What are the proper steps to publish a poem?

Question: What are the proper steps to publish a poem!?

i found a web page that says poetry!.com is a scam!. is it!?!?!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

yes, its mostly a scam!. ive been through that whole deal before!. they tell you, (via a letter mailed to your address) after you have submitted a poem, that it was good etc!. and that they have decided to publish it in an anthology of the best poems submitted to them!. they do publish it, and it does go in the anthology (if you give your credit card number to them ahead of time and agree to buy it after it's printed and is released), but if you want a copy of the anthology (the huge hard cover book) it'll cost you whatever it is they are charging for it at the time!. also, the anthology is not sold in stores, its sold to the poets, or directly through their website only, at request of anyone who may want to have a copy) two years ago it cost me like fifty bucks, so its probably more now!.
this works for them because it costs them a heck of a lot less than fifty bucks per book to dump everyone, and anyone's, poems into it and then to mass produce the book themselves on their own printing presses!. They will mislead you into believing they think your poem is better than they really think it is just to get you to purchase the anthology!.
To prove this to myself, i submitted, under different names and addresses five separate poems, and purposely made sure the poetry was very poor, just outright bad, unpublishable garbage poetry, and i got the same letter sent to my brothers house, sister's house, dad's house, etc, under my pseudonyms!. Each letter said the same thing, just carbon copies of the others!. It's a scam !.!.!. mostly!.

I say mostly because there is real money to be won, in fact i think the grand prize is ten thousand dollars, for the best poem of the year or of the quarter or however they do it, but your poem will be up against all the other poems they have submitted during the time their contest runs!. so, if they think your poem is the best, you could win money; however, you are only eligible for the prize if you buy the anthology, and remember, your poem will only go into the anthology if you agree to purchase it!.

Aside from that though, they offer some cool products like plaques, cups, t-shirts, mouse pads, jigsaw puzzles, etc!.; which they will put your poem on in custom made fashion, for a price comparable to what kodak would do it for you for!. I got the plaque and gave it to my mom with a poem i wrote her for mother's day and she loved it; so the website isn't totally evil if you don't mind being a consumer!. But don't go there if you are a serious poet looking seriously to get your name or your poetry into the publishing industry, or to the general public!. poetry!.com is a money trap!.

Submit an email attachment, or mail a hard copy of your poetry, or poem, to Random House Publishing or some other reputable publishing company like that and wait for your rejection, or acceptance, letter, and hope for the latter!.

Post a poem on this yahoo answers website in the poetry section and ask the general public to critique it!. Fellow poets such as myself understand its needed, and have no problem offering honest, FREE advice!.

Good luck, and keep on writing!Www@QuestionHome@Com

It is a scam and it suckers many poets!. Here is a web site where you can submit your poetry for their 2009 edition of "Oh, What a tangled web" www!.poetsofmars!.com!. This is a legit site where you submit your work and if chosen for publication then you will receive a free book and royalties!. I know this because I am published in their 2008 book which is currently being used by a University poetry professor as a text book!. Cool, huh!? You can also search for poetry contests online and through magazines!.

Here is some additional information passed on by a friend who is a published poet!.

How to submit poetry for publishing:
So you'd like to try the wonderful world of submitting something!.!.!.!.okay:
Pick out the best poem you have ever written!.
Go to!.!.!.poetrykit!.org!.!.!.!.!.
Pick out a publisher in any country you like, including the U!.S!.
If foreign country, go to your post office and buy 3-4 IRC's
Get 8-10 U!.S!. stamps
Write a very short letter of introduction to the editor of that magazine/journal
Address and stamp the SASE
Put poem and letter in the SASE
Put all in outgoing addressed and stamped envelope

If foreign!.!.!.instead of putting U!.S!. stamps on the SASE, put the IRC's IN and don't put any stamps on this envelope!.!.!.there's no foreign country in the world that will accept U!.S!. stamps for a reply to you!.!.!.thus International Return Coupons!.!.!.IRC's
Then, you wait for a reply!.

Good LuckWww@QuestionHome@Com