Publisher's Diary - 6th June, 2003

A regular diary from Salmon Poetry's editor, Jessie Lendennie

Hello, I suppose I'm going to have to take a look at my definition of 'regular' - as in 'regular diary'. My track record so far makes irregular seem predictable!

My excuse is that we had a heck of a difficult year last year. We've made some changes to try to ensure that this year will be easier, but its cost a lot in time and effort and delays. This year we had a huge cut in our Irish Arts Council grant, the first reduction we've had in almost 20 years of receiving grant aid. It's awful to come to rely on grants, but it seems to be an integral part of any arts endeavour. So, how can we get out of this 'cosy, but deadly' co-dependency??

Sales: We're well established with our Online Bookshop, and sales over the last few years have been very good. However we have noticed a fall off this year as people cut back on spending (poetry books fit in the definition of luxury items I guess). Most of our sales are in the U.S. and this is a cautious time for Americans. However, as we all know, an investment in a poetry book is an investment in sanity during adverse times!

Fundraising: Despite adding more aspects to our great Friends of Salmon multi-faceted promotion this year, we haven't raised much money. For an online fundraising campaign to really work the arts group (poor poetry publisher!) needs to have a HUGE network. In fact, a HUGE network would make a lot of things work - including online book sales. So how does one stay a nice person and still network like crazy? Any research volunteers out there??

We deeply appreciate the people who support our Friends of Salmon; I think that even they don't realize how much a seemingly small amount can mean to us in the scheme of things.

Patrons: I wish we had even a bit of money for every time someone has told me that they have a contact or lead for BIG money. Sigh. Do such patrons really exist for poetry? (I mean beyond the one-in-a-million, lottery-odds chance which has transformed the financial well-being of Poetry Magazine).

I'd be happy to hear from anyone with a good fundraising plan. Meanwhile we're working on increasing our profile online and reassessing our future plans.

All the Best!

Jessie
jessie@salmonpoetry.com

Read Jessie's earlier diaries:

May 2002 | July 2001 | March 2000 | October 2000

Daughter and Other Poems by JESSIE LENDENNIE The long- awaited re-release of Jessie Lendennie's prose poem "Daughter", first published over a decade ago, accompanied in this volume by a selection of Lendennie's previously uncollected poems.   MORE INFO>>>>