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Poetry.com / International Library of Poetry / Watermark Press

Kuznietz

Re: Poetry.con advertisement

Just a postscript to the last message:

I replied to Steve Michaels, Convention Awards Chairperson, who signed the email ([email protected]), and the message bounced as undeliverable! Gosh!!
 

emeraldcite

adverts

the adverts are text specific. if you mention poetry on this board, you will have ads at the top that will give the most popular adverts for poetry. I had a post on pirates in the take it outside board and the adverts were about pirates.
 

Kuznietz

Re: adverts

Thanks emeraldcite,

I guessed that but couldn't resist the temptation to comment on the irony of it. ;)
 

emeraldcite

Re: adverts

lol. they do tend to be funny. it's nice to see that the ads don't take into consideration the context of the posts.
 

writingstudio

fun with poetry.com

I did a name search on my name, my boyfriend's name, some friends's names... amazing how many poems our alter egos have written!
 

JesusFreakSue

Re: fun with poetry.com

:money I just wanted to let everyone know that I got my money back for the down payment of the book that I never would have received. I called the bank and disputed the charge on my credit card. I was amazed as it only took about a week or so. I Lived, I learned and I got my money back. Yahoo!
 

stormie267

Here's My Poem for Poetry.com

"This is the worst bit of drivel
I ever did see.
But for once do you think
that you could pay me?"

Well, I posted it on their sight about two weeks ago, and guess what? It's not there anymore. Well, I didn't make it to the semi-finals! :lol

--Anne--
 

Kuznietz

Re: Here's My Poem for Poetry.com

Hi,

Never mind, Anne, you got it published here to a much more appreciative audience ;)

A follow-up to my last post - I wrote to the Chairperson, Steve Michaels, and it bounced. I've just had another email from him, reminding me that I have won a silver bowl, medal, etc., and that for the paultry sum of $169.00 my poem can be read before an admiring audience of thousands! Wish I could publish it here - the email, not the poem (it's not bad, actually :b - the poem this time).
 

nowakohana46

Poetry.com

d:cry My name is Grace and I have registered or submitted 108 poems to Poetry.com in these past three weeks. I was just looking at some of the links that were for Poetry.com and came across some very up setting news, to me that is.

I pulled up the link for; WritersWeekly.com and was very disturbed by what I had just read. Then I came across this link and read some of the letters.

:grin I had big hopes that I was going places with my poems. One company that I submitted a poem to, wrote me saying that my poem and I made it to the semifinalis and that they wanted to published my poem in their book.(Famous Poets Society).

:\ I thought well, this is great, I finally made it.
So I filled out all the forms and place my payment on one of my credit cards.

:( Then Poetry.com writes me a letter saying the same thing, ok, I am a happy camper now, full of happiness knowing that my poem had made it to the semifinalist again. Lord, thank you I had said with so much excitement. I again, filled out the paperwork and placed it on another credit card.

My reason for this is simple;
I am unemployed, my husband works in Washington DC with his company that travels statewide, so he can earn a living not only for me, but our bills as well, plus he has his living expenses where he is at.

I felt that this was a good way that I might win a prize of some cash money and be able to help my husband out with everything.

I don't know for sure is Poetry.com is a scam for 2004, but from the letters I have read today from this company, I see that it still is.

I wrote an email letter to Poetry.com about all this and have not had a response as of yet.

I am going to call my credit card companies and cancel out those payments as soom as I am done with this letter.

For all those out there that fell for the same thing I did, I am so sorry. We all thought we were going to do something great in our lives, now this, we were taken for granted and made fools off.

I have a sister who told me about Poetry.com, she is on her way to the convention in Florida to recite her poem and hopefully win the $20,000.00 or the trophy cup with her name on it. She does not know all about this, Yet.

Thank you for hearing me out. My heart has been broken into millions of pieces and dreams, who knows now where it is???

Sincerely,

Grace Malia
Dixon MO
 
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HapiSofi

Re: I have been taken:

Grace Malia, I am so very sorry to hear about this happening to you. At least you've found out about these scams in time to cancel your credit card transactions, and the scammers won't get any more chances to inveigle money out of you.

