Young Writers con

Wizbub

Having returned home from a weekend away, we were delighted and filled with pride on opening a letter informing us that recently our daughters school (named in the letter) had submitted some of their pupils work for the, Young Writers' Mini Sagas competition and that our clever daughter's story had been selected for publication! (the stories being under 50 words)
It stated that she had infact beaten over 20,000 other stories from around the UK and Republic of Irland to be chosen and published.
Not only that but a copy of the book 'Tiny Treasures The British Isles' would be kept at the British Library and further libraries across the
UK. They told us that information had been sent to the school giving details of our daughters success and enclosed was a certificate and bookmark to mark her achievement!
We of course congratulated her and called up our relatives and friends.

Imagine her upset on returning to school only to find out that all children entered were to be published, her entire class infact.
We feel conned and miss lead, but most angry that our daughter and her friends have been so misslead.
The book costs £14.99 to purchase. Does anyone else believe this is a cruel money making scheme that targets children and their families using nieve schools to endorse it?
We still feel obligated to buy the book as all her friends parents are.
:mad:

jacktyler

i certainly wouldn't feel obligated to buy it.

see here.

"Any proud parent would be delighted to see their child's story chosen for publication - unless, as Jill Papworth discovered, the motivation seems to be more about making money than genuine achievement"

DVardysShadow

Hmm. Looks like your daughter is due royalties. And the school are due a roasting for passing the written work forward without gaining a copyright release ...

Seriously, these companies would sue you as soon as look at you if they thought they could make a case against you for copyright infringement.

MarzipanFish

They (or at least very similar companies) have been going a while. I had a poem published when I was 11 (so 10 years ago now) and my parents ordered the book only to find it was 'Birmingham volume 3' or something like that.

bananachip

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/services-misc/young-writers/1320735/

Looks like you are not the only person to have had problems with this company.

Darksun

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Hmm. Looks like your daughter is due royalties. And the school are due a roasting for passing the written work forward without gaining a copyright release ...

Seriously, these companies would sue you as soon as look at you if they thought they could make a case against you for copyright infringement.

From the sounds of it, the parents fill in a 'consent form' when ordering, which I guess would tie up the copyright issue

trumpton

This is a pretty common scheme, or scam in my view. It's basically vanity publishing but rather nastily is targeted at children and cashes in on the thrill of seeing your work in print.

What's depressing is that if you google this company, there are newspaper articles with pictures of smiling small children who are obviously thrilled that they have 'won' a national poetry competition and are being publiished.

I think it's a very cynical ploy and really schools shouldn't be touching these companies with a brage pole, never mind actually helping them.

If your kids come home with some form about a competition - ring the Head and make sure they know what a scam it is.

jnrshenton

Wish I had checked this out first! I am a parent who works at the same school as my son, i got "taken in" too...not only that, the company has sent all the copies that the parents ordered direct to school and told the teacher that they are free copies....not impressed at all.

brightonman123

reminds me of a 'poetry anthology' competition, i entered many years ago.. promise of seeing your pom in print, with a copy of the book for just ££something stupid (£100 or more?).. this price kept coming down, with more assertive letters sying you will miss the deadline if not bought now, etc

jut best to ignore them.

KimYeovil

I bet they are not paying licensing fees to Brian Aldiss either.

Mari90

Im sorry to say i also received a letter stating i was having a poem published in one of their books when i was 12 years old, i remember my mum paying for about 5 copies. I am 20 now and there's still no books.In fact i don't even think it was published. Its sad how they target parents like that.