Complaint Review: International Library Of Poetry - Internet

I have read the commentaries on how the ILP is a scam site, and that they publishing is fake and all. I don't know if this is true or not, but here are a few things that I have been aboe to find out in the last couple of days.-

It seems that The International Library of Poetry, or ILP, is not considered be a legit group as far standard publishers are concerned. I have called around to 5 different publishing companies, including names such as Random House, and all 5 said that they are not a reputable business for aspiring poets to deal with. This is not to say that they scam people, it is actually referred to as "vanity publishing". You submit your work, they take your money, you get published. Simple as that.

If you are just looking to put down something to make yourself feel good about getting work published, I know that you will get published even if you don't pay, I have gotten to that point. I have checked the internet site for barnes and noble nd amazon, neither will do an internet order for the LOC#'s that I have, but B&N assures me that if I go to a physical location, they can order any book that is published. But I have been told by Random House not to expect the ILP to be accepted as a source for prior publication of my work for a cover sheet or a resume.

Shady, probably. Illegal, maybe. But here comes the interesting part...

The Maryland State Attorney General is looking into a possible class action law suit against the ILP for unethical business practices and/or fruad. Now, this is not to say that they shall proceed, but I contacted them and after much wait I was told that the names collected against the ILP in nearing the tens of thousands. They expect the suit to proceed, but it is going to take awhile to substantiate all the claims that have been turned in and to find out whether the ILP has done anything illegal, or if they merely pissed a while bunch of people off.

Which leads to my paradox...

If the Md. Attorney General is looking into them, and has such a substantial list of people who feel violated, why should I continue to do business with them? So my solution is this:

I was notified via email (from [email protected]) that because of the outstanding work that I did with my initial submission that I am to be included in an anthology called The Best Poems and Poets of 2003. According to the email, I am guaranteed a page in the anthology as long as I submit a new unpublished work. NOTE- Guaranteed before they have read the new submission. They have promised to print anything that I write as long as it is under 70 lines long and is actually turned in.

So this is what I am doing-

I have submitted a new (poem)piece that basically says how I read the scam warnings and am unsure of the ILP. I wrote it in such a way that it is quite obvious that I feel let down and that I think that they should be shut down. The work goes on to say that I wrote the piece and describes the events leading up to its submission. The work itself no doubt the worst thing that I have ever written and would surely be removed by any reputable publisher. But as they have guaranteed publication, they cannot remove it without consequences. Needless to say, this willbe an interesting situation for them.

So, they have an option-

1. Either let an editorial go into "one of the best anthologies of 2003," by an author who has observed how many people are unahppy with them, or-

2. Remove the piece and face litigation from my attorney and (hopefully) the Maryland Attorney General. My lawyer sees no problem, however the MD AG was not consulted, so they may not approve. But the anthology is supposed to start printing in January, so I will post to the site what is determined by the ILP when I recieve the book, or get a notice of refusal.

As for me, even if this does get published, it will be the last piece of mine that they get. But as always, feel free to make up your own minds- make some calls, or type poetry scam in google to see what the 1st company listed is. v com deus. ( if you need some research, check out the massive scam archive at http://windpub.com/literary.scams/ -sorry no link, just cut and paste)

Gregorio

toronto, Ontario
Canada

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