You hopes and dreams are worth infinitely more than Poetry.com and their scams. Those creeps may have borrowed them for a while under false pretenses, but they still belong to you. Don't let the broken pieces get trodden underfoot. Gather them up and hold onto them. They'll grow back together again.

I'm not one of the great scamhunters like Victoria, but I promise you I'll keep doing what I can to get the word out. We're not going to stop Poetry.com anytime soon; they're slimebags, but they operate within the law. All we can do is tell writers like yourself what a bad deal they are.
 

JustinoIV

complain to

Complain to the FBI. This is consider Internet Fraud, and since it crosses state lines it falls when the jurisdiction of the FBI.


www.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp

Also contact the state attorney general in the state that poetry.com is in, as well as the department of consumer affairs. While it is good to inform others on sites like this (great actually) you also need to field complaints towards relevant government agencies.

Stand up for yourself, and don't just chalk it to, oh, there are scamsters out there! (you've done a lot by posting here I might add, do more and register the complaints.)
 

JustinoIV

Internet scams

Complain to the FBI. This is consider Internet Fraud, and since it crosses state lines it falls when the jurisdiction of the FBI.


www.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp

Also contact the state attorney general in the state that poetry.com is in, as well as the department of consumer affairs. While it is good to inform others on sites like this (great actually) you also need to field complaints towards relevant government agencies.
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Internet scams

Alas, what poetry.com does isn't illegal. Unethical, sure, but they actually perform everything that they promise they'll do.

They don't do what they merely imply ... but that isn't illegal.
 

James D Macdonald

Re: complain to

Tell your sisters, tell your brothers, tell your friends:

Money flows toward the author.

The only place a writer signs a check is on the back.
 

JustinoIV

ah

I hadn't checked up on poetry.com, so I wasn't sure about what they had done, or what they do. Nor did I follow the thread. I just saw the last post.

But my general point stands, if you've been the victim of an illegal sceme, or somone pushes one your way, make the complaints.
 

Tinkrbelll

Re: ah

I just found this site while doing a poetry search. I also found poetry.com some time ago(months ago)...browsed it and was even thinking of submitting some poems some time in the future. Well not anymore. I am grateful for the warnings and information provided on this site.
 

Bosoxx

Re: complain to

I'm so sorry you had such a bad experience with Poetry.com. Might i suggest you contact Mr Jerry Duncan ([email protected]) Director of Complaints at the Maryland BBB if you need to recover any money sent to them. And this is for anyone else that's been scammed by Poetry.com. Mr Duncan was instrumental in getting me a full refund.

Best, and good writing!
-Keith
 

MissKathyClarke

List of Scams

www.eliteskills.com/writing_scams/writing_scam_list.php
Here's a list of scammers.

Poetry.com
FamousPoets.com
International Society Of Poets
International Library Of Poetry
National Library Of Poetry
The Poetry Guild
National Society Of Poets
www.poetry-contest.com
Iliad Press (Cader Publishing)
The American Poets Society www.poetryamerica.com
Noble House Publishers
https://www.noblehousepublishers.co.uk
Publishers Clearing House
Water Mark Press
The Poem Place
Hollywood's Famous Poets Society
Pen Pushers Publications
Poets' Guild
 

James D Macdonald

Re: List of Scams

Alas! That's nowhere near a complete list.
 

DJcat3416

ILM: non-shipped stuff

In addition to the sleazy practice of accepting absolutely anything, regardless of how mediocre it is, my complaint with the ILM (poetry.com) is simply that I order things from them that I never received.

Sometime in 2003, I submitted a poem to them (I forget the original date, I didn't know at the time that I should keeping very detailed records..) entitled "Love's Cold Hand". It was selected for publication (of course, it seems from what I've read now), and I was mailed a "pre-publication discount form" for the anthology in which it was to be published (I assume) sometime in 2003 or early 2004. I purchased this.

Later the poem was selected for a "Sound of Poetry" collection, which I also purchased, along with a plaque mounted version of the poem (a pretty shitty one too - the least they could do was use a computer controlled engraver to actually emboss in on a metal plate!). A few weeks later, the same poem was selected for the "Best Poets of 2003" anthology, which I also purchased. Then I was selected to win a $200 silver bowl (yeah, I bet) if only I would send them $169 because I would not be attending their conference (how sad..) I declined, no onto their scam.

