Poetry.com - A scam operation
If you are an accomplished poet, you have probably heard of a website called poetry.com; if you are a novice writer, you may or may not have heard of this website. If you are proud of poems you have written and are considering entering them in poetry contests, I would highly recommend that you do not enter them in the contest in poetry.com.
Poetry.com is a fraud publishing organization that accepts one hundred percent of the entries as semi-finalists in their so called international poetry competition. Every one of these semi-finalists receives a letter that is loaded with flattering comments about your poem and states that you are a wonderful poet. It also states that a so-called panel of judges has decided that your poem is good enough to be published. Poetry.com asks in this letter that you pay a small fee of fifty dollars for the book in which your poem will be published in. Poetry.com also asks for an additional fee if you want your poem to be featured on a page of its own. If you buy the book, they publish your poem in the book; if you don’t buy the book, they don’t publish it. Furthermore, the book isn’t sold anywhere else; it is only sold to the people who paid for it, namely the poets themselves. Sure it is nice to see your work in print, but how nice is it knowing only a handful of people are ever going to see it?
The scamming doesn’t stop there, unfortunately. Once people have been suckered into buying the book, Poetry.com goes even further by saying that a poet’s work is good enough to be read on a cd. At this point they ask you go to a special “winning writers convention” to receive an award. Of course, the convention isn’t free, you have to pay to attend.
Poetry.com has been in operation and scamming people since 1996, and they still are. They were featured on ABC’s 20/20 several years ago. Poetry.com has been reported to the Better Business Bureau many times; however, they still continue to operate. They actually continue to operate under several names: Poets.com, the National Library of Poetry, the International Library of Poetry, the International Society of Poets, Watermark Press, and the International Poetry Hall of Fame. They also are affiliated with Noble House. Beware of all these websites and the contests they offer.
If you are looking for legitimate poetry contests to enter, check out a website called winningwriters.com. They can direct you to good contests to enter as well as those to avoid.