Hold your poetry reading in a convenient location.
A poetry reading can be a magical journey through words, forms and ideas. Poets may spend weeks or months preparing for a reading, anticipating the audience's reaction to the poems. However, all of this hard work goes to waste if there aren't people at the reading. Advertising for a poetry reading can be just as important as hosting good poets and featuring good poems. The key is making the reading seem fun, accessible and convenient.
Instructions
1. Contact English professors, creative writing professors, local poets, poetry clubs, book clubs and publishing companies in the local area in order to give them information about the event. Try to talk to everyone face to face, but e-mail can suffice if your transportation and time are limited. Be sure that you give them the specific time, a list of the poets who will perform and the location of the venue.
2. Make an event using a social media website, such as Facebook. This will allow people to confirm their attendance, which helps you gauge how much advertising you still need to do. You may want to make the title a bit more generic, in order to draw a large crowd. For example, instead of calling the event a "poetry reading," you may want to call it a "poetry and art show" or "poetry and music event."
3. Post flyers in coffee shops, campus bulletin boards and popular streets. Be sure that the posters appeal to a wide audience, as some people might not be inclined to go to a poetry reading if it is their first time. You can do this by adding eccentric pictures of famous poets to make the posters flashy. Placing posters with pictures of people who will read poetry might also spark the interest of friends of the poet. If your event has other artistic aspects, such as music or film, then you should announce these as well.
4. Make announcements in classes or at poetry meetings. You can even announce your poetry reading at other poetry readings, which will already have a lot of people who like poetry in attendance.
5. Remind people on the day of your poetry reading. People may have forgotten that they agreed to attend, and so it's a good idea to let them know when the poetry reading is happening. Send e-mails, post more flyers or announce it on your Facebook page to remind people.
6. Add an incentive, such as a drawing, competition or refreshments. You can have a drawing, where a ticket holder wins a small gift card to a local coffee shop. A poetry competition may make people interested in who, among their friends, is the better poet. Refreshments are a good way to lure in poor poets and young students.
