Poetry Scam - Fake Poetry Contests

Creative poem writing is being abused for profit in a very sneaky way. For a struggling poet, it can be painful to admit that a letter from a poetry contest or publisher is nothing more than a sales hustle. But what's worse? Being honest with yourself or being the victim of a company that exploits the vanity of aspiring poets? If you are an aspiring poet, this scam is one to watch out for.

HOW IT WORKS?

You have written a poem and decided to give it a go at free poetry contests. Few days later you receive an email informing that your poem has been selected as a winner and will be used for inclusion into a future release of an anthology of poetry.

The trick however is that if you want your poem published, you have to buy the expensive book which will include your work. You are not required to buy the book, But if you don't, your poem will not be included. In all your excitement you might think, that it is fair and you are willing to pay the price. Needless to say the only thing it will bring you is a false feeling of recognition in the world of artists. The book can only be purchased through their website and is never officially published to the open public. This means that the only people who can view your poem are those who have written a poem themselves in the contest. However, no matter how good or crappy your poem was you would get accepted. The inclusion of the poem has nothing to do with the writer's talent. It is just a trick to pay an expensive price for a poorly published collection of "poems", if you receive it at all.

EXAMPLE

This poem was an attempt to write something so dreadful that poetry scam website would not select it as a semi-finalist. Unfortunately, it was selected and the author thereby given the opportunity to purchase the book which would include this work.

Poor Victims

Naive poets
walking with open eyes
into a spider's web
of deceit and lies.

An institute
by the name of ILP
disillusions any
well-faithed wannabe.

A flattering letter
send in a fancy envelope
brings the new poet
temporarily new hope.
Dear fellow poets,
don't fall for
this trick;
ILP shall deceive us no more!

COMPANY REPLY

It is my pleasure to inform you that after reading and discussing your poem, our Selection Committee has certified your poem as a semi-finalist in our Open Poetry Contest.Your poem will automatically be entered into the final competition held in Spring. As a semi-finalist, you have an excellent chance of winning one of 70 cash or gift prizes. You may even win the $1,000,000 Grand Prize.


TIPS FOR RECOGNITION

• Low standards. Poems get accepted to easily. You might give a test run to the company and write a bad poem and see if gets accepted


• Contests are free to enter, but 'winners' have to pay a price for own copy of the book


• Customer support is bad and slow or might refuse to answer questions


• Unusually large awards


• Contest sponsors are trying hard to sell you products that incorporate your work


• Low standards - not choosy about who gets published


• Name is close to that of a prestigious contest but differs with few characters.
  
• Prize is not money or publication of your poem, but representation or a service you must pay for


• Past winners work is hard to find, so you could judge their quality for yourself


• You won a prize, but have to pay a fee to receive it

Consider a company that published more than 24 anthologies last year, with an average of two per month. Say each has an average of 250 pages, with 5 poems per page at approximately $50 per poem (or better 50$ per book copy). That means 250$ per page, 62500$ per one book publication = 1.500.000$ per year. And this is only if they are selling books, sometimes you can get "complications" or further inclusions into "bonus publications" which all have one thing in common, that is, further fees. Now you can decide for yourself if such companies do this to honor the work of the authors or just simply for profit with no care about literature and its audience?