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There has been a lot of negative publicity about various poetry contests sponsored by various "for profit" publishers in America. Many aspiring poets are at a loss as to whether they should submit poems to these contests. There seems to be a lot of concern over copyrights, and a great many have been unfairly taken advantage of. As an impartial observer, and having had a number of years of experience submitting poems to many of these publishers, I will try to answer some of these legitimate concerns.
The biggest problem with most of these publishers that accept poetry for contests and publication is that they are, for the most part, "for profit" organizations, and therefore, their greatest motive is making money from the public, and that includes the poets who submit their writings. Knowing this beforehand, poets can safely submit poems to these publishers without spending a fortune. Most all writers are flattered with such phrases as their "great artistic ability," "wonderful originality," and "keen sense of expression." This is done to encourage the writer to purchase the anthology of poetry.
In most cases, these publishers will not guarantee publication of the writer's poem(s) unless he or she agrees to purchase the volume. Don't be taken in by this ploy. If you truly have a quality poem, they will want to place it in their anthology, because quality poems are rare, which you will soon discover if you buy and read one of these anthologies. However, you may want to purchase a volume, just to have a record of your own published work. In all these anthologies, which I have had experience with, the writer maintains copyright possession of his work, but signs a release form allowing the publisher to print the work in their anthology.
Personally, I rarely purchase these volumes of poetry for myself. I have in my possession only 2 such works. The last one I bought I purchased because I was the featured poet (7 poems) and I was awarded 1st prize for my poem "Little Seeds." The first one I purchased was from the first poem I submitted to a publisher, and I quickly learned that these volumes were not, by and large, collections of quality poems.
Publishers will attempt to get the writers to purchase many other "extras" from them. These include such things as an extra poem (usually only one submission per author is allowed), a "dedication," a plaque with your poem on it, a tape recording of your poem along with other "excellent" poems (usually set to a music background) and an "about the author" statement. All these extras cost a great deal of money, and is just one more way for these publishers to get extra profits from those who submit their writings to them. They will also give you special "pre-publication special offers" for extra volumes of the anthology.
Poets who recognize their talents, however, do not need to fall victim to all these sales gimmicks. Personally, my only objective in submitting poetry to these publishers has been to enter their contests for cash awards, and for this, I have been mildly successful. To date, I have won cash in 4 contests, and other valuable prizes in 3 or 4 others. I also have numerous "certificates of merit" and "honorable mention" awards which I can display.
The contest submissions are normally free. I do not make a practice of purchasing anything from any of these publishers, and yet I am recognized by several of them for my quality submissions, and they encourage me to continue submitting. Now I am often told my poem is guaranteed publication, sight unseen. This goes to show that they are desperate for good material. Below is a list of some of these publishers:
National Library of Poetry (poetry.com). Their judging seems to be impartial, even though I don't always care for their winning selections. They, as the other publishers, are out to make money from you, the poet, so be cautious when submitting your material.
Illiad Press (Cader Publishing of Troy, Michigan). This is my personal favorite publisher, as they also publish an excellent magazine called "Verses." Here's an opportunity to be published in an anthology as well as in a magazine. Many of their magazine poems are of excellent quality.
Pen Pushers Publications. I do not have much experience with this publisher. I think they are fairly new on the scene. I have submitted one or two poems to them.
Sparrowgrass Poetry Forum. This is probably my least favored sight for submitting poems, and I have had no indication that they will publish even the best of work unless you purchase their anthology. I do not want to judge them unfairly, but the one volume I have from them is loaded with poor quality poems, misspelled words, improper grammer, etc., which tells me they will accept anything for money.
Famous poets Society. Again, I have very little experience with this publisher, but I have submitted several over the years, with no visible results.
Besides these publishers, there are a number of other outlets for good poetry. A number of Colleges and Universities sponsor poetry contests throughout the US. These are not "for profit" - but many are open only to alumni of that particular university. Most also require a reading fee. You can find these, and many other poetry publishers, by doing a "poetry contest" search on the internet.
Another very good poetry contest is sponsered by "Writer's Digest" every year. They have a number of categories: rhyming, free verse, etc. There is an entry fee. I have entered twice, and even though I have never won a monetary award, I did place 88th in a field of over 10,000 submissions, which to me was more valueable than any of the monetary awards I had received previously. I placed in the top 1% in a high quality poetry forum, many of which were submitted by professional writers.
I should also mention the "Poetry Society of America" (PSA) which seems to be the official poetry society for the US. They are subsidized by the government, but also rely heavily on contributors. I was a member of this society for a number of years, hoping I would be noticed, or at least encouraged, and perhaps critiqued and coached a little. I was sorely disillusioned, as they only seemed to be interested in pushing a select few of their own favored poets. They do hold a yearly poetry contest, with a rather steep reading fee, and all poems submitted must be new poems (never published anywhere else) and if I remember correctly, they required a number of poems be submitted at the same time.
I think it would be a wonderful idea if PnP would sponser a yearly contest, and do it the proper way. We would not have to use the profit motive, and it could be used as a drawing card for new PnP members. The one requirement might be to become a member of PnP. We would not have to publish a thick volume of poems, to include every 2nd and 3rd rate poem. All we would need to do is publish the prize winners (perhaps 1st through 3rd prize in both the adult and the Jr. categories) and maybe 6 or 7 "honorable mentions" in both categories. Poems would have to be of limited size (perhaps 30 lines or less) and all Prize winners and honorable mentions would receive a free copy of the booklet. The money for the booklets and the prizes would have to come from the new member fees. A small but elegant ad in Writer's Digest could possibly result in hundreds of new members and contest entries.
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