For as long as I can remember having my writing published has always been my biggest dream. I have enjoyed writing short stories since we had a special creative writing time, Writer’s Workshop in first grade in which we would write our own stories based on a topic given by the teacher and a select number of students would have their stories published in little hard bound books and would get to read their stories out loud to their fellow classmates and parents at an Author’s Tea. Writer’s Workshop was always my favorite time of the school day and I was always very excited to find out if my teacher would select my story for publication. My love of writing pretty much grew from there and I went on to write many short stories, personal essays and even poetry. My friends in high school always told me what a great writer I was and that I should be published. While I didn’t think my writing was even near good enough to be published, I decided to go online and find some publishing companies and writing contests to submit to. It was definitely worth a shot!
One night I came across a website where you could submit your poetry for a chance to be published in a big anthology. This website came off as looking very professional to me and they even had a picture of what the book would look like and made being published in it look very impressive. So I decided to give it a shot. I didn’t want to go up to my room to get one of my writing journals because I couldn’t risk having my parents see what I was doing, they would have just tried to stop me. So I typed in a small part of one of my poems that I had memorized off the top of my head and submitted it along with my name and contact information.
A week later I got a huge two page letter in the mail from the website I submitted that small part of my poem to. It was very flattering and went on and on about how much they loved my poem and thought I had a true gift of writing and that I was a semi finalist in the contest and my poem would definitely be published in the anthology. At first I was really surprised about this because I had only submitted a small part of my poem to them and it wasn’t even that good. But at the same time I was really excited that they liked what I submitted and it would be published in a big professional poetry anthology, I thought I was going to be some famous poet! That was until I saw the price of the book. In order to see my poem in print, I had to buy my own copy of the book which was about $69. I asked my mom if we could buy it but she was like “Colleen, this is nothing but a scam. We are not buying this book.” I begged my parents for days to buy me the book that my original poem or small part of it was in but they wouldn’t give in. Even though I couldn’t buy a copy the book, I still filled out the form signing over the rights of my poem to the company so I could still be published. This turned out to be a big mistake.
For weeks on end this company bombarded me with emails still trying to get me to buy the book. They also sent me a catalogue in the mail with items I could buy that incorporated my poetry such as my poem printed on some fancy pants plaque, having it professionally framed, printed on a coffee mug and a variety of other ridiculous things that I couldn’t afford. All of the items listed in the catalogue looked professional but were all very expensive for what they were. This is when I finally realized this company was probably a scam and I unsubscribed my email from them and haven’t heard from them since. After all I wasn’t about to pay $200 for my poem to be printed on a plaque, that’s outrageous!
This company definitely turned out to be a scam. Basically what they did was take my poem, publish it some big anthology that they made look professional and then sell it back to me in not only the book but also on a variety of other completely useless products. In other words they were trying to get me to buy my own poetry! If they had really liked my poem and wanted to publish it in a real publication that would be sold online and in bookstores, they should have been paying me for it. While that anthology wasn’t considered fake because it was actually sold on their website and even Amazon, the only people who were going to be buying it were the people who had their poems published in it. After all it was really just a book of amateur poetry that they were trying to sell back to the actual poets themselves. Being published in it was really no honor at all.
Ever since then, I have definitely become a lot more careful about where I submit my writing and try to ensure other people don’t make the same mistake I did and almost get ripped off by one of the many scam websites out there.
Here is a list of red flags to look out for before submitting your writing anywhere online or giving them permission to publish it:
Everyone Wins or Gets Published: I did some research online and it seems like that company I submitted my poem to just sends a letter to anyone who submits to them and publishes all of them in that anthology. A legit contest or company would have higher expectations for submissions and would never accept all of them.
You Have to Pay to See Your Work in Print: A real publishing company should always send you at least one free copy of the book your writing is published in. There is absolutely no reason you should ever be charged any amount of money to see your own work in print. They should be paying you for your writing.
They Ask You to Sign Over Your Rights Without Paying You: This is the biggest red flag. Never sign over the rights to your work to any company unless they pay you for it and send you a copy of your publication for free. Otherwise someone from that company could publish your writing as their own and make money off of it. You also wouldn’t be able to submit it to legit companies.
They Try to Sell You Other Items That Incorporate Your Writing: This is definitely a sign of a scam. Having your poem on a plaque or in a fancy frame may look professional, but in reality it’s useless. Don’t waste your money!
