Anyway, I remember finding out that it was a scam and therefore not buying any books. But I can’t remember whether I submitted a poem or not. Who knows, maybe there are volumes out there with one of my poems in them. I did buy my college’s literary publication when it published a set of my haiku, but having been to selection meetings, I can say that I know they don’t just let anyone in! Plus at $5…totally worth it.

On the topic of scams, I have another good pseudo-legit one. One of the big box home improvement retailers here contracts out their services. They are “so busy” to get a quote, you pay $50 which is rolled into the payment for the finished work it you proceed with the job.

Here is my plan. Do the same. Quote every job at $1M, collect my $50. Hey, to cut down on transportation cost, I can even do the quote over the phone. Just give me the approximate size of the deck you want, and I’ll “crunch the numbers”. Credit card payments in advance only please

The good news is the internet now makes it easier to research these kind of things. The bad news is the internet also gives scammers access to a much wider audience and even if only 1 and 1000 fall for it, they are making decent money.

Mike