All those poets out there hoping to have their first collections published in a dwindling poetry market — what are their prospects?

Neil Astley, editor of Bloodaxe Books, says: ‘We will not take on any books by new authors for the next three years, although we will publish from our backlog one first collection this year and three next year. The reason for this policy is the alarming decline in poetry sales through bookshops, resulting from the dumbing-down of the UK book trade following the demise of the Net Book Trade Agreement and the Waterstone’s takeover of Dillons. That chain now tells publishers that contemporary poetry will be stocked only if they give Waterstone’s a 50% discount, which is unviable. The range of poetry titles stocked is progressively reduced, and slower-selling titles are often returned even before reviews appear. Waterstone’s will not stock Bloodaxe’s first collections.’

Clare Brown, director of the Poetry Book Society, agrees: ‘First collections are the first casualty in a shrinking poetry market, especially when the restrictive buying policies of Waterstone’s and the other chain bookshops make it difficult to persuade a retailer’s buyers to stock backlist titles by even well known writers. Another point is that too many poetry books are published — the market is flooded by work which really shouldn’t be in book form. It might be time to consider publishing on the web where thousands could read the work and the financial investment is small. The PBS is currently investigating ways of "growing the market" for poetry, ensuring that bookshops carry a representative selection across the full range of publishers.’

Janet Fisher, at Smith/Doorstop, reports that 14 smaller independent poetry publishers are launching a syndicate, INPRESS, this summer to represent them with a distributor and a sales-force company to service key retail accounts.

Smith/Doorstop published two first collections this year and aims for the same next year. Faber has not published a first collection since 1996. Seren plans one this year and two next year, Cape has one this year and probably one next year, Enitharmon will publish four in 2003, Carcanet has two this year, Anvil aims at two a year, Arc one or two a year, and Picador has published half a dozen over recent years and a couple more are planned.

At the Arts Council of England, Gary McKeone, director of literature, and John Hampson, senior literature officer, said in a recent interview that ACE had invested £100,000 annually to subsidize Signature, a company of book sales representatives. That subsidy ceased this year when Signature stopped selling on behalf of smaller poetry presses. They said they ‘are looking at ways in which poetry distribution might be addressed imaginatively without relying solely on the high street bookshop. A pilot project is already looking at distribution through the public library network, bearing in mind that 58% of the population has a library card.’ Noting that ACE funds poetry publishers’ websites, it was suggested poets should not restrict their focus to first collections, but also include the Internet, poetry magazines, small-scale private publishing and the anthologies of work by new poets such as those published by Anvil and Carcanet. They predict that while selling poetry books on the Internet and by mail order would not be a substitute for bookshops, publishers will certainly use these sales channels more in the future.

Having gathered the research reported here, I believe that the marketing of contemporary poetry is in serious trouble. The arts councils and regional arts boards of Britain have evidently been successful in encouraging more people to write poetry, but unfortunately there is a concomitant failure to stimulate increased purchases of contemporary poetry. That’s because there’s been relatively little well-directed effort to achieve this difficult task — except for the outstanding and most professional marketing and direct sales work by the Poetry Book Society, an organization funded, of course, by the Arts Council. I suggest it’s also time to form a wholesaler company, perhaps funded jointly by poetry publishers and the Arts Council, which will sell contemporary poetry into bookshop chains and independent bookshops on terms which are not draconian. Finally, I hope that the arts councils of Britain will, singly or in a group action, retain the services of a professional marketing consultancy to advise on and guide this work.