Marketing and aftermath

Marketing

I didn't really have a launch as such. I think anyone who would have come would have got the pamphlet anyway.

• I've read from the pamphlet at Leicester, Cambridge, and Leamington Spa, selling some copies each time.
• I've helped people who've written reviews and essays
• I've done book swaps
• I mention the pamphlet in bios that I send to magazines. I've made use of the network of poets connected to Cambridge Writers.
• I've used a blog to keep the pamphlet in the public eye

My family was amused when it fell out of the top 2 million in the Amazon charts, but it's in the British Library

and the Poetry Library, which also has some press cuttings.

The aftermath

My poetic output dwindled around the time of the launch. I took several months to recover. I was hoping that the pamphlet would help me kick on - providing a confidence boost, rather than being a marketing tool. I somehow think it's helped me get more acceptances in magazines but I wanted to keep the momentum going in a bigger way - bigger magazines; a prize or 2. Perhaps I've been distracted by my story book, but I don't think so. Now, in March 2013, I feel I've recovered my spirit of adventure, absorbed new influences, and am ready to embarked on a new phase.

When I was putting a book-length collection together I wondered which poems from "Moving Parts" to include. I decided upon "Iron birds", "In the soul's darkroom", "Paradox", "He understands but doesn't love", "Poetry is the deification of reality", and "Crow’s Nest".