TO ALL POETS!!! Is poetry.com really a scam?

Question

i have logged onto some blogs and people ( fellow poets) said it was. is it true?

Answer 1

Basic rule of thumb - if your poem, short story, or novel is accepted by a legitimate publisher it _never_ costs you. Smaller poetry magazines may pay in copies rather than money, but it should never cost you.

Forget Poetry.com. Carefully read the "award" letter they send. The "praise" for your work is generic statements that could apply to any poem. They are a vanity press, publishers who make money from the authors, not by selling the book to readers.

Check out the book "Writer's Market" (it's published yearly) for the names of poetry journals that accept submissions.

Answer 2

Poetry.com is a SCAM SITE. They will encourage you to post your poems and then select you for some honor such as poet of the year. EVERYONE gets selected for this honor. Then they will invite you to a convention to claim your prize. It will be a costly trip and the prize will be very junky. They will also say they are publishing your work in an anthology and ask you how many copies you are buying. Yes, they publish your poetry, but the only people who are they are selling the book to is people they have published. You can google this, there are many sites detailing the variety of scams perpetrated by poetry.com. Some links are:

http://www.eliteskills.com/writing_scams/poetry.com.scam.php

http://www.authorme.com/poetryscampage.htm

http://www.poetryscamtracker.com/

http://www.poetrynotcom.tripod.com/

Answer 3

Just rename the site scammers.com. I sent them some work and they published it (or at least said they would) and then they told me that I could by a copy of the bound version for sixty bucks. They also told me that I was the winner of a medal I only had to pay fifty smackers for. I also had the distinction and prestige of joining the Poets' Society for the bargain price of about eighty bucks. Needless to say, I didn't bother with them again. When they offer contest prize, I wonder if there's really any prize at all. We do the work, they get the pay. Real nifty, eh? Scam. . .? But definitely!

Answer 4

YES - we have been saying that here for months. They will put any crap you send in to them in a book just as long as you pay for a copy. And as for the prizes, they are trophies, you have to go get them and you have to pay for them. Dont believe it? Write the worst poem you possibly can and send it to them and watch yourself get nominated as poet of the year. Lots of us have done that and gotten lovely letters praising our work. They are a scam = dont waste good poetry on them. Pax - C

PS Try telling an agent or publisher you are a published poet because you are in a poetry.com book - they will fall off their chair laughing.

Answer 5

Fact is that poetry.com is not a publishing company that's why they charge around $79 for one book. If your poems are published by a publisher they will ask you to pay only between $16 to $25. Most the publishers who will publish your poem will ask you to pay around $16 to $25.. There is nothing wrong in this since there is no market for poetry books. All publishers who ask $16 to $25 are not scam at all. They are publishing your poem and delivering a book to you.
You must give thanks to them.

Answer 6

The final e book of poetry i offered grow to be Alexander Blok's twin version of his sequence "?????????" - his poems as much as 1917. i offered it final week and that i'm nonetheless exploring it. the clarification i offered it is via the fact that's have been given the unique verse that's significant to experience, or maybe although i do no longer communicate Russian i will comprehend it somewhat properly, Serbian being my mom tongue. I learnt that Blok might no longer be as beautiful to an generic reader as another Russian poets, yet that he has a deeper and extra complicated imagery than many. I examine random poetry from the various poetry books I even have each morning and each evening - plenty contained in the comparable way that some human beings examine the Bible. and that i continually learn a sparkling element or experience a distinctive sensation.

Answer 7

Yes. Unfortunately it is. In the link I provided in my sources, just type in Poetry.com and you will see for yourself how many people have been scammed by this site.

Answer 8

Yeah unfortunately I went through the same thing many years ago. I got a poem published with them (or so they said) and all I had to do was buy the book which was about $75.00 or something outlandish like that.

Answer 9

Yes, it is a scam. There are dozens like it, including writers sites. Avoid them.

Answer 10

I wrote a poem and entered it.
They write you a letter that your poem is being published in a book.
Then they want money for the book.
You decide.