Unique way to sell your writing

Desperate times call for desperate measures. It was in one of my many moments of desperation, when I was completely broke, that I discovered a unique way to make money quickly and simply by writing poetry. I did not get rich by doing this, but I did manage to buy groceries, pay some bills and have a little pocket change here and there. I can’t offer any guarantees, but I believe others could do the same and probably earn even more than I did. I should probably also say that some people will not make a penny by doing this because several factors come into play; one of which is your ability to write.

With Mother’s Day being just around the corner at the time, I wrote a Mother’s Day poem for my mom. My friend, Jimmy, read the poem and said, “You need to find a way to put your poems on one of those plaques that you see in stores”. That statement sparked an idea for me to frame the poem.

A few days later, some other friends stopped by and they saw the framed poem sitting on the table. They read the poem and asked where it came from. I told them that I wrote it and framed it myself. One of the friends asked if he could buy it from me. After a few minutes of going back and forth, with me asking, “Are you serious?” and him saying, “Yes, I think my mom would love it”, I sold the poem.

When Jimmy came back over, I told him that I sold the poem. He said, “I told you it was good. I bet if you could sit in front of a store with those poems, you could sell every one you had.”

Knowing that I was broke, Jimmy took me to town for the purpose of buying picture frames. With him footing the bill, I chose frames that were $5.00 and less. We left the store and went to the local library so that I could use the public computer. There I wrote and printed the poems, since I did not have a computer of my own. Once we got home, we assembled the frames, to display my poetry. Jimmy then took me down to a local store so that I could showcase my little works of art. The store owners allowed me to leave the poems in the store on consignment.

The following day, I sold nearly 20 framed poems at $10.00 each, which by the way, was every one I had. From my earnings, I bought a few more frames and printed a few more poems. I then took those frames to various stores throughout the local area. Some stores allowed me to leave them on consignment while other stores bought them straight out.

Once I earned enough money to buy a computer, Jimmy surprised me with a computer program that allowed me to place backgrounds behind my poetry. Having access to a computer at home allowed me to spend more time perfecting the look of the poetry. With the printing program, I experimented with different fonts and backgrounds.

There you have it folks. For those of you, who decide to implement this idea, please feel free to let me know how it turns out.