Poetry Contest
We are not running any poetry contest right now but plan to organize one yearly, if the site starts giving some profit (even if a small one), as a way of promoting good poetry.
However, we will happily publish, for free, your poetry on our website, if you submit your poems to us, through the “Submit Poetry” option on the Main Menu (for that you need to register yourself first). Our website is visited by thousands of people everyday, and this is a great way to share your writings and thoughts with others.
Unfortunately, we can't pay you for your poetry, because poetry as you know, is not a very profitable business, but we will never publish it in any other place, besides this website, without your permission. All the advertising money we earn, is being used only, to pay the running costs of the website, so that we can continue to offer it, for free, to all the poetry lovers through the world.
There are currently many "paid" poetry contests on the net. Most of these are scams that only intent to get money out of the poets pockets by convincing them to buy a printed book with their poem. According to The Academy of American Poets:
How can I tell if a poetry contest or publishing offer is a scam? Consider these four warning signs:
- The sponsor or publisher asks for money. If a contest requires a reading fee, consider (a) whether the sponsor is a for-profit or non-profit organization, and (b) whether you feel their other activities besides the contest are worth supporting. It does cost money to run a contest, so don't label all contests with fees as scams. Your entry fee may be used towards helping to keep a publicly supported arts organization healthy. A commercial sponsor of a contest, however, should not earn a profit except from the results--that is, by selling the winning book.
- The magazine or anthology pays neither in cash nor in copies of the publication. Many legitimate publications can't afford to pay their contributors, but at the very least they should give you a free copy of the finished product. If your work is worth publishing, it's worth paying for!
- The advertisement or letterhead lists only a P.O. box address, with no phone number. Why -- or what -- are they trying to hide from you?
- The company tries to make its form letters (or notes on its form letters) look hand-generated by using fake Post-it notes and handwriting-style typefaces. You can expect to see this kind of goofiness on a direct-mail solicitation from a charity or book-club, but you shouldn't find it on an acceptance letter from a publisher. Why are they treating you like a rube?
TIP: A good man named Charlie Hughes has compiled a very interesting collection of web pages that discuss poetry scams. Before you submit your work to any contest, please visit this page -- http://windpub.com/literary.scams/ -- and follow all of the links on it. Also highly recommended (and linked to Charlie Hughes's page) are The Writer's Center "Test Kit for Scams" at http://www.writer.org/scamkit.htm and the "Poetry Scams, Rip-offs & Horror Stories" page at http://windpub.com/literary.scams/ripoffs.htm. Please be aware!
If you want to participate on serious poetry contests, you can do some research at a source like Poets & Writers where serious contests are frequently announced, or make a search on firstwriter.com.


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