WARNING about POETRY.COM and its Affiliates

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Berlie
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WARNING about POETRY.COM and its Affiliates

Post by Berlie » Fri Apr 23, 2004 1:28 pm

Poetry.com, the website for 'The National Library of Poetry" IS A SCAM.

The National Library of Poetry is also known by the following names:
--International Library of Poetry
--Poetry.com
--Watermark Press
--International Society of Poets

Everyone who enters their contest is a "semi-finalist". It doesn't matter what you send it, you are told your poem is great and that they want to publish you poem in a book. They publish about 50 books of poetry a YEAR. Each book is jam packed full of other poems in small print. In order to be published in this book you have to buy a copy of this book for about $50. This book is NOT made available to anyone other than the poets who fell for the scam who and are buying their book copy so they can be published in the book. If you do not buy a copy of the book your poem WILL NOT be published in it.

After some time you will start to receive other letters from them. Saying they wish to publish your poem on a CD (for a modest fee) or frame your work in print (for a modest fee). You are then said to be a semi finalist or something similar to their contest and they want you to go to a poetry convention to claim your prize. You can go to this convention for a fee.. last I heard it was close to $1,000. You can then pay another fee to read your poetry at this convention etc etc.. you get the idea.

Please read up on Poetry.com before you submit a poem to their contest and before you pay for them to publish your poem.

ABC even did a story about this scam.

Here are some links for you with more information:

http://www.ciao.co.uk/poetry_com__Review_5301554

http://www.winningwriters.com/warningsigns.htm

http://www.eliteskills.com/writing_scam ... m.scam.php

http://www.poetryresources.com/scams.htm

http://windpub.com/literary.scams/nlp.htm

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff2091.htm



Many people will go ahead and pay them the 50 bucks knowing they are a scam and no one will ever see their book simply because they have always wanted to see their poetry in print.

If that is your desire there are better ways. Visit our "Get Published" section for information on publishing your poetry. You can publish a book of your poetry FOR FREE if you desire and see your work in print in book form. Or for about 150 bucks you can get an ISBN for you book and have it available to be purchased through places like Amazon.com.
Last edited by Berlie on Tue Jan 17, 2006 10:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
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KillerFox81
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Post by KillerFox81 » Fri Apr 23, 2004 8:59 pm

Berlie did the people of this site ever say how much they loved ya??? You always manage to find this great info and let us all know. Thanks for the advice on my least favorite webpage now, poetry.com.
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Post by Floetry Spades » Sat Apr 24, 2004 7:13 pm

I think we've all been fooled by Poetry dot com....at least once... :lol: It's part of becoming a poet.
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9inchsofsimplifiednothing
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Post by 9inchsofsimplifiednothing » Fri Apr 30, 2004 11:55 pm

$12 million/year. That said.....
It's a horrible scam but wouldnt you do it for 12 million dollars a year?
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EnchantingVamp

Post by EnchantingVamp » Wed Jun 16, 2004 4:45 pm

About 3 yrs ago I was targeted for this " convention " scam and " we want to publish your work " scam. The sadest part is, I never thought for a second I was getting scamed. I though my work was just note-worthy and yada yada yada. I went to my lawyer to draw up payment for my trip to Florida for this " convention " and he broke the scam to me. I don't think I wrote anything for months because the whole thing just made me sick.
But being the forgiving person that I am, yeah, right, my handy-dandy lawyer filed a law-suit on my behalf. :twisted:

God Bless America

:computer:

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heinzs
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Post by heinzs » Wed Jun 16, 2004 7:48 pm

Good for you, EV!!

:cheers:
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Raven Aurora
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Post by Raven Aurora » Tue Jun 29, 2004 11:35 am

I'm really glad that I didn't follow through with buying their book.... I too have received one of their letters. They said they were going to publish one of my poems, "Shape of My Heart", in one of their books. I couldn't afford the fee they were asking for, though, and now am grateful that I didn't try to send them anything. Anyone who hypes up a person's dreams for their own personal gain is a lowlife who deserves naught more than being castrated...okay, well maybe not a punishment of that severity, lol... but at least jailed! Thank you for your information. I'm sure a lot of people are grateful that you're looking out for them.

Many blessings,

Raven Aurora

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MyEndlessTrials
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Post by MyEndlessTrials » Wed Oct 06, 2004 8:02 pm

My public speaking teacher warned my class against that site a month or so ago. She had a studen test it once. He entered the word "it." That was his entire poem. He got the email and all the jazz to go w/ it.
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Debbie
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Scams

Post by Debbie » Sat Jan 22, 2005 7:40 pm

Thanks Berli

I was caught up in one before but caught on after one poem..

Oh well I lived got burned and learned.

Godspoetess D.
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Orphen
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Post by Orphen » Sat Jan 29, 2005 2:15 am

Yeah, poetry.com, I knew when I won the "Editors Choice Award" it was bullshit. Stay away from them. Their only purpose is to make these poor souls buy their own pieces sold in some contrived book that is only sold to the poets themselves. They prey upon meek poets (and newbies, sorry) who only want to be heard. Any prose or poem, no matter how it seems to them, is only gold because it makes them money. They prey upon the givings and feelings of of naive souls. My point given, I rest in piece.

So be it. As it goes.
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it."
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Rain
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Post by Rain » Sat Jan 29, 2005 3:54 am

I put my poetry there only so my sister can see it. She doesn't want it all in her e-mail or something. So she goes there and looks at it. Not like I got the money to buy the stuff anyways, so whoop-de-do-da. :lol: Thanks for the info though.
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ninian
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Post by ninian » Thu Aug 25, 2005 7:56 am

my favourite example of how much of a scam this is...from Wocky Jivvy

http://www.wockyjivvy.com/poetry/shame/mycat.html
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Amathir
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Post by Amathir » Sat Aug 27, 2005 11:28 pm

People have gotten recipes accepted as semi-finalists for that site!
Dictionary definitions, the alphabet, single words, poems that are so obviously plagiarised! (like really famous ones, like "daffodils" by Wordsworth). its all automated.

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SamIAm
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Post by SamIAm » Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:06 am

A poem I submitted to poetry.com.

"Flowers"

Flowers are so pretty,
Like canalope on the counter.
They grow from dirt so black,
Flowers, flowers, flowers.

Once I had a daisy,
As white as something that's pretty white-
And I sniffed it hard
Until I sneezed
A sneeze of love and light.

Flowers rule my world-
Oh, flowers how I love thee!
I also eat flowers
Because they are good in salad
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dragonheart

poetry.com

Post by dragonheart » Mon Feb 13, 2006 1:33 pm

Het, I got duped by them several times and even went to a convention back in 1996. It was ok because I met people from around the globe who write but I won't go again. :roll:

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