Children's Poems published by a possible scam company, should I say something?

[Pictureperfect]

When I was at school I won a poetry competition that I had entered after hearing about it in English lessons. We were thrilled and forked out for a copy of the expensive book, I entered another time as did my dad and we again got published and brought the book. We started to get suspicious and the books which gave the impression would be in book stores and libraries never appeared aside for the people who brought it because they were in it. One day a long time later it came up on bbc watchdog as a scam. The books are amazing, tiny tiny print completely crammed with poems unlike a lot of poetry books with a poem a page.

I'm still seeing people being so happy their child's poem has been published and I never know what to say. They are so happy but are likely to be ripped off, I just saw they have a bit on their website denying they are a scam but I found it via google rather than easy to find on their site.

I wish someone had told us (and I wish schools would stop advertising it) but I never know whether to mention this to parents or not? Although we had Internet when I was at school you didn't tend to use the Internet for things like checking companies out like you do now.

Should I say something or let the pay out lots of money (I often see parents buying several copies for relatives, it's at least £15 a book) and let them enjoy the buzz of their child's talent?

[Doodlekitty]

I worked in a school who entered kids for a comp like this. The school got a percentage of the book sales, which is why they did it every year.

[YourHandInMyHand]

I had a poem published like this as a kid, and have lots of FB friends proudly showing off their children's published works. Tis quite obviously a money maker, though I didn't realise the school made a profit from it!

[Noggie]

It is defnitely a scam as it is NOT a competition- both my daughters have 'won'. We have had a hard time explaining why we haven't bought the books!