Short Story or Tall Tale?

A publisher promises to publish an aspiring writer and then disappears With her money.

24-year old Summer Su has dreams of one day being a successful songwriter. She regularly writes poetry that she sometimes turns into songs.

One day she saw a TV commercial for a publisher called Noble House Publishing that advertised a poetry contest. So Summer sent one of her poems to Noble House via email and received a letter back from them, stating that they would like to publish her poem in an anthology of poems they were putting together.

Summer filled out the necesary paperwork to get her poem published. Even though Noble House stated the anthology was going to sell for $45, Summer says they offered her a free copy, stating her poem would be the very first one in the book.

Summer was surprised then when she checked her bank statement and found out that Noble House Publishing had made a withdrawal from her bank account for $77.05. Thinking that she had misunderstood their offer for a "free" book, she waited for the delivery, to see her work in print.

But after three months passed, she decided something was wrong and tried contacting Noble House, but couldn't get in contact with anyone. By the time she decided to dispute the charge with her bank, it was past the three-month deadline and she was out of luck.

So Summer called Help Me Howard. We first tried contacting Noble House to get their side of the story, but the telephone number had been disconnected. When we researched online, we found many other complaints against Noble House Publishers for promising to publish people's works and not following thru.

Their complaints led us to the site Poetry.com, which some people's posts accused of being in cahoots with Noble House. Our research showed that the publishing site Lulu.com had recently acquired Poetry.com, so we called them. They were happy to clear up the confusion and had this to say:

"We welcome the opportunity to clarify this. Lulu recently purchased the domain Poetry.com from the secured lender that foreclosed on the asset which was previously owned by Watermark Media. Watermark, which is no longer in business, also operated as Publish Today, International Society of Poets and Noble House Publishing. What Lulu purchased does not include the publishing business behind the site, or poetry anthologies produced by Noble House. The responsibility of all publishing and fulfillment remains with the previous owner."

We then contacted The Academy of American Poets to find out what aspiring poets should do to protect their work as well as go about getting themselves published.

The Academy of American Poets is a 75-year old non-profit organization that is dedicated to fostering the appreciation of poetry. They are involved in finding the very best of poetry, whether it's a brand new poet or a veteran poet who's been writing for years.

The Academy warns writers to be careful of organizations that promise quick money in exchange for their poems. Legitimate poetry organizations, publishers and literary magazines are just as interested in the poet as they are in the poem. They do not ask for money to publish a poem and do not promise big money for poems.

According to the Academy, aspiring poets should be reading, not looking for a way to make a quick buck on their poetry. They recommend lots of reading; everything from traditional, to classical, to experimental poetry. Find other writers in your community to talk to, join writers's groups, or take a writing class. Writers can also go to bookstores, libraries and online to find the best poetry these days, there are lots of ways to involved in the poetry world.