G&T co-ordinator sending children's poems to vanity press

[UnquietDad]

Maybe this should be in general Education, but it was the G&T person who instigated it, so...

Some of the children's poems, DD's included, were sent off to a company called Forward Press which advertises itself in schools. This was done without parental consent. The first we heard about it was when DD got a letter inviting us to buy a copy of the book, provided that we sign a copyright form for her poem's inclusion. They also sent a spurious certificate and some stickers.

Just wanted to warn everyone not to get involved with this. As a professional in the industry this kind of thing offends and worries me hugely - I am warning my students off this sort of outfit all the time.

They are a profit-making company, a borderline "vanity press". Your child's poem is not "published" if it gets into one of their shoddy "anthologies". They put in everything they are sent, and then market the book at an exorbitant £15.99 a copy for a poorly-produced paperback. Compare this with a normal paperback anthology on the high-street bookshelf - it's about twice the price.

You do not pay to get published, and you do not pay to "see your work in print". If you contribute to a book, you get a copy. One, at least. What Forward and others like them do is simply preying on parental pride and children's innocence.

If your school is approached by them, I strongly encourage you not to get involved.

I would be cross if the school got a cut.

elastic - thanks for the tip, I think I'll copy it to her anyway.

UQD - I would have thought it's a whole chapter for your next book - a very informative and entertaining chapter too. So be sure to keep the correspondence with them going. How about you send them a letter saying their last letter was entered for a humourous fiction competition and won and could they just sign your enclosed copyright permission slip together with a cheque for £15.99. Oh and don't forget to list the libraries.

That's the trouble with people knowing you are a writer. They are always suggesting what you might write about next.

When I was small we belonged to the Puffin club, and regularly sent in things for competitions. My sister actually won one once, and got a certificate, her picture displayed at the annual event and in the magazine. She was very pleased. I think that's the sort of thing children should be encouraged to do. I often wonder why the Puffin club was disbanded. I t was great.

These pseudo selection deals are all a bit naff. Why can't the school put things together themselves? ds's last school production came with a little brochure with a pic of each of them and a few lines they had said about their character. It was fab, just photocopied and stapled, and we paid a few pounds for it. I don't mind some of the fundraising things, and to be fair we have always had advance warning, so I've been able to tell the children in advance that I won't be buying the card/photo or whatever. I do quite like the tea towels though (you can never have too many tea towels)

My daughter's poem was chosen for an anthology through nursery - she hadn't written the poem herself (she's only 3) - it was one where her words had been cut and pasted in by the nursery staff.

I did sign the permission slip - they can print 'her' poem if they want, but at £15.99 it was bloody obviously a cynical money-making excercise.

Well done, UQD.

From what I've heard Lulu is regarded as probably the best of the bunch.

I have heard bad things about Publish America (probably not applicable here) and iUniverse.

I am proud that my son's work has been chosen as is he.

He is not generally a creative child but the poem he produced is a sensitive piece of work.

Yes, it's expensive, but on the other hand it's quite nice to have Mother's Day presents for both Grannies sorted before Christmas and the book will have several of his classmates' work in and be a lovely souvenir of his final year at school!

The only thing I would say is that in future I would like the school to explain up front what the scheme involves and ask parents for permission to submit their children's poems.

Gawd, has this surfaced again??

Listen to me.

EVERY child's work gets "Chosen."

It's not a "lovely souvenir", it's a money-making scam. The people who run this have no idea how real publishing should work. They are absolutely brazen in the things they say (read thread for my correspondence with these people).

yep - thanks KNEW I was right LOL
yeah it resurfaced again!! (and now again!)
My dd is chuffed to bits, think I will see if anyone else does it, might do the 3 for 2 or just "lose" the form!

Aw, QOD, I got the letter today, too.
The thing is, DS has gone around saying "I'm rubbish at literacy" for 2 months. So I kind of want to buy it just to encourage him (believe me, we have tried everything else).

