April 2003

Today I received an e-mail from Mr Nigel Hillary at Noble House Publishers U.K.
"So what?" you might say...
Well... You need to do a little backup story-reading on the background of this matter. Therefore you have to read Poetry scam(s), Part I.

Allow me to quote Mr Nigel Hillary:

    "Recently I had the pleasure of reading the poetry that you have had published in the United States. I congratulate you on this grand endeavour, and propose to you that your singular talent and vision deserves appropriate recognition in Europe as well.
    For this reason, I have posted this letter to request your permission to include one of your favourite poems in Theatre of the Mind - a new poetry edition that is being published in the U.K. by Noble House and slated for worldwide distribution... a collection of poetry that is perhaps unlike any you have ever seen... one where each poem is featured on its own page, and one whose quality is reminiscent of the finest 19th century antique poetry books."

And then there's a one-and-a-half page following still with all kinds of stupid things and of course that I can purchase this book for only 28,95 £ (49,55 $).

For the victims of poetry.com this must undoubtedly sound familiar. It did to me at least and my alarmbells were ringing "God save the Queen" instantly.
Now... That first line of the e-mail made me wonder.
The only poem that I have published in the United States was the one that was published in the book by ILP. That's the only thing. So the only place where they could get my info was through them. Which makes it pretty obvious that this well-recognised Noble House Publishers is as much a scam as the ILP.
Yet ILP claims that they have a privacy policy which forbids them to give personal info to third parties. I wonder if I can sue them on that. Because not only did Noble House Publishers have my e-mail address, that is obtainable anywhere, but they also had my last name. And that I haven't put on the net in somany places.
I sent an e-mail to Waterstone's / Amazon and asked for information about Noble House Publishers, about their reputation, about what exactly they're doing, and so on. I'm waiting for a reply to that.
I also sent an e-mail to Noble House Publishers and asked which poems they read by me and where they read it and how they got my e-mail address. I'm not expecting any reply to that, so I decided to give them a call.
I ended up at Noble House Media Ltd. London, and the person whom I spoke to there told me that he already had some phonecalls regarding company, but that he didn't know who they were, what they did or any other details concerning the company. But at least that they didn't have anything to do with them. So obviously the Noble House Publishers that is sending us e-mails, tries to fly on the wings of the reputation of a legitimate company. What a sick thing to do!
So there's another dubious company showing its nose in the crowd of wannabe-poets.

Meanwhile I've been out on a little test (as if the scam needs to be proven still more *grins*).
Under the name of Pietje Puk I submitted a poem at poetry.com to enter the contest.
You can read the poem, I named it "Poor Victims", by clicking on the title.

This is going TO BE CONTINUED. I'll keep you posted on the progress made in my little "investigation" and if I got through to the semi-finals of the poetry.com contest and if my poem, which undoubtedly is loaded with unique vision and originality and poetic skills, will be published in this summer's new anthology.

And please do feel free to comment to this!

Continue with Poetry scam(s), Part III.