Lulu.com Launches Lulu Poetry

[Carol]

A verse with apologies to Joyce Kilmer

Now even Joyce Kilmer would assure you and me
We will indeed see a poem lovely as a tree

For Lulu.com launches today
A site on which poetry is on display

It is Lulu Poetry and for poets there will be
Contests to enter, money to win - never a fee

Poets can connect with others and in poetry immerse
And realize success by publishing their verse

www.poetry.com was the name
Of a company no more - Lulu simply bought the domain

It's being completely re-hauled and built anew
To bring the high quality associated with Lulu

A place for poets to create, meet and share
With widgets and resources it's all right there

Need a glossary, some techniques or a word that rhymes?
It's all at Lulu Poetry - it won't cost you a dime

"It's great for all poets," said Bob Young, Lulu CEO
"If you want to be discovered - this is the place to go!"

"With ratings and reviews - it's a platform for their work
And at Lulu they can publish - it's really quite a perk!"

Although launching now, changes will continue to come
As Lulu adds more offerings - this site will be plum.

With the power of Lulu.com - weRead too
Poets can find success and audiences true.

Now we've come to the end of our press release rhyme
Need more information? Contact us anytime!

"Announcing: LULU POETRY!
Dear Poet,

We are pleased to bring you a new poetry site: Lulu Poetry, www.poetry.com. Lulu Poetry is about winning prizes and recognition for your poems, creating and selling beautiful books of your poetry, and learning tips and tricks from other enthusiastic poets just like you.

Whether you write poems for your own enjoyment or to entertain and educate others, Lulu Poetry is for you. We'll be handing out prizes to poems selected as winners by the hundreds and thousands of poets who are part of the poetry community. When you win we'll send you a certificate for you to print and hang on your wall to remind everyone of your accomplishment - along with a cash prize.

So whether you are quietly writing poems in the northern woods, or are part of a English class studying and learning poetry, you can use Lulu to compile your works for your audience. You may want to sell your poetry to the world, or just create a poetry book as a class fundraiser for the parents of your students. Lulu makes publishing your poetry easy and inexpensive.

Keep in mind this is only version 1.0 of Lulu Poetry. We will be adding great new features and improvements weekly to better serve Poets and lovers of Poetry everywhere, so bookmark www.poetry.com* and visit often!

Cheers,

Bob Young
Founder & CEO, Lulu.com

*Lulu.com, an award winning Internet company, recently purchased the URL "www.poetry.com" from the previous failed business that owned it."
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[Stephen Stirk]

It's a great idea for sure, but where have Lulu staff been in the last 12 months? . The Lulu 'poetry corner' forum is all but dead . It has taken a handful of stalwarts like myself and others to keep it alive. We have tried to induce comment and motivation without any input from Lulu staff . You would only ever have to have looked down the threads on the corner, to have seen this. It's been like this for ages. Poets leave a posting, and then leave, usually for good. There is a distinct lack of interaction, comment, stimulus, or indeed anything.

The relationship between Lulu and poetry seems to have been widely debated on other forums, where it has been reported that most of our poetry is regarded by Lulu management as rubbish . This seems to be borne out by the lack of interaction and interest in this forum ....................up until now!!. I'm all for a new start but I do find the introduction to this slightly patronising. There are a lot of good poets on here who do not meet the broad definition that was applied to them
Steve

[Carol]

Hi Stephen-

I'm glad that you are happy about the new Lulu Poetry site. It's an exciting new chapter for us, and we are so excited about the possibilities.

As for my involvement here in the Poetry forum, I was never aware that I was needed. I check here regularly and read some poems, but I just thought it was a place for other poets to meet, share their poetry, and comment on poetry. What else would you like to see for this forum? What can I help with?

Best wishes,
Carol
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[Julie Dawson]

In reference to Annie's reply to my thread here: http://www.lulu.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=109974

[Stephen Stirk]

It's very much the gate after the horse has bolted . There has very clearly been a lack of motivation here. If you have visited the forum regularly, you would have surely seen it die . You only need to look back at the interaction it used to get, and look at it now. The threads show apathy . It has not had the same involvement as other forums. I think the last time a Lulu member was involved was on something like 'National walk like a pirate week' (or the like) .
The forum was set up for the interaction and fun of poets . You must surely have noticed that there has been neither for a long long time. The threads say it all . The most recent having a 1000 + viewings (not sure if you were one of them) . With regards to what I wanted from Lulu, it was a little more than the apathy that I have had so far. I'm not certain how a site (Poetry.com) with such a reputation would be of value to Lulu poets . It is known as a difficult site full of scammers . I currently hold many world famous poetic awards from them , and have been had across the desk of Howard Ely more times than I care to remember.
Steve

[Tammy Suto]

Perhaps the former owners of Poetry.com were scammers but I don't think the whole site was full of scammers. I'm sure there were legitimate people offering their poems under the belief of what that site listed and didn't know it was just a scam.

[Stephen Stirk]

I'm sure that there were such people submitting poetry . The point that I am making is that the site was set up to give anyone and everyone the opportunity to WIN !!! an award by providing a false impression that they had submiited a poetic masterpiece. That practice directive came from top not the bottom. . You may purchase any of the awards they gave out idependently .
The link below demonstrates that anyone could WIN !!! anything at the right price

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/280/RipOff0280910.htm

[Julie Dawson]

[abroadwater]

Stephen and Julie,
I will not deny that the former owners of the site were disreputable and that the site has a bad history. But that was them.

Lulu Poetry has taken over the domain with the sole intention of building a community for poets. Much will change.

Give Lulu Poetry a chance. Isn’t that better than the alternative of letting the site continue running as it was? I hope you and the community will like the changes we make in the coming months.

Thanks,
Annie

[Tammy Suto]

Lulu is a reputable company and if they have a PR system worth a grain of salt probably seek to turn the bad reputation that poetry.com had around in order to help. It may not come quickly because many will be wary but if people give Lulu a chance then it could wipe out the stigma.

Without knowing the inner workings of a mind, second-guessing why the owner of Lulu purchased something so 'vile' doesn't make sense. Especially if it doesn't effect you. Now, maybe stockholders in Lulu have the right to complain about if it turns out to lose money in the long run but until Lulu finishes revamping the site and doing whatever they are going to do then it's really moot to put the decision down.

To start fresh and maybe appease all the doubters then they should probably wipe out all the existing poetry on the site. That way people could resubmit their old work, new people could submit theirs under a fresh air knowing Lulu owns it. As of last night the old works were still there. Will Lulu leave them up, I don't know. No one but the owner and Lulu staff knows this. I know the old stuff is still there because I looked and my poetry is still there.

Does that make me a poet? Heck if I know. Does that make me stupid for falling for the original scam of buying the book a couple of them were printed in? Maybe, but this was in the day of not knowing about such things. Would I do it again before finding Lulu? Yes, because the reason I did it in the first place was so my sister could see a poem dedicated to her in print before she died. It made her happy and only cost me some money.

Everyone who put 'crappy' poetry on that site believed in it and had reasons for buying the books their work was put in. Maybe some did buy the awards. I wasn't that naive. I hope Lulu can make something of this endeavor and turn it around for everyone who tried on Poetry.com. I, personally, took my poems and combined them into a book on Lulu.