Poetry Scam. Don’t Be A Poetry Scam Victim!
The infamous “they” say there is a sucker born every minute. What they don’t say is that every 30 seconds a scammer is born.
As a writer, the majority of scams I face are writing and poetry scams that come in the form of publishing contests.
Right now, the biggest poetry scam going can be found at Poetry.com — a fraudulent publishing company that turns 100% of the submissions into ‘semi-finalists’. Poetry.com’s poetry scam has been around since 1996 and is frighteningly still going strong. As if to add salt to the wound, the state they are based in lets them do it, despite receiving tons of complaints.
Every person who is unknowingly and unwittingly drawn into this particular poetry scam is sent a flattering letter, saying that they are a great poet and that the ‘panel of judges’ or ‘sectional committee’ strongly believes the submission is worth publishing. Then the letter asks for a $50.00 payment, or more, if the poet wishes to have a page all to him or herself.
The next catch in the poetry scam is that Poetry.com only publishes the poems written by the contestants who pay the fee – 60 books a year, with 6,000 poems per book, at $50.00 a poem, gives Poetry.com’s poetry scam over 18 million dollars a year! That’s a whole lot of scammed dough!!
Another catch: the books are sold only to the poetry scam victims!
If you want or need more proof that Poetry.com is poetry scam, do a Google search of “poetry.com scam” and check out these links (they’re also good for general poetry scam info):
National Library of
Poetry Exposé
Poets & Writers On Poetry Scams
Wikipedia Info On Poetry Scams
So how does one know if a contest is actually a poetry scam? As a general rule, be cautious of contests where your work will be published online only (unless it’s a well-known website), or only in an anthology that “winners” have to pay for. A ‘semi-finalist’ letter is exciting to receive, but read it word for word, and even between the lines. A contest is a poetry scam if you must buy one or more copies of the book in which you will be published. The contest company makes their money through the purchase of such anthologies.
Also be wary of contests put on by people or companies who will profit from your work, like book doctors, and literary agencies where the prize is representation by an agent, but comes with “editing fees.”
Contests where the prize amount is determined by the number of submissions (a pro rata basis) exist only to make money for the people putting on the contest.
Here is quick poetry scam cheat sheet:
Watch out for:
*Having to pay an additional fee for publication, editing, representation or publicity.
*Contests that run weekly or monthly, where the “prize” is simply being published on an obscure, shady, or sketchy website.
*Having to buy the anthology in which your work will be published.
*Contests where everyone “wins” (no matter how crappy the work), or no one wins.
Poetry scams and writing scams are everywhere! So do your research, and be sure to read all the fine print.
Tags: emails scams, internet scams, poetry contests, poetry scam, writing contestsRelated posts
15 Responses to “Poetry Scam. Don’t Be A Poetry Scam Victim!”
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June 3rd, 2008 at 1:56 am
ha… i submitted a poem telling anyone who looked at my poem that the whole sitw is a fraud! they accepted it!!!! it was my perfect plan… i told the readers that they screwed you over… they brought it in!!! they told me that it’s accepted!!! i loved it! i was scamed by this site and i dont want it to happen to more innocent soles!!! so i helped it! i started my own fake poem, submitted it and got readers right away!! i love it!! thank you websites for stopping the stuidity of poetry.com!!!
June 29th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Turn-over estimate
The anthology that I bought (yes, I know, I had the same 20″ thick plate in front of my face) cost me $ 59.95 (excluding p+p). My estimate is (excuse me for not counting them by hand) that there are around 1,500 poems in there. Since you won’t get published if you don’t buy the book, all those 1,500 poets have bought the anthology (assuming that they won’t print two poems of the same poet in there). That would mean 1,500 x $ 59,95 = $ 89,925 for the poems. There are 325 biographies of poets in the back (I DID count them by hand), for which the poet had to pay $ 25 extra. That’s 325 x $ 25 = $ 8,125.
Together for this anthology that would be $ 89,925 + $ 8,125 = $ 98,050.
I first thought that they’d publish some six anthologies per year, but even I was dumbstruck that that amount should be multiplied by ten. I took the time to count the released anthologies that they have on the poetry.com website and in the year 2002, the year which the anthology that I bought was published, they released a total of 52 anthologies. In 1998, which was probably a very profitable year for them the number of released anthologies rocketed up to 78.
So if we take the average of that, 65, and use that as the amount of released anthologies per year, you can calculate the following: 65 x $ 98,050 = $ 6,373,250 income per year only for those anthologies. That is over SIX MILLION DOLLARS! *dingdingdingding*
And then I didn’t even count all the other @@@@ that they are offering. The awards, which cost like $ 175 – $ 250 each and the plaques on which you can have your poem printed and the audio recordings you can get from your poem and the offers for the symposia that you can visit as an outstanding poet.
And in this matter I’m only talking about the poetry part that they have. Imagine what their turn over is if you take into consideration that they also do ‘business’ in for example photography! My dear fellow poets, this is BOOOOOOOOMING business.
And we don’t see a penny of it. Not ONE SINGLE penny. We only PAY to see their pockets get filled!
Doesn’t sound too fair, does it?
