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Poetry Scam Alert Recently, various members of the Pass Poets Society received letters from the Famous Poets Society, headquartered in Oregon, promising presentation of a "Poet of the Year" award during a Florida convention over the Labor Day weekend. Cost of the event is $495 per poet, plus travel and hotel expenses (a guest can also attend for $295). Since the Pass Poets began in 1993, several area residents have attended our meetings and related unhappy (and costly) experiences at events sponsored by profit-making organizations such as the Famous Poets Society. We have also been asked about the legitimacy of contests sponsored by Poetry.com and others on the Internet. Because of people expressing disappointment when their poetic expectations were not met, we requested some clarification from the Academy of American Poets, whose membership includes hundreds of "famous," published poets such as Billy Collins, the current Poet Laureate of the United States. The Academy responded as follows: Poetry.com (and their many affiliates such as The International Poets Society and The International Library of Poetry) are for-profit companies and often require payment for their awards and publications. Poems on poetry.com and related print publications are not distributed to the public beyond the people that visit the website or buy the anthologies that they themselves were published in. The publications are not sold in bookstores or on magazine stands. These organizations also tend to publish nearly everything they receive. They then advertise products to the writers they publish...anthologies, plaques with the writer's poem on it, framed copies, even invitations to expensive writer's conferences. It is a legitimate business. All of what they say they will provide is usually given, but at a cost. Basically, we would like to stress that they are a business...and not a highly respected publication credit within the world of journals and magazines. There are four warning signs to consider when trying to determine if a poetry contest or publishing offer is a scam: 1. The sponsor or publisher asks for money. If a contest requires a reading fee, consider (a) whether the sponsor is a for-profit or non-profit organization, and (b) whether you feel their other activities besides the contest are worth supporting. It does cost money to run a contest, so don't label all contests with fees as scams. Your entry fee may be used towards helping to keep a publicly supported arts organization healthy. A commercial sponsor of a contest, however, should not earn a profit except from the results...that is, by selling the winning book. 2. The magazine or anthology pays neither in cash nor in copies of the publication . Many legitimate publications can't afford to pay their contributors, but at the very least they should give you a free copy of the finished product. 3. The advertisement or letterhead lists only a P.O. box address, with no phone number. Why...or what...are they trying to hide from you? 4. The company tries to make its form letters ( or notes on its form letters) look hand-generated by using fake Post-it notes and handwriting-style typefaces. You can expect to see this kind of goofiness on a direct-mail solicitation from a charity or book-club, but you shouldn't find it on an acceptance letter from a publisher. For more information on poetry.com and publishing scams, please visit the following web page http://windpub.org/literary.scams/ and follow the helpful links. Thanks
for your concern. ©
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Gorgonio Pass Poets Society |
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