be the recipients of Christmas presents.

So I think for someone who may have a single book out, and is not well-known, readings do sell books. But again, I have no numbers to back that up.

Thanks again to everyone who's responding. One observation I can't resist, in reply to one of Quincy's:

Yes, of course this is true, and it's part of what Marybeth has remarked on: it's rude not to buy.

And that reminds me of nothing so much as the Tupperware parties and jewelry parties and neighborhood Avon ladies that my mother so abominated because she felt she was being forced to spend money on things she didn't really need.

The day will probably come to all of us (and has already come for some of us) when we have to rely on this effect. But must I like it? All my early training teaches me to loathe it. I'd rather take Susan's approach when I buy. So I guess I'd (we'd) better learn to read so compellingly that listeners will genuinely want the book(s).

Of course all those other ways Q. mentions are valuable too, as are Bill's points about mindshare. (And I learned my loose-meter terza rima from Jacqueline Osherow!)

Bill said:
Bill, these are the names you're referring to (top selling poetry books in the US last week): Mary Oliver (mentioned several times)/ W. S. Merwin / Billy Collins (mentioned twice)/ Jacqueline Osherow / Charles Bukowski / Seamus Heaney

Of those names above, the only one I know is Seamus Heaney. (I'm not au fait with many American poets, aside from Spherians.) I Googled Mary Oliver and no formal poems popped up; I dare say they're there, but only free verse came to the fore.
That preliminary check would not make me want to buy one of Mary Oliver's books, which is a shame because you say that she does 'LOTS of fomal stuff'.

It's just a minefield out there. Let's face it: in the US/UK, not to mention the rest of the world - there are SO many poets, how can we know all their names/read all their work/buy all their books...?

We can't.

Jayne, the "one" that Bill was implying (for American readers, to whom the others are all very famous) is Jacqueline Osherow, who writes in form, but loosely. I am familiar with her work, which has appeared in many anthologies, but she is not mentioned often on this site. Nor are certain other famous American writers whose approach to form is loose, such as Marilyn Hacker.

Susan

Oops, sorry, Bill, I got hold of the wrong end of the stick.

Thanks, Susan, and Maryann for the PM pointing out that I was mixing up Mary Oliver and Jacqueline Osherow.

Here's my excuse: it's past midnight here, and past my bedtime... zzzzzzzzz ;)

One more (perhaps final) thought on this thread. Here are a couple of sentences lifted from the Valparaiso Poetry Review interview of A.E. Stallings, following on some comments about the value of reviews:

"But I think a book tends to be out there for readers you already have. I think you win more readers by having them stumble across something in a magazine or online, on places like Poetry Daily and Verse Daily. (Poetry Daily was also an early supporter of my work.)"

A bit more support for the notion that one does gain readers from among those who simple find and like the poems.

I have to admit that the last 2-3 readings I did (and I don't do that many), people were extremely chinchy about buying books. Is it the economy, or is it me?