So, to date, I have purchased the following from them:

1) An unknown-titled original 600+ page anthology
2) A "Sound of Poetry" collection
3) The plaque mounted version of the poem
4) The "Best Poets of 2003" anthology

To date, I have received 3 and 4. Item 2, which I paid for by check along with 3 on 7/31/03 (which I have a copy of), I have not received. Nor have I received the original item 1, which I paid for by check at some point in the past (I don't have a copy of that check, and my bank statements are a mess I just cleaned up, and two months are missing, but I'm sure the bank can get me a copy of the check, or at least a record of it's being cashed)

I am definitely going to ask my bank for confirmation of the cashing of the two checks to ILM, and send ILM a letter stating that I would like my money back for both items I have not received (considering it has been over 8 months), along (perhaps) with the little threat that if I don't hear back from them in writting within two weeks, I will contact my local Better Business Bureau (or is there a more threatening agency I can suggest like the office of Consumer Protection listed on stopILP.com).

I just cannot imagine how many people have been duped and swindled by these people.. Especially perhaps little kids, and their oh-so-doting parents with the money..

God, it makes me sick.. Although, noone really knows how much the ILP actually makes (there are estimates), and how much they give out in prizes, setting up the convention, etc.. That would all come out in the discovery phase I imagine.

BTW, the two poems I submitted (first one selected, second one selected "sight unseen"), are not exactly bad poems. I haven't asked any writing professor about these specifically, but I did take a poetry class (long after I started writing poetry), and a teacher of mine read one and said I must be descended from Don Juan (I think he was exaggerating a *bit* there). I also check the database of poetry.com, and I don't show up as an author, and I got back a number of database errors. So not only do they swindle money from people, they don't pay their ASP programmers enough..

Here are the poems: (C) James Witte, 1996-2004

Love's Cold Hand - ca. March 2002
(in the tradition of E. Spencer, but not nearly as good, no ryming,a nd the scansion could be better I think.)

Stayed by Love's cold hand,
Unknowing what to do or say
I gaze cautiously with warm longing,
Turning as ice melts to fire.
We move in different circles,
Of this be not ashamed.
But I take this chance, forsaking all,
That together we might still be.
For Saith Love, “My arms, I have two,
One cold as ice in the deep of Winter's sadness
Stayed by doubt and fear,
The other warm as the embers remaining
After the Heart has burned before.”

Paths of Old
(This is the worse of the two, as it's a combination of two poems that seemed to work together. It definitely needs revision. It was written as a kind of addendum to Loreena Mckennitt's "The Two Trees" [English translation] on her CD "The Mask and Mirror")

Endless questions, my thoughts
Like leaves in a breeze swirling to and fro.
What do I feel and what does it matter
If what I do now affects all tomorrow?

Forgotten tomorrows like threads on a loom,
How I feel, where I go, what do these weave
For my future? A web across the bower between
Two trees, one of hope, the other of restless uncertainly
And the space between flooded with light
Yet my own path dark before me.

The path I thought I'd left behind haunts me still,
Shadows of the past rising again, echoing pain of ages gone.
I yearn for sun beyond the paths I trod
But sun is not in this place, I fear may never be
Until I pass those ways again.

Oh, bring me my forgotten ways,
Memories of childhood though.
My God above, let me be with one again
In whom I saw in times of old
That I could not explain then, but yearn for now
Safe passage through my dark night again.

Jim
 

JustinoIV

threatening agencies

Writers beware has a list of threatening agencies you can contact.

Contact the resources on this website (they list federal, government, and local authorities). Contact as many as you can.

www.sfwa.org/beware/overview.html
 

HapiSofi

Re: List of Scams

Since we can't list all the scammers, here's a suggestion: If you're a poet, and you submit poems to an outfit you're not sure about, put one stinker of a poem into the lot. If they take that one along with the rest, odds are they're scammers.
 

astonwest

Re: List of Scams

Of course, that assumes the submitter is submitting excellent poetry aside from the one "stinker"...if all the poems are such, and the submitter doesn't know (or doesn't want to acknowledge) the difference......

And thus, how scams succeed...
(and the same holds true for novels, not just poems)

Big Daddy West
:hat
 

qatz

you go, katie

this is an act of courage, and appreciated. there are always more to add.