06 May 2003
Well, guess what? I got a letter from the AARP the other day inviting me to join. I don’t know about you, but I was very surprised...considering I’m a good 20 years away from being old enough to join a senior citizen organization. It gave me a laugh. I have no idea how they got my name and address nor do I have any idea why in the world they thought me to be 2 decades older than I am. But then again, I get so much nonsense in the mail that it didn’t throw me off too much. I often get letters inviting me (and my employees…of which I have...erm...NONE) to some conference or other. You’d think if these companies are gonna send junk mail, they’d at least target the right audience. It’s all too obvious they don’t do their homework. It’s too bad for them because I’m sure they’d make more money if they took some time to research the people they are sending junk mail to. And in the end, it really is just about making money.
On the other hand, an invite to the AARP is really the last thing I want to see just a few weeks before my 30th birthday. I feel old enough as it is!! *LOL*
Oh yeah, I believe I mentioned here (more than a few months ago, probably) that one of my poems was getting published. At the time, I thought it to be a scam, but I wasn't sure...now, I know it is a scam. Yes, I got my poem published and part of me loves the idea of being published, but the anthology that my poem is published in contains a whole heckuva lot of crap poetry. I now know that the publishing company was only interested in selling the anthology to the ‘poets’ published within and was not at all concerned with the quality of that poetry. It’s really quite sad. There are some poems that are really amazing, but I’d say a good 75% (or more) really were poorly written and not at all thought out. I think from now on I’ll just post my poetry here and not fall for any more publishing scams. I’ve since received a letter from a publishing house in New York, that wants to publish one of my poems in their anthology to be published in Europe. It all sounds so appealing, but in the end, they too, are just trying to sell their book and scam all those wannabe poets out there. So, if you think that poetry.com (and the International Library of Poetry...aka ILP) or Noble House Publishing is really impressed by your ‘art’...think again. I have received numerous invitations from ILP inviting me to purchase this or that and inviting me to attend one poetry conference or another...for a not-so-small fee. Remember, in the end they are selling you their product which really is not the best of quality in the first place and certainly not worth the $50+ they are charging you. Just don’t give up writing...whatever you do...if you enjoy it, please continue. All that matters is that your writing brings you pleasure and maybe, just maybe, somebody out there is enjoying it too. :)