MegaSonic

I see. I've been thinking of an audience that likes video games and poetry, which is a particularly small group, but targeting the broader gaming audience opens up more opportunity. And running a blog for some time would both create a readership base and answer the question about the feasibility of publication. Now, another thing that I'm not so familiar with is the rights to using certain material such as licensed characters, console names or game titles, both from a writing standpoint and a design standpoint. Obviously, putting Mario smack on the front cover of a book wouldn't fly. But how about mentioning him directly in a poem? And that goes for blog design too. I can't just rip images and put them there, but If I make a blog, I'd say it has to have the feel of a place for gamers and not just be a bunch of words. Thanks for all the replies. They have all been quite helpful.

I actually used to post poetry on a site for sharing literary works. At one time my more popular ones were read over a few thousand times without any publicity and seemed well received, including a couple of my game inspired poems. However, it's been a few years now since I've really been active there. I probably should have stayed active because then the number of reads would be much higher by now. Apparently, a few people who got started on the site have been moderately successful in selling, but those were mostly novels. I should probably pop over there and see what their thoughts are too. I think there's a hug gap to cross from poetry that people enjoy reading to poetry that people are willing to buy. Even if a lot of people read it, that doesn't mean anyone would buy it.

This reminds me of some material from an English course I took in undergrad on alternative media for literature. I really like things like this, and I would certainly enjoy doing a creative endeavor along those lines.

I've thought of doing songs before, and I've tried some more lyrical poetry but I don't have a good ear for music so that's been tough. I've found that songs and poems, at least for me, take a different set of strengths.

Thanks for the input. I'm not really trying to make money off this, just mostly trying to lose a lot. I write poetry as a hobby and whether I publish or not, I'll still write them. I appreciate your suggestion too, but unfortunately, I don't really have the time for other large endeavors. Since you have some experience in indie book publishing, with my concern being to not lose money, perhaps I could just do an ebook/kindle?

I have a bunch of video game inspired poems that I'm considering publishing. Is this something that would be of interest to anyone? If it was good, would you consider buying something like that? If so, how much would it influence you which games inspired the poems? How many poems would you have to read first before deciding it was worth buying? I'm a very longtime lurker here and thought this would be a good place to gauge level of interest. Any input is appreciated. Or if there is anything else you'd like to know, please ask.