THANK THE LORD THAT I FOUND THIS WEBSITE. POETRY.COM JUST DISGUSTS ME. ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING. I AM APPALLED AND ENRAGED THAT THEY TAKE ADVANTAGE OF WRITERS WHO ARE JUST TRYING TO GET AHEAD. I GOT MY LETTER SAYING I WAS GOING TO BE PUBLISHED IN ‘IMMORTAL VERSES’. THEN I GOT A LETTER SAYING I WAS SOME AMBASSADOR AND HAD WON THE EDITORS CHOICE AWARD. ANOTHER POEM I SUBMITTED WAS ALSO “AWARDED” THE EDITORS CHOICE AWARD AND WAS TO BE PUBLISHED. YOU CAN IMAGINE HOW THRILLED I WAS. IN FACT I WAS GOING TO FILL OUT MY ARTISTS PROOF AND SEND MY MONEY TODAY. BUT NO IT WAS FATE. GOD WAS WATCHING OVER ME. I FOUND OUT OF THIS SCAM AND WAS JUST SHOCKED. PLEASE EVERYONE BEWARE. DO NOT GET FOOLED!
October 10th, 2008 at 1:26 am
I have just purchased a book of poems which was not titled Immortal Verses” but is called Collected Whispers. My poem was put on page 1 which is easy enough for a printer to do. I have paid in full so know I won’t get a refund if I sent it back. I hope these scam sites cannot say you haven’t paid and try to put you under collection and ruin your credit rating . Any comments on that side of things will be appreciated. It is still nice to have the book but I’ m glad I wisened up rather than order a plaque etc.
October 21st, 2008 at 2:15 am
I too was published in “Collected Whispers” and yes, lo and behold, my poem and profile were in the very front. After performing a few google searches, i have read some blogs by other poets who were published in the same book… and they all say the same thing. Every one of them is stoked that their poem is in the front of the book as if they think that it is legitimate.
Also, i have thumbed through my copy and cannot find any of their poems or names, another aspect of the scam. that is how they get away with dubbing every poem as a semi-finalist and what not, by cycling all of the poems through different copies of the collection. Which also mean that our poems are not in every copy of the book. We may even be the only ones who have copies of our own poems. And I’ll bet my sanity that the pages in my copy are different from yours.
November 16th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
My poem was published in “collected Whispers” I put $20 on the book, they sent it to me. My poem is in the very front of the book and boy was I flattered.I will return the book for a refund and I will demand that they take it off the website.
January 14th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
My name is Cyndi and I was also scammed expecting to receive Immortal Verses and never even received it. I am upset cause I believed I even had copyrigts and now my poem is just lingering out there for someone else to recieve credit for. Poetry.com needs to be shut down. I feel disrespected and I want everyone to know what a fraud poetry.com is. Your book is only meant for you and not for others to see.So please don’t send any money to this fraud company cause I didn’t even recieve a book.
May 17th, 2009 at 12:46 am
My name is Julie Woodgate and I too was SCAMED! and I TOO and I am pissed off!
I thought that I was the only Onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnne!
Ifelt very Special . I had written a very special poem about Steve Irwin’s death “The Oath” and when I had it published wow1 I was on top of the world, not only was it getting out about Steve Irwin but I was Published! but now my Husband has found this out WE ALL HAVE TO COME TOGETHER NOW!what can we do about this? can any one please help me..we have to stop Poetry.com if anyone at all has any ifo that may help please feel free to e mail me at woodgatejulie@yahoo.com.
May 29th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
How big of lowlifes can they be??!! I’m only 13, and yet i got scammed, i gave in my poem to my teacher, then it happened. wow, I’m a semi-finalist. They said they would judge in February, but i got no notice after that. I’m in the book “collected whispers” and I’m “magically” on the 1st page. Imagine how my parents felt, they were proud that I was published, and that was even on the 1st page. SO, yeah, that’s my story.If you have “collected whispers” my poem is Dreams, and my name is Anthony Bernal.
You can reach me in my email anthonybernal95@yahoo.com
May 30th, 2009 at 6:50 am
U know what screw it!! im 13, as I said, and I got published!! I didn’t get screwed, I accomplished something that people work for for their whole lives. All of you should see that.
May 30th, 2009 at 6:51 am
Dudes, I got published I dnt care. I did something people work for in their whole lives!!
June 14th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
I was so upset when I found out poetry.com was a fraudulent company and yes like everyone else my poem was on front page and yes I was a very talented writer…..the problem is they destroy your confidence,you wonder if your poems are any good.We will all have to put it down to experience,I don’t know if I will chance entering competitions again.Regards Kathy.
my email is kathylow9@hotmail.com
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:50 am
well sounds to me like a lot of ppl got scammed but look at all the comments and tell me you cant take this to court there is a lot of crimes made while “publishing” this book. i how ever was not a victim but my clase friend was and i know it has to hurt and suck…so like that julia girl sed…lets do something about it.!
you have how many witnesses and victims and many differently published books that there was no need to pay for.
July 13th, 2009 at 10:52 am
I too was scammmed. Fortunately at the time, I was younger, didint have the money.
July 13th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I sent an email to Lulu poetry which seems to have taken over poetry.com and asked for my poems to be taken off their website,about 2 weeks later I got an email telling me they were changing email system and were working on my request,2 weeks after that I received 6 books I had ordered over a year ago plus 6 books with another poem I had had published and had already received my copy of.I was not charged as my banking details are now not the ones they have.Interesting that the name of the sender was poetry.com and not Lulu poetry.
October 29th, 2009 at 11:42 am
i too got published with a great poem called Moving on and yeah it was on the front page why are all of you complaining you got published either way it does have great poetry in that book be happy that you did something you shouldve known it was a scam they told all of you that your poem would be published and on the front page!!!!! get over it