Poetry.com Noble House Publishers ripoff enter a contest get published without your knowledge or permission London, UK, New York

PLease be advised that the above telephone number DOES NOT belong to Noble House Publishers or Poetry.com! PLease DO NOT CALL THIS NUMBER! I HAVE TRIED TO TAKE IT OFF BUT CAN'T SEEM TO UPDATE IT.

The poetry that you submit on Poetry .com is SUPPOSED to be under your OWN copyright. Here is what it says right up under where you submit your poem on their web site.

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This info can be found on this webpage of their site. poetry.com/contest/contest.asp


It plainly says that it will be "PUBLISHED ON THE INTERNET", and "UNDER MY OWN COPYRIGHT". So nobody has any rights to publish this work on anything else without our permission.

I, too, have written several poems that were supposedly published in a book, and I was supposed to have turned in a "release" form. Well after I saw that it was just a ripoff when they didn't even offer you a free copy of the book, I just threw that release form away.

I think we should get together and go after a class action suit. They are obviously making a ton of money off of us and we aren't seeing a penny!!!

By the way, have you noticed all the $10,000 "winners"??? I wouldn't pay a penny to buy that kind of "poetry"!!

Okay...that same thing has happened to me. I have been sending my poems into Poetry.com for three years now. I just got a letter from Noble House saying the same thing in my letter.

Through point and click browsing I came on Poetry.com and figured it'd be fun to write a poem there for no other reason except that I happened to be there. After I finished the poem, I found it on the site a few days later. I thought "Hey that's pretty cool", and didn't think anything of it until I got the e-mail from Noble House.

I read it cover to cover and I, being the type never to trust those credit card offers, decided to do some checking. I tried looking up the publisher, as well as the name of the person in the e-mail 'Nigel Hillary' at various book/publishing sites. I found nothing. I thought, "Well certainly if someone's publishing such intriguing poetry books someone must know about it..."

I read the e-mail again and tried to figure out exactly how they were planning to publish a book with a series of unknown authors, along with their no doubt uneventful biographies, then slap a $50 price tag on it. I ran some more searches, this time looking for scam reports -- I figured it was too slick for it to have gone unnoticed. I ended up reading this very report.

My only thought was that this is one heck of a hurtful way to make a buck. I may not have been too involved in the poem I wrote, but poetry is by nature very personal. Telling people they could become an internationally published writer for their simple thoughts is just plain dastardly. If it were true it would be great, but this is a case of it being too good to be true. I'm glad I decided it was best not to recieve e-mail from Noble House anymore.

As far as Poetry.com's involvement goes,I think they might be able to take legal action if they're not involved with this Noble House. Obviously Noble House is getting their material from Potry.com since I haven't published anything else anywhere. To my knowledge Poetry.com doesn't make money off the poetry itself but rather the banners and advertisements. If Noble House is publishing books with material off a copywrited site there's probably a legal case there.

But I'm no lawyer, I'm just an aspiring writer who had the sense to read between the lines before I clicked on submit.

Well, I'm a little ticked because they didnt rip me off, I write A lot of poetry. I wrote a poem about my father who recently died after a long battle with Cancer.

A friend told me to put some of my work on poetry.com.

The poem about my father was one that I was told I should post. Some months later,I recieved a letter addressed to me that said my poem had been selected to be published in one of their books. I decided I really didn't care about all that anyway,I didnt enter a contest, I just wanted people to see the poem.
so I threw it away.

Well my girlfriend went ahead and sent the money they asked for and ordered the book ( about $100.00 ),To try to do something nice for me.
Well, I got another one of those letters, only this time telling me my poem was selected out of 33 people to be put in the "sound of poetry" CD.
They wanted more money to buy this CD,And I got a certificate from the publisher. (ha ha)
Then later they wanted me to send in another poem to be put in another book called
"THE BEST POEMS AND POETS OF 2003"
And guess what? They wanted me to send more money to buy this too. So, I'm a little ticked because they didnt rip me off, They are ripping off my girlfiend, Who was trying to do a good thing for me to help me through a rough time.

She ordered the book in the Spring of 2002, They said we would get it by the Spring of 2003, Well 2003 is Almost over now..
Surprise Surprise, No book.

Reading a report from someone claiming to be satisfied with poetry.com and Noble House I kinda cringed...

