Marguerite
Active Member
A young friend of mine entered a writing competition over the Christmas holidays. She sent it in via email in mid-January. The competition was run by a mob who had run other competitions in the past, often via school. They send competition details to the school and kids are encouraged to write something and submit it.
That's all OK.
My concern began when my young friend (she's 12) received an email addressed to her (not to her parents). The email congratulated her on her wonderful entry, and then told her they wanted to publish it in an upcoming book. the catch - she has to pre-order a book in order for them to publish her work. No order, they don't publish. Unless she wins the competition, they said failure to order won't affect the competition outcome. But I personally am not so sure. it would be very embarrassing for them to publish their book and have a winner who refuses publication permission because of this shonky practice.
They market this at the child, so the kid will pressure the parents into buying a book. The book prices are massively over-inflated (I know publishing costs) and I calculated that they are making at the very least, A$250,000 a book. Four times a year. And probably up to four times that.
I'm really angry about this - it's pure exploitation of children, and using schools to sell it to begin with. The schools act in good faith because to begin with, this looks legit. They get sent a package about a writing competition and pass it on to the kids. Some teachers actually set it as an exercise. They send the forms home for parents to fill in, and this application form includes personal contact details. Parents fill in forms form school because they trust the school. But in this case, it's not for the school and these shonks then, BEFORE the competition is judged, contact EVERY entrant personally AT HOME and offer the same publication deal. IF you buy the expensive book package. I'm talking really expensive. They even say, "Buy a copy for grandma, she will love to see your name and photo published in a book! You could be a published author, while you're still in school!!"
I want to warn you because this company, who have been doing this for 14 years now, are now targetting the US.
This has been set up legally, I suspect. But it is highly immoral and coercive.
So if you get any writing competition paperwork from your child's school, Google the company name online with the word "scam" next to it, then see what you get.
A lot of competitions are really good. But it's bad ones like this, that really are covers for vanity publishing marketing, that put a bad taste in my mouth.
Marg
That's all OK.
My concern began when my young friend (she's 12) received an email addressed to her (not to her parents). The email congratulated her on her wonderful entry, and then told her they wanted to publish it in an upcoming book. the catch - she has to pre-order a book in order for them to publish her work. No order, they don't publish. Unless she wins the competition, they said failure to order won't affect the competition outcome. But I personally am not so sure. it would be very embarrassing for them to publish their book and have a winner who refuses publication permission because of this shonky practice.
They market this at the child, so the kid will pressure the parents into buying a book. The book prices are massively over-inflated (I know publishing costs) and I calculated that they are making at the very least, A$250,000 a book. Four times a year. And probably up to four times that.
I'm really angry about this - it's pure exploitation of children, and using schools to sell it to begin with. The schools act in good faith because to begin with, this looks legit. They get sent a package about a writing competition and pass it on to the kids. Some teachers actually set it as an exercise. They send the forms home for parents to fill in, and this application form includes personal contact details. Parents fill in forms form school because they trust the school. But in this case, it's not for the school and these shonks then, BEFORE the competition is judged, contact EVERY entrant personally AT HOME and offer the same publication deal. IF you buy the expensive book package. I'm talking really expensive. They even say, "Buy a copy for grandma, she will love to see your name and photo published in a book! You could be a published author, while you're still in school!!"
I want to warn you because this company, who have been doing this for 14 years now, are now targetting the US.
This has been set up legally, I suspect. But it is highly immoral and coercive.
So if you get any writing competition paperwork from your child's school, Google the company name online with the word "scam" next to it, then see what you get.
A lot of competitions are really good. But it's bad ones like this, that really are covers for vanity publishing marketing, that put a bad taste in my mouth.
Marg
