After doing some research, I think that the PoetryNation.com poetry contest is most likely a scam and I would encourage people not to apply.

If you’re considering applying to any scholarship or contests in the future you can follow a similar process to the one I show here to determine if what you are applying for is legitimate or not.

It’s very important to add that a lot of the things you see here are not individually enough to make a website considered sketchy, some of them are done by lots of legitimate organizations. It’s the combination of all of them together that makes me suspicious.

Watch the video version of this blog post on TikTok.

 

Have a comment or question about this post? Ask it on the Reddit thread for this post on r/atila.

High Finalists Rate

I was looking for different external scholarships to message about sponsoring a scholarship on Atila when I came across the PoetryNation.com scholarship.

The first thing that stuck out to me is that 65% of people who apply go to the semi-finalist round. I’ve never seen a scholarship where more than half of all the applicants make it to the next round. Now, this isn’t necessarily a red flag, there might be different reasons why this happens so I’ll call this an orange flag.

No Clear List of Past Finalists or Winners

With their allegedly 25,000 applications per contest and 65% win rate you would think that they’d have lots of past finalists to showcase. Helping to add legitimacy to their website.

Now, the second time I visited the site, I did find a “Top Poets” list but it’s unclear if these are people that won the poetry contest or people that paid to have their poem published in their poetry book. Oh, you didn’t know some applicants have to pay for this contest? We’ll get to that in a second. 

No Convenient Point of Contact

Next, I go to the contact page to see if there’s someone I can contact about sponsoring a scholarship on Atila.

Strangely, they don’t have any publicly available email, not even an info@ email. Just a contact form and a phone number. Now, this is actually very common so there’s nothing weird about that. But because of the other weird vibes I’ve been getting from the site, I look at this as another orange flag.

Weird Team Description

Since I need to find an email, I go on the team page and now, this is when I get very suspicious.

There’s no full names or pictures of anyone on the team. Again, that’s a bit strange but normal. 

What’s weird is that it’s just their first name and the team leader Rachel is described as “Our fearless leader…”. I don’t know what it is but something about that sentence just gave me scam vibes so I jump on Google.

Google Autocomplete Suggests It Might be A Scam

Almost every single time I’ve Googled something and one of the suggested searches is “is X legitimate” or “is X a scam” it’s almost always a scam. I actually think 100% of the time it’s been a scam, but just to be on the safe side I think 99% of the time it’s been a scam.

People on the Internet Have Had Bad Experiences

Looking at the top search results for “is PoetryNation.com legitimate”. I find three helpful links.

  1. Eber & Wein publishing scam?: writing
  2. Is Eber & Wein publishing a scam?: writing
  3. [OPINION] It feels so weird: Poetry
  4. ​​Eber & Wein / Poetry Nation: Another Vanity Anthology Scheme
  5. Beware Of These Poetry Contest Scams

How the Scam Works: They Prey on People’s Vanity and Earnestness

After reading those links above this is how it works;

  1. The contest is run by a publishing company called Eber and Wein
  2. They make money by publishing books and having people buy them
  3. They create a contest where a lot of people apply, almost everyone who applies is selected as a finalist
  4. They are then told that they can have their poem published in a book for just $X. They make the applicant feel special and that the book publishing will help them.
  5. Applicants get their work published in a low-quality book that accepts anyone and has very little recognition.


 

This technique is called Vanity publishing and it’s when a publisher takes your money, says they will publish your book and it gets published in a low-quality publication that doesn’t have any significant recognition.

It works by preying on the human emotion of Vanity and making people feel good about having their work published but in reality, it’s published in a way that doesn’t bring any real value to the author.

Sometimes the victims are not being vain. They’re just earnest and want to get their work out to a wider audience. However, the result is the same, short-term satisfaction and long-term disappointment.

Their Better Business Bureau Rating has 2 Stars

You can see their Better Business Bureau rating and read what other people have to say. Even the 5-star reviews and official responses by Eber and Wein are so contrived it’s shocking that they’ve lasted this long.

Their Website is Sketchy

The main Eber and Wein website is not HTTPS secure, there is a bug that displays some of the internal code on the website, the images don’t load and the stock images just look creepy.

Conclusion: Don’t Apply and Don’t Fall for Similar Scams

I know that as an aspiring writer or student you can be very eager for ways to get some money or recognition for your work. However, it’s important to always do your research and check your emotions. Ask yourself, am I actually getting value from this or are they just preying on my emotions?

I recommend you don’t apply for this contest and instead find other scholarships and contests that are more legitimate.

Hopefully, fewer people will fall for these poetry scams and we can get some poetic justice.