I bought one anthology, I even received it, yes, but seeing what I received and knowing with graphic background that what I held in my hand was worth maximum $20 instead of the $60 that I paid for it I felt majorly taking from the back side.
And the way my poem was cramped on one page with 12 other poems in an 8 points font was even worse.

And Theatre of the Mind... I didn't buy it, but after I got the letter from Noble House Publishing, saying that they read my poem in the US I knew that they could only have gotten my information from poetry.com. And instantly my alarmbells started ringing loudly.

I did my own share of investigation and found out that people who submit their poem to Theatre of the Mind and order a copy of the book, will all find their poem on the first page of that book, on a slightly smaller sized page.

That's because the poem is printed on that piece of paper only after the book is ordered and then glued on the first page of the book, making it look like the poet is actually published as the first poet in the book.

This is a first class cheat, because the only copy of the book your poem is published in, is the copy that you have in your hand. Not in any other copy.

Somuch for you international publishing career!

I no longer wish to persue this craziness,,To me its just a bother,,It was a long time ago and its done with,,I never bought a book and never will,,,All i can say is ,,"IF you see my poetry in this book and have bought it,,I hope you all enjoy reading it,,It was the people from UK,,that stated they had congratulated me on my published poetry,,and the only people i sent my peotry to is poetry.com,,,On the bottom of each poem that i wrote it says copyright with my name,,but of course they had put it in there,,So that leaves me guessing,,As far as i know my poems may not even be in the book,,could someone tell me if they are,,Hey your right out there,,noone ever became extremely famous off there poetry,, ha ha ,,I know a few..If I would have only boughten a book... hahaha,,,,At least i have it all inside,,I think that i must have been persuaded by those darn contests,,yep im sure i was,,but nevertheless,,,It was all in fun,,at least i wasnt ripped off tons of money,,so i am looking on the brighter side,,and im not going to pursue this any longer,,,,Thank you and Goodbye,,I no longer care to fuss about it...I am happy without the bother...Good luck to all the future poets,,

I have also sent in a poem that was published. I bought the book and was satisfied with the layout and the fact that your name is layed out as the writer. ("In the index as well".)

I am by no means defending poetry.com.
They sent me another letter saying, that I have been accepted as a semi-finalist and would again like to place my poetry in another book.

This makes me suspicious. I may not be the brightest crayon in the box, but if my poetry is that good then I would be paid alot or very little for it to be published.(probably very little.)

The point is, that people can be persuaded into sending alot of money to see themselves published in a book. It would at least be nice to receive a free coppy of a book that my poetry was published in.

And if I wanted more books to give to family and friends I could by them at a special discount.
I believe that a true publishing company would atleast do this for there writers. Therefore I will not be sending any more money to poetry.com untill I find out more info. on there buisness ethics.

I suggest that if you have any doubts about this or any other company, do not send a dime untill you do further research

Entering the ILP contest at poetry.com puts your poetry on their internet site. This is where you are published 1st. To think that you are getting ripped off or your copyright stolen is ridicules. You have allowed them, by entering the contest, to publish your poem on the web.

Also I have submitted poems to Noble House and bought the book and am totally satisfied.

It is nice to have a place to send your poetry that others may read it. If you are writting poetry to get rich you are sure to be disappointed. Most poets are long dead before they are famous.

I am not defending Poetry.com or ILP although I am a distinguished member of ILP. This seems to be a case of half empty or half full, which glass is yours?

Hello,

This is to the person who was ripped off by Peotry.com/Watermark. You mentioned that this company used your poetry without your permission. It's an awful thing when a company that you entrusted with your poetry steals your poems. This may be a silly question, but I have to ask it any way. Did you put a copy right on your poems? If you did, they you should have a case. But if you did not copy right your poems, you may not have a case. It would be just your words against the company's word. If you plan on collecting come kind of compensation from this company, you'd have to get an excellent attorney, because as we all know, these companies always try to wiggle out of their responsibilities like a snake wiggles through the grass, looking for a prey. I do wish you all of the best and pray that you'll be successful at getting some kind of justice, because it's a shame that someone else is benefiting from all your hard work. I know that writing poetry isn't an easy task and for some crooked company to steal the fruit of one's labor is just unthinkable.