Is poetry.com a scam?

SpiderGal · Oct 14, 2006

Someone told me that it is. There's website that suggests "

Poetry Ezines and Magazines fall into several categories, and featuring in one category will not help your chances of being accepted in another. Most particularly is this the case with poetry.com and the other 'popular' internet poetry magazines. Don't mention them in your covering letter when submitting to a 'serious' poetry outlet, or your poems will go straight into the wastebin."

What's with this? Just curious.

KTC · Oct 14, 2006

Poetry.com is the biggest scam in the history of scams. Stay away from them!

Dawno · Oct 14, 2006

If you go to the "Bewares" forum and do a search (I recommend you use the advanced search and make sure you get the responses returned as posts to make it easier) there are some posts in various threads discussing poetry.com. There are a few here in the Poetry forum as well - again do an advanced search from the "Search this Forum" tool at the top of the page.

Also the blog Making Light refers to them a number of times. One of the more comprehensive posts was in June of 2003 don't forget to read the comments as well.

Wikipedia has an entry that has some links you can check.

I'm sure someone better acquainted with this will come along - but the best advice about any .com group or poet's market is to do a lot of research - don't stop with one site.

veinglory · Oct 14, 2006

Yes, it is. Poerty.com is not 'popular', it is not read by people other than the poets and their immediate friends and family--it is not even a magazine because it does not refuse any poetry. Sometihing that would accept random words or your shopping list as poetry is not a clip to brag about. And yes, many years ago I fell for them too.

Bravo · Oct 18, 2006

Is poetry.com really a scam?

Why do these guys have poetry.com listed as a scam? any horror stories here?

thank you

poetinahat · Oct 18, 2006

Bravo, there's already a thread on this topic. If it's all right with you, I'll either close this thread or merge it with the other one.

Glad to see you over this side of the Iron Curtain again. Do you need your parking ticket validated?

Bravo · Oct 18, 2006

please merge this.

but bloody hell!

i submitted to them.

what do i do now?

hmmmmmph

Angelinity · Oct 18, 2006

just dawned on me that it is a scam... i was notified that 'due to my poetic achievements' i was chosen to be included in the international anthology blah-blah...

all i had to do was send the poem and pay

had a good laugh after i came to.

KTC · Oct 19, 2006

Bravo said:
please merge this.

but bloody hell!

i submitted to them.

what do i do now?

hmmmmmph

What do you do? Ignore their pleas to buy the tome in which your work will appear. Put them on email block. Toss out all of the snail mail they send you. They create these hefty books filled with poem after poem...sell them for $50ish dollars to the poets themselves. I know three people who entered to these guys. They are still getting mail today and it was years ago. Just ignore everything they ever send you and consider it part of the learning experience.

KTC · Oct 19, 2006

Angelinity said:
just dawned on me that it is a scam... i was notified that 'due to my poetic achievements' i was chosen to be included in the international anthology blah-blah...

all i had to do was send the poem and pay

had a good laugh after i came to.

Exactly. Makes a lot of sense, eh!

I know of tests done on this outfit where something like the following was sent in and accepted:

the glare found
sister strewn
eggshells crack
and sunshine
eat cold smile
every talk talk
sad eyes
early morning rain
car stalled back
tongue tied

Just a random thrown together jumble of words submitted by someone testing this organization and it was accepted. That's how bad of a scam it is.

Bravo · Oct 19, 2006

the glare found
sister strewn
eggshells crack
and sunshine
eat cold smile
every talk talk
sad eyes
early morning rain
car stalled back
tongue tied

that was brilliant ktc.

youre a real genius.

please PM me and i would love to show you how you can become rich off of your talent!

alleycat · Oct 19, 2006

poetry.com uses several different names. Many people have been taken in.

KTC · Oct 19, 2006

Thank you ever so much. I will be sending you my banking information post haste! I can't wait for the coffee table book to arrive! And may I say you're a wonderful editor who knows talent when he sees it!

KTC · Oct 19, 2006

I see, Alley, that you are reading one of their books now!

alleycat · Oct 19, 2006

KTC said:
I see, Alley, that you are reading one of their books now!

Nah. That's a PA book. See the look of confusion on my face. I'm just about to start ripping pages out.

