How to Identify a Poetry Scam?

Poetry scams are not hardcore cybercrimes, however they deceive people and this puts them in the frauds section. It may be tricky to spot a poetry fraud, because artists are people who are not allured by wealth but by acknowledgement. Anyways, here are some of the red flags you better watch for if you consider entering such contest:

• Extreme cash award.Winnings like 60 000 USD are just impossible for amateur poets. We are not experts in poetry but we seriously doubt that even famous poets can win that cash in a single competition.
• No losers.By definition a contest needs to have winners and people that lose. Make sure that the art you submit is actually judged and ranked. You should find out the names of the jury and do a little Google-ing.
• Read carefully the terms and conditions when you sign up.There are some competitions where they claim all rights to the entries, no matter if it wins or not. This is scheme aims to accumulate free content for various purposes.
• The entry fee.There is a huge difference between paying to compete with other poets and paying to get your artwork reviewed. With this in mind watch for contest where you have to pay to get a copy of the publication you are in. Compare the entry free to award cash ratio. Most contests require somewhere between 5 and 15 USD to enter for poetry or short fiction and 25 to 50 USD for novels. Competitions that ask for 30 USD to enter and pay out 60 USD to the winner are obviously a scam.
• Vanity anthology.Being published along with a thousand other poems hold no value in the literary community.
• Hard to contact the sponsor.You have every right to contact the sponsor with questions and if you don’t receive an answer; it takes a long time or the replies are evasive, then this is probably a scam. What’s more legitimate poetry competitions are held by organizations, magazines or publishers and not by unknown individuals.
• Previous winning poems have vanished.You are having difficulties finding the work of previous winners then this is most likely a fraud.

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