For When You Want To Break Free Of The Forum

Several years ago I wrote a dang good poem. So good, I wanted to enter it in a contest or something. So I did: Poetry.com. I didn't realize it at the time that it was a huge scam, and was sooo happy when I got the awards letter. This quickly faded as the junk mail piled up and it dawned on me how much cash my 'prize' would cost.

Now that I'm turning my eye to becoming a freelance writer of short stories and maybe someday a book (though the short story suits my writing style better) I've come across some good alert sites that might be of interest for those of you like me might want to support your RPG habit with some checks in the mailbox:

National Writers Union-Writer Alerts: The union has it's own Grievance and Contract Division that follows up for it's members with good solid info such as magazines who don't pay writers for their published articles.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Inc.: This site has a more comprehensive list of scams/bad publishers including: Contests and Vanity Anthologies, Independent Editors and Manuscript Assessment Services, and Electronic Publishing.

Preditors & Editors: This site has been around since 1997 and is totally dedicated to exposing scams/rip offs and advice for writers to armor them against being taken advantage of and cover all types of the written word including screenwriting, gaming and music. However they may close:

I hope these references help you as you as you dip your toe into the wild world of writing besides the interactive story telling we are all so fond of.

On a side note, I reentered the Poetry.com contest. With a sarcastic poem about their eating the dreams in exchange for fake trophies. And guess what? I won!

(Written by Felix the Cat of RPG-D, join and see the discussion thread here.

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Several years ago I wrote a dang good poem.  So good, I wanted to enter it in a contest or something. So I did:  Poetry.com.  I didn't realize it at the time that it was a huge scam, and was sooo happy when I got the awards letter.  This quickly faded as the junk mail piled up and it dawned on me how much cash my 'prize' would cost.

Now that I'm turning my eye to becoming a freelance writer of short stories and maybe someday a book (though the short story suits my writing style better) I've come across some good alert sites that might be of interest for those of you like me might want to support your RPG habit with some checks in the mailbox:

[URL=http://nwu.org/writer-alerts]National Writers Union-Writer Alerts[/URL]:  The union has it's own Grievance and Contract Division that follows up for it's members with good solid info such as magazines who don't pay writers for their published articles.

[URL=http://sfwa.org/beware]Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Inc.[/URL]:   This site has a more comprehensive list of scams/bad publishers including: Contests and Vanity Anthologies, Independent Editors and Manuscript Assessment Services, and Electronic Publishing.

[URL=http://pred-ed.com/]Preditors & Editors[/URL]:  This site has been around since 1997 and is totally dedicated to exposing scams/rip offs and advice for writers to armor them against being taken advantage of and cover all types of the written word including screenwriting, gaming and music.  However they may close:  [QUOTE]Unfortunately, there are those who do not like P&E or its editor because we give out information that they would prefer remain hidden from writers. Usually, they slink away, but not this time. P&E is being sued and we are asking for donations to mount a legal defense in court. [/QUOTE]

I hope these references help you as you as you dip your toe into the wild world of writing besides the interactive story telling we are all so fond of.

On a side note, I reentered the Poetry.com contest.  With a sarcastic poem about their eating the dreams in exchange for fake trophies.  And guess what?  I won!

(Written by Felix the Cat of RPG-D, join and see the [URL=http://rpg-directory.com/index.php?showtopic=71400&hl=]discussion thread here.[/URL]

Edited to change "A Members Guide for writing scams" to A member's guide to avoid writing scams as the first way was a bit... iffy. ink:

Oh my gosh - I'm so sorry... But I'm so glad because now I know I'm not the only one who submitted good writing to poetry.com...

Nice article.

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You know what's ironic. I almost fell for this scam too. Submitted a poem and then "won" and then was told to fork over $50 to receive a copy of the book that my poem would be "published" in. I was young and naive at the time too, but maybe that was a saving grace in a way. Young = no money. Useful guide though. ^^