Poetry scams
I’m a poet and I’ve had poetry published in real anthologies.
There was a small cost to enter and although I bought the anthology
I actually got paid a royalty when enough of the books had been
sold to the general public.
There are a great many honest competitions, contests and help for
poets on the web. Unfortunately, as in all things, there are those
who would like to take your money and offer nothing in return so
we’ve put together this page to help you spot the bad ones.
You have to be wise when you enter these contests, the best thing
to do is to get a poetry magazine and only enter the ones listed.
Curiously enough real poetry contests usually do charge a small
entry fee – which puts off the time-wasters, which is why the
scams don’t charge anything.
The scams often work thus:
You are required to enter the competition to get your poem published.
If you pay for the publication, your poem suddenly wins and gets
published, so you and other poets who contributed end up buying
their own published works. These poems are often short, so that
they can cram as many people into the book as possible. It must
be noted that these books are often not accredited as real publications
when you are trying to join literary organisations and so it is
unlikely to be worth your while paying just so that you can see
your name in print.
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Bear in mind that often the companies keep operating because they
are not breaking any laws, and they will refund your money without
any fuss if you complain.
Other scams include paying you an up front commission of a very
small amount, where, if your work is actually any good and really
does get published, the company ends up getting 50% of your royalties.
How to get published properly
Join a writing circle either locally or online, preferably a free
one. Get a list of literary magazines, there are lots with small
circulation, find one that prints the sort of thing that you write
and submit your work to them. Always send submissions typewritten.
Only one poem per page.
For information on how real writing contests work go here
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