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So
you
want to get published...
Of Contests and
Cons
We have
collected a number of links which talk about such
poetry contests as the
International Library of Poetry.
This kind of contest is going to give you a guarantee
of publication, a lot of praise, and a chance to buy
the (expensive) book in which your poem (and everyone
else's) appears. You can also buy aprons, mugs,
t-shirts, plaques, and more, all with your poem
printed on them, for a hefty fee. If that's what you
want, and if you have the money to pay for it, then
these contests are for you and will give you good
service. If you want your publication to give you a
chance at acceptance into the world of poetry, if you
want a chance at professional literary publication, if
you want to be noticed by poets, editors, teachers, or
to improve your art, stay clear. That's not what these
contests will do for you.
But
don't take it from
me...
For a chance to enter for big
prizes, and a chance to buy those nifty mugs, and to have
your poem posted along with those of over
2,400,000
other poets,
(hey, are you
still breathing?) you need
look no further than the most successful of all these
contests: The
International Library of Poetry.
Before
you do, however, you
might like to check out league member E. Russell Smith's
legitimate
literary contest page, to
see how a really literary contest sells itself. This is a
valuable resource. It concludes with a
word of warning, which
you might do well to heed.
Don't
believe
Russ?
The Science
Fiction Writers of America
have posted a very thorough page to open your eyes on the
world of contests. They haven't missed much.
Still,
you might be wondering about money? Are you wondering how
they finance all this? Want to know how much these guys are
making off of you? I wondered, too, so I snooped around.
Durant Imboden's Writing.Org has posted the math
. Now, you may have taken up poetry because calculus just
wasn't for you. Don't
worry. This math doesn't
require a scientific calculator. You can easily adapt Durant
Imboden's figures to those 2,400,000 poets at the National
Library of Poetry, and be in a whir again. As Durant Imboden
says,
sometimes
the truth hurts.
If
you still believe that
they're choosing the best poetry, and their praise means
praise, perhaps it's time to read the article
Would-be
Poets and Scam Artists by
Allan R. Andrews, Editor, Pacific Stars and Stripes, Tokyo,
Japan. Read about
a
scam that scammed the
scams.
It would be pretty funny, if it
wasn't so serious.
Still
wondering how to tell the real contest from the scam? You're
ready to read Before
You Write That Check by
Allan Lefcowitz, Artistic Director of the Writer's Center.
He provides a thorough and useful checklist (or is that
Con
Test?)
for weeding out the contests.
In
case you missed it, we
have reprinted Eileen Kernaghan's article Poetry
Contests from Hell, just
for you.
Contests have become an
important way to get published. We'd like to welcome you
into the writing world. We'd also like to know that the
money you're spending has a real chance of introducing
you to us and to the literary world in general.
Good
Luck Out There!
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