At some point in my inbox spam, I found an email from famouspoets.com, advertising a $50K poetry contest. Since I had just finished a poetry class in college, I said what the hell, and submitted one of mine.
So it’s today. I open up my physical (snail) mailbox, and there’s a monster form letter in there from Famouspoets.com. They have very good news for me. They want me come to Florida at the end of August and get a trophy, a Poet-of-the-Year medallion, a walk (and poem-for-peace release) with Mary Rudge, and an entry into their contest. Bear in mind this is a form letter, says nothing about me winning jack, just that they like me. Also bear in mind that this “experience” runs $500 or so, plus airfare and hotel.
Don’t think I’m a total dunce - I understand this place is bad. I just want to know how bad. Are we talking vanity publishing bad, Publisher’s Clearinghouse ™ bad, or send-in-check-never-hear-from-them-again bad? Any of y’all had any dealings with them? It’s possible they also operate under hollywoodpoets.com or some such.
I would guess that you’ll go down there, get a plastic trophy, a plastic medallion, meet another poet and buy a copy of the book (I didn’t read one in your post, but I assume they’re going to publish the “winners” in a book, right?)
There was another poetry “society” based in Maryland that did the same thing. I actually held in my hands one of their volumes. The poems were published in tiny type, three columns per page (the book was 8 1/2 by 11), and, yes, if you submitted a poem and paid the money, yours would be in there.
Now consider this. If you publish your poem in that book, you’ll have no idea if anyone apart from you or your mom would ever read it. Publish it on the Straight Dope, and you’d know exactly how many. Plus it’s free, although the Reader would now have partial ownership of your work, and you may even get some feedback.
I’d take the SDMB any day. If I want a copy of my poem, I’d use my printer.
That’s basically what I’m thinkin. The book’s free with your paid registration to the conference - a $69 value (cackle).
This paragraph (from the form letter) is so over the top I find it humorous (mods, if this is out of bounds, feel free to kill it):
I can’t seem to make it through that shlock without cracking up 
Heh. I got it, too. Looks like (mostly) a scam.
I got it, too. Scam, scam, scam, scam, glorious scam.
I once submitted a poem to one of these sites, writing the worst thing I could attempt – bad rhythm, dumb rhyme, and no point at all. They loved it. You can find it here.
This page has links to some info about poetry contests (near the bottom of the page).
This page has links to some info about poetry contests (near the bottom of the page).
Sounds like the Grand Marshall’s not the only thing Mickey Mouse about this operation.
Mad cool link there Neidhart. I jumped over to the “Worst Poetry contests” link, and blamo, right where I expected it to be at about #3 or so. The answer to my original question is therefore “vanity publishing bad”.
<MASSIVELY PARAPHRASED QUOTE-NOT WHAT THEY REALLY SAID>
Your check is your message of love to Famouspoets.com. Sadly, hundreds of innocent drubs will feel compelled to attend our bogus conference; a rainbow of stupidity and betrayal will be forming over the whole of Orlando while we’re there. The $500 they spend probably could have gotten them enrolled in a writing workshop at their local community college, but instead they fell for our marvelous plan. And we thank them.
</MPQ-NWTRS>
Again mods, feel free if need be.
the money give away was real the experience was real… it was hosted in orlando florida near disney world, I paid for my poems entry into the contest and i believe thats how the winnings are paid out to the contest winners by the entry fees… i went into the contest and paid hotel and airfare… i did not win but i met some amazing poets and had a wonderful banquet with all these poets in 2008 i believe as well as an invaluable learning experience… forever a famous poet… maybe the business went under but my published poems are in the book forever and ever as long as libraries exist.
- They loved your poem, but you still had to pay money to enter the contest? Ripoff.
- I was (un)lucky enough to see the self-published “book” my foolish neighbor paid $100 for. If they had stapled together badly spaced and horribly offset mimeographed pages it would of looked better than what she paid for.
- Good luck finding a library that has that book on the shelf.
Famouspoetsdotcom was a scam from beginning to end.
BTW, the chances of winning that “contest” if you weren’t already their employee was slim to none.
I remember this apposite article, which actually appeared while this thread was in its heyday.