Okay

I know a lot of people who have entered a certain contest at a certain webpage with this certain address: http://www.poetry.com

I just want to let you all know that it is a scam. Just in case you didn't know. And the reason why I posted it in the Issues forum is because it is an issue for a lot of people. How many of you have fallen for this demeaning scam?

I almost did. I bought the book. Every time I look at it and flip through it, finding my poem, I want to cry because here I thought it was something special, something where I could proudly say 'I am good enough to be published!' But now I feel disgusted, hurt, and ashamed. How do I know if my poems are any good anymore? I can't trust a scam like that to tell me. (if you want to know why it's a scam, just let me know and I'll tell you.) Sometimes I think that if I think my poem is good, what if it just sounds good to my ears and to no one else's?

Oi. It's definately a painful issue.

A good rule of thumb for the future. If you submit something and being published does not involve, at least, 2 free copies* of the publication being sent to you then it's probably not worth getting involved with. There are quite a few companies running similar things to poetry.com.

Check here http://www.writersweekly.com/warnings/poetry.html

RJ

*Sometimes with hardback anthologies you may only get one.

Thank you for the advice. I will remeber that for next time.


As a matter of fact, I know of another company running though poetry.com. It's called Noble House Publishers. I got an email from them the other day and I read it, realizing how much it sounded like the letter I got from poetry.com, so I just deleted it.

What exactly was the scam?

Everyone who enters becomes a semi finalist. Everyone. Also, you have to pay for the book and for all of your awards, and you have to pay for you accomodations during the 'National Poets Convention.' If it was legit, you wouldn't have to pay for everything. It gives false hope to some people, and it rises the spirits of others only for it to come crashing down again.

It is a really, really mean way to scam people.

I am going to look for a website to show you all. It has a winning poem on it, and it's all nonsense words.

shoot I can't find it right now.

But if you want to read a nonsense poem that is now a semi finalist, look up the name 'Last name: Wiggles First name: Smiggie' and look for poem 'Policy' at poetry.com. It's sad. Really sad.

If you click on the Link in my post it outlines it all Sir M. It's not actually a scam in that it's all legal. You don't have to buy the book or go to the convention to get published, they just prey on the fact that a lot of people will, and they publish anything. Some pretty talanted people have been in them as well as lot of no hopers. It's a variation on the vanity press.

As to your question about knowing if you're worthwhile or not Dreams, this has nothing to do with it. You've been taken in by inexperience and you'll know better next time. Poetry itself is entirely subjective, I love Percy Shelley but I think Byron was a talantless hack who's dated badly. Most poets will tell you Byron is brilliant, horses for courses.

The best way to go forward is to find a critique group, as a writer I was part od "www.critters.org" for a long time. As long as you are prepared to take on board constructive criticism (and these places are not kind, it hurts,) you will only get better. Search on some groups, look about find what you're interested in and join up (without meaning to be patronising I don't know how old you are so if you're a teenager look at joining one at that level etc.).

But most importantly, if you're writing for you, and you enjoy it, then that's all that matters. 99% of my mail from publishers is rejection, but I keep at it as I'm writing for me, I want other people to like it and I've been lucky in that they seem to (sometimes) but even if everyone hated it (and some days it seems like they do), I'd still be doing it. Can't remember who said it but it's a great quite and one I often fall back on -"there are no bad writers, only writers that give up."

RJ

Exactly what RJ was touching on -- even though it hurts to be scammed by that idiotic site (damn, I would've been too if I wrote to them ), if you're really writing poetry or doing whatever it is you do because you love to doing it, don't give up. I once heard someplace that "the only person who has to think you're special is you", and it's true. Take pride in your work, and confidence that you will eventually succeed if you have the motivation to back up your talent. Really truly. And good luck to you, m'kay?! *hugs*

Thanks guys. That made me feel a lot better. Definately a lot of good advice, too. ^-^