--- OK - I've always thought of Poetry.com as being scandalous from years and years ago when I found out that ridiculous fee for their anthology books. The 1st post of this thread was in response to TAMM's post soliciting "votes" or some such for the Poetry.com "Ambassador of the Month" contest... I closed the thread immediately because I think Poetry.com is an scam that takes advantage of "wanna-be" Poets, calling them winners of the "Editor's Choice Award" or "Poet of the Day" or "Poet of the Month", offering them publication for what would normally be deemed rubbish. The thing is - I closed the thread because in my opinion Poetry.com operates
an unethical million-dollar business.
Think about it - the anthologies are packed with poems - maybe up to 6 poems per printed page. That's $50 x 6 for each page --- That's $300 per page --- Think an anthology has upwards of say...400 pages --- That's $120,000 per book --- Then think the fee to include a small biography at the end of the book is an extra $20 - say only 1000 people pay for the biography = an extra $20000 - for a grand total of $140,000 per anthology printing... Let's say on average there is 40 anthologies printed per year. That's a WHOPPING $4,800,000 a year on anthology publications. That total is if only ONE anthology is purchased per included "Poet"... Imagine if you get published in the anthology and are so excited about it - you purchase 10 anthologies to send out to 9 of your closest and dearest friends, the 1 left anthology for your bookshelf absolutely!
That's a very rough estimate of the money being made off the anthology scam... Then you have the annual convention that makes extra millions of dollars. Pretty good chunk of change. For the LOVE of poetry? I dare say
no fuckin way!
The thing is though... Some say Poetry.com is offering a valid service. And who am I to criticize, because if it weren't for having found Poetry.com - I may have had to find another way to get to my destiny of becoming a published Poet. I in fact have an entire section on my very 1st website dedicated to poetry that's been posted on Poetry.com:
As Seen On Poetry.Com. Each one of the poems received an Editor's Choice Award - so I must be pretty decent eh?
There are people who want to see their words in print at any cost. Poetry.com offers that to them. Some say such vanity presses like Publish America & New Millenium Publishers does the same thing, sometimes charging outlandish fees for an author to see his or her work in publication. To that end I say kewl deal. But when it comes to seeing such promotion of such unethical -- the "I'm gonna getcha sucka" type mentality that takes full advantage of would-be writers -- business on JPiC Forum - My response is always going to be an abundant
no fuckin way!
I like to think that JPiC Forum is here for the Poet, Writer & Artiste - and not here for the sole purpose of becoming part of the million dollar scam artistry that tells it's Members that you are each worthy of publication... Perhaps I should give the Administrators of Poetry.com a call and see if they'd like to sponsor ads on JPiC
--- Surely I could buy some very nice sandals with the good chunk of that $4,800,000 I'd gain yearly for offering such a "hotspot" to advertise on - I would be entirely to embarrassed to ever show my face around the Forum though
--- I think I'd feel like a hypocrit of the 1st order! But it could be an interesting business venture of sorts - What do YAWL think about this?
It's interesting to me to see one of the Google ads on this thread is Poetry.com
-- We could be making a mint! Hmmm....
Truly though - I suppose it's not all bad really, as some of you have spoken about the wonderful things that have come about at the ILP conventions and such... It's just mind-boggling to me that Poetry.com has been able to get away with sending out millions and millions of phony "Editor's Choice Awards" and submission acceptance letters, when it's obvious that most of the stuff that comes through that venue deserves to be shredded. It's interesting to note that EVERYONE has the potential of getting published in those ridiculous anthologies if the price is paid.
Jacquii.
PS: Check out the 20/20 Expose I posted a while back:
National Library of Poetry Exposé