United press national poetry comp legit?

BFlying

I entered a poem into the national poetry competition via the United press website. Got a phone call today to say I've beaten off stiff competition and made the shortlist through to the next stage of the comp. Never ever entered this before and I've read that United press is a vanity publisher. But seeing as this is the national poetry competition, I'm wondering if it's all about board. The man who phoned was from United press..so what are your thoughts? I was really happy when I got the news, I just don't want to have participated in any kind of scam outfit. Thanks all

snakepilsen

vanity publishing best avoided.

JessicAhh

I think they normally shortlist 40 or so poems, then choose a winner (allegedly!), and ask to publish the rest in an anthology. They then don't give poets royalties, or free copies, but a discount on the price of the anthology. There are also 'upgrade' services, like paying to add a profile of yourself...
http://www.abctales.com/forum/sun-2012-07-15-1734/united-press-poetry-anthology <--- sums up all the experiences I've seen about United Press...

JessicAhh

This is a legit alternative... http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/competitions/npc/

Also, you've missed this one for this year, but it's quite fun... http://www.poeticrepublic.com/
You get to vote on others' poems, and see comments from readers (i.e. fellow competitors) about your poems...

Both pay to enter, but - generally speaking - the poetry / writing comps worth entering are pay to enter...

Zanzib

United Press make their money by getting the people - whose poems they print- to buy copies of the book which is expensive in comparison to regular books...

BFlying

Feel real disappointed now. I thought they were genuine. I was so excited and even announced the news on my Facebook. How stupid am I gonna look when it's realised I've fallen for a scam. Really thought they liked my poem. The guy on the phone said I should get a confirmation letter next week. Gonna be interesting to see what it says. Thankyou guys for your input. I'll keep you all updated when I get the letter.

snakepilsen

BFlying wrote: »

Feel real disappointed now. I thought they were genuine. I was so excited and even announced the news on my Facebook. How stupid am I gonna look when it's realised I've fallen for a scam. Really thought they liked my poem. The guy on the phone said I should get a confirmation letter next week. Gonna be interesting to see what it says. Thankyou guys for your input. I'll keep you all updated when I get the letter.

I'd imagine the letter will read something along the lines of "You haven't won, but we like your poem well enough to want to publish it in our anthology. Because you're in the anthology, you can get a fifty per cent discount on the normal price,just send us £???? blah blah blah "

brightonman123

Is this ruse still a thing?

Zanzib

They did clean up their act a lot, and they are not as bad as they were five-ten years ago.