'''Poetry.com''' is the website of The International Library of Poetry, a Vanity_publisher that runs monthly poetry contests. There have been complaints sent to the BBB about Poetry.com, by those who consider it a Fraud and a Scam, citing that Poetry.com makes its writers believe their poem was selected for the monthly contest because of its unique qualities, when in fact pretty much all submissions make it to the semi-finals, which in turn leads authors to spend money on the resulting compilation books and/or poetry conventions. Poetry.com sends most of their contestants to the semi-finals, regardless of the quality of the submission, and invites them to poetry conventions, for which they have to pay an individual entrance fee of $595, not including food or lodging. They also sell the writers compilation books costing $49.95 each, which include all of the "semi-finalist" poems. These books are over 500 pages long and include at least six poems per page. http://www.windpub.com/literary.scams/bigmoney.htm They are not sold anywhere else even though on the site, http://poetry.com/faq/qnas.asp?Question=53 under the FAQ section, they claim that one can buy the anthologies from all major bookstores, but "purchasing it directly from us has several advantages." But if one goes to Amazon or Barnes and Noble, you cannot see a listing for these books. Despite this, no legal action has been taken against the company as of today. Affiliated organizations are International Society of Poetry, Watermark Press, International Poetry Hall of Fame. A poem, to be qualified for the contest, must be 20 lines or less, with a maximum of 60 characters per line. The creator must also enter his or her address to be allowed in the contest. ==Notes== *The site can also be used as a place to put poems online publicly, and not just for the monthly contest. *Winning Writers hosts the Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest in which parody poems submitted to poetry.com may be entered for cash prizes. ==External links== *http://www.poetry.com *http://www.eliteskills.com/writing_scams/poetry.com.scam.php - A site reporting Poetry.com as a scam. *http://www.windpub.com/literary.scams/bigmoney.htm - Personal account of one of their conventions. *http://www.winningwriters.com/contests/wergle/we_yewgotta.php - An example of a mock poem that was accepted as a semi-finalist. *http://wockyjivvy.com/poetry/shame/index.html - Another site about Poetry.com/International Library of Poetry. Shows attempts at trying to not get a letter by writing awful poems. *http://www.poetry.com/faq/qnas.asp?Question=53 - An excerpt of Poetry.com's FAQ section making statements of debatable veracity. *http://www.picture.com - Picture.com is a site of the same nature, except with pictures instead of poems being entered into the alleged contests. Books cost $69.95 to purchase. {{Uncategorized|October 2006}} Category:Poetry Category:Publishing