There are a ton of poetry scams out there that prey on the desires of poor aspiring poets. They trick poets into entering with the lure of vast amounts of money. The catch? They have to pay vast amounts of money in order to gain the prize, or to gain publication. Poetry.com is one of the biggest scams. They lure poets in with a contest for money, then to get the prize poet needs to fly somewhere, pay money for hotel and admittance to the conference. Then in order to be published as promised, the poet needs to pay roughly $50 to buy the anthology first. If the poet does buy the anthology, their poem is on a page with a ton of other poems, so small it may even get looked over.
When poets and other writers look for contests and/or magazines to submit their work to, they should do a little research about said contest or magazine. See what’s expected after the work has been submitted and accepted. If it seems too good to be true, sometimes it is. You don’t want to spend all your money with one contest, save your money for actual publication. One shouldn’t have to pay more than $15 dollars for contest fees (there are some that are free) or anything to receive your prize.
Writers be careful with what you are entering, and who you are giving your money too. You want to be sure that it’s legitimate and you’re work is getting the notice that it deserves. You and you’re work deserves to be placed in high standing, and if a contest selects you as a winner, you wouldn’t need to PAY money to receive it; you should get it no matter what. It’s a long hard process to get poetry published, seen, even bought (I’m learning that now)...nothing will come as easy as these contest scams are making it out to be.