SMG · Oct 19, 2006

I remember submitting a poem to them a few years ago, and when they wrote it would be included in their next book I was like "wow, cool!" and I was telling my mom about it and she kept insisting it was a scam.
Of course it was, and I was really peeved.

I recently saw an old episode of Leave it to Beaver that revolved around the Beav getting scammed in a similar manner (except his was being accepted by a modelling agency so long as he paid a whole bunch of money for 'training'), so I guess this isn't anything new.

poetinahat · Oct 19, 2006

I'm so glad you all are giving this treatment the gravity it deserves. Really.

(Except, Kevin, what in the name of Malcolm McDowell is your avatar? It makes me think of Dead or Alive, performing in Cirque du Soleil. Which is a weird, but good, thing.)

KTC · Oct 19, 2006

My God...but that is just what I had in mind!

I can't believe what Pete Burns has done to himself. He should have stopped enhancing in 1984...he was at the top of his game then. Now...sadly, he is just a Cirque du Soleil chorus girl.

louisgodwin · Oct 19, 2006

Poetry.com, aka The International Library of Poetry, operates by making everyone a "semi-finalist" in a poetry contest. They send you a nice letter praising your talent and then want you to pay $50 or so to get a copy of a book which contains literally hundreds of other poems. I remember in their letter to me, they were also offering a CD in which your poem is read out loud by somebody. The cost for that was somewhere around $20-$30 I think. And then there was some kind of commemorative plaque you could have a copy of your poem framed on for some freakin' ungodly amount of money. They claim this is real publication, but just try to find an I.L.P. book in a library or bookstore. You won't.

Declan · Oct 19, 2006

I have entered one of their comps in the past. One day I was sent a bronze medal in the post...(last year)...very strange. There was a list saying I had come third, along with about two hundred others that had come third also. I've never bought one of their anthologies, and never will. My opinion is that they are a scam. Just look at the cost of the books, absolutely insane.

Dec.

Gunpowder Nash · Oct 20, 2006

They are in an office building only half a mile from where I work. The sign also says picture.com or something similar. I imagine they use the same scheme to get people to submit photos and try to sell them similar books.

Angelinity · Oct 20, 2006

Quote from the submissions guidelines of a poetry journal:

"...Please keep in mind: competition is keen. You won't find work in any issue of ********* that Poetry.Com might publish.

Hint: Don't use Poetry.Com as a publication credit when submitting work, nor any other joke of a publisher. Yes, we have seen this happen. If you do, we will laugh, laugh again, then delete your submission...."

...this says it all: STAY AWAY from poetry.com!

Jongfan · Oct 20, 2006

I just happen to have a letter on my desk they sent my naive daughter. During the summer she submitted a poem to them. They replied with the following:

Dear Hxxxxx,

Every so often our editores review poems that have been presented for our Editor's Choice Award, they personlly select a few poems they believe would have a wonderfully expressive quality if read by a professional reader. Your poem was one of th very few chosen for this highly sought after award, for this we congratulate you.

We are writing to get your permission to include your poem in our highly acclaimed and internationally distributed three album collection, scheduled for release in four weeks. We would like to offer you the opportunity to purchase this collection at a fraction of the cost to others.

BLAH BLAH BLAH

KTC · Oct 20, 2006

Angelinity said:
Quote from the submissions guidelines of a poetry journal:

"...Please keep in mind: competition is keen. You won't find work in any issue of ********* that Poetry.Com might publish.

Hint: Don't use Poetry.Com as a publication credit when submitting work, nor any other joke of a publisher. Yes, we have seen this happen. If you do, we will laugh, laugh again, then delete your submission...."

...this says it all: STAY AWAY from poetry.com!

As much as I agree with what this journal says, it really bites my whiteass when guidelines are flip like that. It's so unprofessional. They should have said it in a more classier tone.

KTC · Oct 20, 2006

Angelinity said:
Quote from the submissions guidelines of a poetry journal:

"...Please keep in mind: competition is keen. You won't find work in any issue of ********* that Poetry.Com might publish.

Hint: Don't use Poetry.Com as a publication credit when submitting work, nor any other joke of a publisher. Yes, we have seen this happen. If you do, we will laugh, laugh again, then delete your submission...."

...this says it all: STAY AWAY from poetry.com!

As much as I agree with what this journal says, it really bites my whiteass when guidelines are flip like that. It's so unprofessional. They should have said it in a more classier tone.

Is poetry.com a scam?

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