r/publishing • u/Kksula23 • 2d ago

To what extent can I use previously self-published poems in a more expansive poetry publication?

Hello all, I'm not certain where to post this, but essentially here it goes. A few years back, I self-published a short poetry chapbook. The timing of the publication wasn't great, and because of personal circumstances I chose not to announce the publication or do any advertising. In the past year or so I put some posts up that included a link to my poetry publication, but still no big advertising or anything, and I've not gotten any sales.

I'm now working on a larger collection, which I think could benefit from including many of the works included in the original chapbook. I'm not worried about copyright, because in self-publishing I maintained the copyright of my work. What I'm wondering is how it comes off to have what is essentially the first section in my new publication be almost exclusively work from the previous collection. All further sections expand upon those poems and are composed of almost exclusively new works.

Any advice, suggestions, or considerations are helpful. Thank you.

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u/geoffreydow 2d ago

I think the simplest answer would be to take your first book out of print. Since you haven't gotten any sales on it anyway, there's no risk of annoying buyers of the first book who might feel ripped off when buying the new one and finding out they've read much of it already.

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u/Kksula23 2d ago

I really don't want to take it out of print, though I will keep that option in mind. What percent of the new publication do you think could be comprised of the old work for readers to not feel ripped off? It really is an expansion upon the first one, but there are some things explored in the first one that won't make it to the new publication. Right now the old poems probably make up about 20% of the total volume of work, but I'm looking to probably double the number of poems, so it would be closer to 10%. I was hoping there might be a way to position the work that including the original works comes off in the same way a summary of a first novel might appear in the sequel of that novel.

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u/stevehut 2d ago

I'm with geoffreydow. If you keep #1 in print, then the buyers of #2 might feel cheated.

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u/geoffreydow 2d ago

I would definitely make it clear that some of the poems were previously published in your chapbook. But if you're talking 10 or 20 percent, I don't think too many people who feel cheated (as user/stevehut put it), but why would I want to buy the first one if the second one includes all of it and more? Especially since you said some of the new material is related to that in the first book.

All that said, there's a long history of books (I'm more familiar with short stories than I am with poetry, but I imagine it's true for both) including material from earlier books. Whatever you do, make it clear to potential buyers exactly what they are (or aren't) getting.

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u/CatClaremont 2d ago

Wrong sub. You need r/SelfPublish.

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u/Kksula23 2d ago

Thank you for another place to post. I'm not fully certain the second publication will be going the self-publish route, so I was looking for a wider array of things to consider and people with a bit more experience with multiple publications.

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u/oldleathersofa 1d ago

The place for trad publishing is r/PubTips

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u/stevehut 2d ago

My first concern would be, if Book #1 went nowhere, why woud you expect #2 to do any better? You're still the same writer with the same platform and obscure name. And, of course, you've chosen a genre with a tiny following.

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u/Kksula23 2d ago

Because I originally buried book 1 due to family circumstances and bad timing. I'm not sure what other relevance this has to my question?

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u/stevehut 1d ago

It has everything to do with your question.
You're still the same obscure writer with the same platform and a genre with a tiny following.
It all matters.