So I do agree with most of what UQD said, but I'm still tempted for DS's sake, just to encourage him that he is good at literacy (he is actually on the G+T list for literacy, too). Else I might just sign the forms but not buy the book; DS is likely to forget about it, anyway.

DH called it "blackmail publishing", btw!

DS2 has been 'published' in 2 of their books.

HE was so proud to be CHOSEN.... so we paid to get both books.
(me however...i was cynical!)

Now 3 months on...would you believe the nerve of FORWARD PRESS.... they have decided to include one of the poems in ANOTHER collection of poems...and guess what....offered we buy that book too!!!!!

Needless to say...we are NOT buying it!!!

Sorry - I know this was started ages ago, but I don't normally frequent this board.

I am a primary school teacher and submitted poems to this a couple of years ago (hangs head in shame but we didn't know at the time exactly what it entailed). But definitely not every childs poem was chosen - although it was probably more than half the class. And as others have said the absolute delight for the children when they get the letters. Even now pupils from several years below love reading the poetry book and looking for our ex-pupils and reading their poems.

We haven't don it since as we couldn't come to a consensus in the staffroom whether the benefits outweighed the negatives or vice versa. And I'm pretty sure the school don't receive any money (otherwise we'd defnitely be doing it every yera with every pupil!!!)

Just found this link.....

My sons school has just been duped into doing this and I have been duped into purchasing 2 books at £15.99 each with a 3 for 2 offer.

I certainly didn't realise that this was a scam until the school itself let us know what it was but too late by then. I'm not going to let my son know that everyone who was entered has won as I think that would crush him.

How dare this company play on childrens and parents emotions, I was so proud when the letter arrived that I cried! (I'm still hugely proud of my son though!)

Call me cynical, but the first thing I thought of when my 8-year old daughter came home having won a prize was "did nobody else enter?", closely followed by "ah - vanity publishing".

The give-aways were the price, the "sending copies to the British Library" (yup, I already knew that was a legal requirement for anything with an ISBN number), and the fact that the story chosen to be "published" was clearly derivative rubbish by my daughter (sorry if you ever have to read this, L, but although you have often managed to be inventive and creative, this particular piece was drivel).

There is enough to cough up for these days, what with school photos and clubs, without feeling the need to pay for a book full of second-rate efforts by my daughter, her classmates and several dozen other primary school children we don't know.

I too was sooo proud, my eldest is really is very bright, we thought there was no end to his talents. Horrified to recieve cheap tat of a book with a billion kids poems in it, my son couldn't believe it when he saw even the stupid kids in his class had also 'won'. To be fair this may be great for the dumb kids but it is morbidly demoralising for the bright ones.

The bitter twist of it is son number2 says "why havent I won a writing competition?", the school no longer involve themselves with such rubbish.

I have a typed (on a typewriter) photocopied and stapled together anthology of poems 'selected' from entries by me and my classmates when I was tiny, It was put together by our school secretary and cost my parents 50p.... how times have changed!

My poem was -

Thunder crashes
Thunder bangs
Thunder makes a lot of noise.

pretty profound I think you'll agree

ditto pixie

Im proud to say that I bought a copy of the book which included my daughters poem. My daughter was so excited to see her own poem in a book, that paying for a copy was not an option if it made her happy. Forward Press do state that you do NOT have to buy a book if you do not wish to. I also think that the competitions Forward Press do for children are very educational and inspiring for all ages. All I can say is that if my daughter is happy then im happy.... whatever the cost :)

I agree with UQD 100%.

I think it's cheating the children to let them believe they produced something worth being published when/if they haven't. I don't like cheating my children, no matter how pleased they might look.

I am morally against this sort of thing and I would raise lots of concerns if our school chose to go down this route.

I would have no objections, on the other hand, if they were totally honest and said "we'll get the children to write some poems and pay for them to be printed".

I think kids deserve not to be lied to.