Poets & Writers Magazine welcomes letters from its readers. Please post a comment on select articles at www.pw.org/magazine, e-mail editor@pw.org, or write to Editor, Poets & Writers Magazine, 90 Broad Street, Suite 2100, New York, NY 10004. Letters accepted for publication may be edited for clarity and length.
Brand New
As an outdoor writer in a niche market, I feel I must market all the time. Frank Bures’s article “Brand You: Questioning Self-Promotion” (January/February 2016) resonated with me. I blog, use social media, speak to almost any group who wants me as long as it’s a group about the outdoors, and talk to local reporters about our parks and forests. I don’t feel as though I’m plugging my books as much as my subject matter. National parks and forests, hiking, and the outdoors are very important to me. That’s why I wrote Forests, Alligators, Battlefields: My Journey Through the National Parks of the South, which comes out early this year, to celebrate the National Park Service Centennial. “The mass e-mail is dead,” Bures writes, but it’s simply been replaced with other marketing tools. Do the new ways of marketing result in more book sales? How can I measure this? Marketing my books gets more people to think about the outdoors, and that’s what really matters to me.
Danny Bernstein
Asheville, North Carolina
"I don’t want to be a brand. I want to be a person. I want to be a writer.” Frank Bures from “Brand You” in the current issue of @poetswritersinc.
Sylvia Petter
@Mblobs
Fractures Through Twitter
@poetswritersinc, thanks for putting this roundup of debut poets together (“Fractures Through Time: Our Eleventh Annual Look at Debut Poets” by Dana Isokawa, January/February 2016) and asking good questions. It’s a helpful resource.
Emil Handke
@emilhandke
Great list of debut #poets to add to your list! #amreading #poetry @poetswritersinc
C. Alderman
@MsAlderman
I really enjoyed reading about these debut poets from @poetswritersinc.
King Grossman
@KGrossmanWriter
Inspired Impressions
After many years of writing, but barely getting anything published, I was ready to give up, until I received the January/February 2016 issue of Poets & Writers. I always check the Deadlines section first. Thank you!
Robert Wadsworth
Plainville, Indiana
The current issue of @poetswritersinc looks fabulous—a perfect way for an #amwriter to start 2016! Great articles, inspiration, contests, and more.
Leslie Einhaus
@healing_redhead
“Even if we reach just one single soul, we are being given an opportunity to create something bright in all this darkness.” —@KevinLarimer
Jeannine Atkins
@jeannineatkins
What a moving editor’s note, @KevinLarimer, in latest Poets & Writers mag. Thank you and P&W for all you do to create meaning through #writing.
Tracy Strauss
@TracyLStrauss
Kind Critic
Psyched to be reading Poets & Writers’ interview with @michaelschaub (Reviewers & Critics by Michael Taeckens, January/February 2016), insightful literary critic, kind & funny person.
Barbara J. King
@bjkingape