What better time to warn the unwary wannabe poet than during National Poetry Month and from Writer Beware we get the following semi-good news:
Until very recently, www.Poetry.com was the Internet home of the infamous International Library of Poetry (ILP), the nation’s premier (and I use that adjective with irony) vanity poetry anthologizer. But in early March, the Poetry.com domain was purchased by self-publishing service Lulu.
The good news is that Poetry.com has gone under and so will not be available to take advantage of any more writers; the semi-good news is that no one is quite sure yet that Lulu will keep higher standards.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
My mother succumbed to the International Library of Poetry way back in about 1985. Somewhere I have a copy of the book in which she was ‘published’. Or maybe it was the American Library of Poetry? Equally prestigious, I assure you.
Easy enough to do, when the market’s so tough to break into and someone somewhere offers a pat on the head. I’ve done it; paid to have someone read my novel without knowing their bad reputation as agent/publisher.