Hotspot

We are still coming down to earth after the excitement of the T S Eliot Prize for Poetry following six days of poetry on the Today programme and the fantastic sold-out short-list readings. The prize has shown that there is a big and engaged audience for poetry, but down in the engine-room we’re still grappling with the same problems: how to promote a ‘minor’ art form, even if it does occupy a big part of the skyline for literature; how to find new audiences and extend those we have; and how to support poets so that they can participate in the creative economy instead of being the beggars at the door. Fortunately, help is at hand. We are building two new websites, one to provide a niche bookselling site which will sell all the poetry titles in print and through its news, articles and events listings provide a focal point for poetry lovers; and the second to provide an online platform to extend the Poetry Book Society itself, and grow its band of committed poetry readers.

The web has to be the answer for finding and developing new audiences. Arts organisations cannot afford to rely only on traditional marketing techniques: they have to reach out to find these audiences on the web and develop them through email contact strategies. Social networking will play a key part in developing online communities, but we also need to embrace the commercial opportunity presented by retail rapidly switching to the web. The Internet also facilitates collaborative working. We need those networks of organisations with common interests and audiences which can be so easily developed online, to link up tiny arts organisations with few resources, such as the Poetry Book Society, and enable them to flourish.