Poetry sensation set to smash records with new collection

A writer who sold a two-line poem for more than £50,000 is set to publish a new collection of poetry – and this time the entire book is only £9.99.

London based Arch Hades made headlines around the world in March when one of her poems sold for $71,411 (£51,638) in an online auction.

At just two lines and a total of 17 words the sale caused a sensation in literary circles with many commentating that each word had sold for more than £3,000.

Now Arch, who is Britain’s most popular poet on social media with more than 1m followers on Instagram alone, is set to release her third collection Paper Romance.

The book of love poems and letters, based on the real-life correspondence between the writer and a former partner, is out on July 20 and is already available for pre-order online.

The good news is that at less than £10 you won’t need to take out a new mortgage to afford to read the poet’s latest work.

The new book, her third collection, is set to smash sales records for a volume of poetry and follows in the footsteps of her first two collections, High Tide and Fool’s Gold, both of which topped the poetry best sellers list.

The success of the books has led some commentators to describe the author as the JK Rowling of poetry.

Her latest volume is being billed as, ‘perfectly timed for a summer of easing restrictions and hot days and nights’.

She said: “I am incredibly excited to be launching my third poetry collection, Paper Romance.

“The past 15 months have been a uniquely challenging time for all of us and with so many people unable to see work colleagues, friends and extended family our personal relationships have become more central to our lives than ever.

“It’s within that context that I created the work that became Paper Romance, based on letters exchanged between myself and my former partner.

“During lockdown we were living in different countries for a while and we chose to share our feelings by exchanging letters, something that has become something of a lost art this century.

“I believe poetry is for everyone so while I was honoured to see my work sell for such a high sum earlier this year it means so much to be able to offer my latest work to a much wider audience. I sincerely hope people like it as much as they enjoyed my previous books.”

The £50,000 sale of her previous work sold as part of a digital collection by Grammy award winning artist RAC.

RAC wrote a unique song lasting a minute for each item sold. Together with graphic artist Andrés Reisinger, they sold the art collectible as an NFT (non-fungible token).

A total of 75 copies of the poem, handwritten by Arch Hades on a postcard, were sold overall, totalling over £50,000. It reads: ‘You sing a song that only I can hear / And you, the only one, who hears mine.’

Following the cancellation of Arch Hades’ book tour, and the cancellation of RAC’s album tour in 2020 due to the pandemic, the two artists decided to diversify their revenue streams and enter the world of crypto art.

A non-fungible token is a unit of data on a blockchain, where each NFT represents a unique digital item. Buying a one-of-a-kind NFT means you acquire the un-erasable ownership record of that piece of work, access to that piece, and the right to sell on.

No work by Arch Hades is duplicated. No lines, couplets and poems are ever repeated in other NFTs.