International Library of Poetry, International Society of Poetry, Poetry.com Poetry that pays in disappointment. ILP offers rhetoric and empty promises. They praise your poetry but get you to pay them.Owings Mills, Maryland

The International Society or International Library of Poetry (ILP) is a ripoff that has been around for a long time. I found a report as far back as 1995. I'm not sure how long they have been in business, but they make millions off unsuspecting poets (wanna be poets), and consumers. ILP accepts everyone's poetry, even gibberish. There was even a report about them on 60 minutes (or 20/20) when they were called the National Library of Poetry. Their website address is www.poetry.com. If you do a search through one of the search engines you will find lots of negative information on ILP.

ILP publishes books of poetry for $49.95 to $69.95 (to those whose poetry they publish), and that's everybody; they sell merchandise with (your poetry) on it (to you and whoever will buy it). ILP Invites people to their conferences (which are held in Florida and Washington, D.C.), from all over the world, only to find that they have been scammed and ripped off. They make lots of false promises and have people paying for (phony) awards that they have supposedly won. What a farce.

I urge consumers to first investigate any markets where you will submit your poetry and writing. I found out about ILP too late because I was ripped off too, fortunately for a small amount, but any amount is too much. It's amazing how all these so called legitimate businesses are running scams (there's a huge number of them).

I've decided to take action by filing this report. Please investigate first. Don't get ripped off like I did. Most writers are concentrating on being published and may ignore the risks or little signs that something is not quite right. It's true that anything that seems to good to be true usually is.