Book Sales and Poetry

[caseyquinn]

To be a best selling novel you need to sell 5,000 copies but for poetry I have found the number to quite less. I have heard that 100 is considered a good book and 500 considered a best seller. What are your thoughts? Anyone have different numbers?

[Harold]

I'm not quite sure on a specific number and it should depend on the market for the genre or subject. Of course there's the NYT Bestseller List and similar lists.

I've heard of people selling self-published works and then getting a contract based on a decent sales track but that's rare. You'd also be messing with publication rights and that's a disaster waiting to happen. Most major publishers and agents don't want to meddle with self-published novels.