Scamming parents?

lizzie_dripping

My son was "selected" for one of these books.

The letter came with a copy of his story and a certificate - I didn't feel the need to buy the book!

fernliebee

vikki_louise wrote: »

I think its bad that the schools still do this, over 10 years ago i had a poem published in one via the school and was over the moon and my parents brought the book, they would then send me leaflets through the post and i had another one published and we brought the book, next time they published another one so we caught on and didn't buy it. They said the book would be in bookshops but no one had ever even heard of it!

Me and my brother had a poem published and the title of the book was 'over the moon' there were 4 people chosen from each year group from different schools, so was a bit more of a competition, but you did have to buy the book, luckily as both of us were in the same book my mum only had to buy one. We never received anything else (unless my mum just binned it so we couldn't make her buy anymore )

thatgirlsam

no way would i be buying such a book !

my dd told me about it and i said she could write me a poem and i would have it framed and put on the wall

when i told her that it was a con and every child has their poem published she was quite disgusted too

purplegirluk1

I had a poem published in a book like this 13 or 14 years ago. There were only a few from the whole school published and I was so proud and excited to have my poem in a real book. My oarents did buy the book but we never had any following letters etc. I would say its lovely for a child to have and is a real confidence booster.

Lil_Me_2

purplegirluk1 wrote: »

I had a poem published in a book like this 13 or 14 years ago. There were only a few from the whole school published and I was so proud and excited to have my poem in a real book. My oarents did buy the book but we never had any following letters etc. I would say its lovely for a child to have and is a real confidence booster.

I think the key thing here is that there were only a few in your whole school published. My little sisters school got sucked into what other posters are saying and out of her class of 20, 17 were being published. The school sent a letter home apologising and telling everyone not to bother buying the book. My sister was understanding when it was explained to her why we weren't buying the book.

DeeDee74

ds got picked for that book 2 :rolleyes:
needless to say i bought a copy ...

pipkin71

I don't know if this will help, or not.

As a home educator, I have just put together some home educated childrens work into one of these books. We didn't run it as a competition, because all the work would be going in.

The actual cost to the school, or in this case to us as home educators, is £5.00 per book, with an agreement that at least 30 books are sold. The school can then charge what they like for the book, and anything else they make on top of the £5.00 is for them to keep. As we aren't looking to make a profit, the book will be selling for £5.

Now, there are different companies who offer this type of book, so it depends on who you go with, but many schools do add quite a bit for profit, and they also - again, depending on which company they use - get to choose which pieces of work goes into each book.

Ruby_Moon

How is it a scam?
Its only the same as printing photos of a class.
Each book isn't bought by too many people so there is barely any profit in it so hardly a scam at all and the joy it brings to a child to say their poem is published in a book is lovely. They are all so proud of themselves and have a feeling of being special.

pipkin71

purplegirluk1 wrote: »

I would say its lovely for a child to have and is a real confidence booster.

I agree purplegirl.

Reading the stories that were sent to be published, and knowing how hard the children have worked on these, was fantastic.

I can't wait for the first copy to arrive, which is free, although I need to check it for errors, before order forms are sent out to the parents.

This has been a worthwhile project to arrange

pollypenny

As an English teacher, I wanted my pupils to see their work in print. Years ago Cadburys' ran an annual competition: high status and very competitive.
Each year my classes used to get one or two poems published, but pupils whose work was highly commended received a certificate.

A company in Peterborough jumped into the gap in the market. however, they publish umpteen anthologies each year, under various guises, so not very competitive. It's still good for the pupils to see work in print, though.