I, too, wish to report the unethical business practices of the International Society of Poets. My daughter, who was recognized and encouraged by all of her teachers throughout school, because she does write good poetry, entered one of the "contests." Of course, instant winner, all the other hype. As a birthday present I sent in the exorbitant fee for the copy of the book to get a copy of her poem as a published momento of her "accomplishment, " as well as the other "winners."
A. We waited for almost a year for the book - well past her birthday deadline.in the meantime, she was also emailed countless times, informing her she had won yet another award for the same poem, subject to paying for the award, of course.
B. When the book was finally received and read, some of the poetry was quite good but most ranged from average ability to so embarassingly awful that it made you wonder where the writers got their inspiration, much less being "awarded" for it. The ratio for bad poetry far exceed the ratio for good poetry.
C. Conclusion: rip-off, after daughter was devastated that her excellent recognized poetry, written in classes that were two grade levels above her class grade, encouraged by some very good English teachers, was put in the same category as the generally horrible poetry published in the book.
D. It didn't end there. After lesson was learned the hard way,
she was spammed so badly by Poetry.com, with other rip-off offers, requiring money of course, that her email address had to be blocked, since written requests to the company were ignored and there is no email address for them to register complaints.
E. That was five years ago, and to this date, we still continue to receive rip-off notices in the mail, requesting registration & money for so-called international conferences, with high profile names attached. They just don't give up.
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