Frequently Asked Questions

General and participating
My Poethood
Payments
Prizes
Royalties and book deals
Bookstore
About Poethood
About Cluster Press

General and participating

What is Poethood?
Poethood is the first incarnation of our collaborative book publishing platform. On Poethood you participate in poetry and other writing contests with varying themes for a fee of 10-20 USD / 5-12 GBP / 6-15 EUR.

Are you a vanity press?
No, Poethood is not a vanity press. We run contests and print books where the best writers are published. With us, everyone has a fair and honest chance of being selected for the book that is published, and for the prizes that are awarded. With vanity presses, you have to pay to be included in the book, and often the price is much higher and includes bundled promotions and other frills. We promote and distribute our books on our own expense, as a publisher does. The arrangement that everyone gets a book regardless of whether they are published is a novel one, but it enables us to provide the books and the contest fees at an affordable level. And we would like to think our users are interested enough in the topic they write a poem about that they will enjoy the book that is composed of dozens of like-minded authors!

How do I participate?
Create your account by clicking Sign Up above and then find a contest that suits your ambitions and interests on the Contests page. We have contest running constantly and we create new ones, so you can also sign up for newsletters about new contests, so you don't miss your opportunity.

How do I get to be a reviewer or a judge?
Please see below at About Poethood

What does the entry fee cover?
The entry fee covers the cost of running the contest, the prizes awarded and also printing and delivering the book itself.

How many entries can I submit?
You can submit a limited number of entries, which varies by contest. In a normal poetry contest the maximum number of entries one author can submit is usually five. Additional submissions incur a small extra fee that does not include or result in additional books being delivered to the author.

Will I be in the book?
That is up for our reviewers and judges to decide! If you are a good writer and write on topic, according to the contest guidelines, you certainly are on your way to being a writer.

When do I get the book?
We print the books after the contest has been finished, judged and the book has been edited and laid out. In general, the whole process takes for weeks from the end of contest, but this varies per contest.

What if I win?
In that case congratulations are in order, first of all. You will be contacted by the Poethood team as soon as the contest has been judged and we will arrange for the payment of your prizes (when applicable) and other possible extra perks then.

Prove this is for real.
We have run contests in the past. Please see our news page for past events and past winners!

My Poethood

How do I log in to my account?
On any page, just click on the Sign In-button in the navigation menu. Once logged in, you can see the My Poethood button in the same navigation menu. This takes you to your account.

Where can I see what contests I can enter?
Please see the Contests page for information on all contests. In most cases, before entering a contest, you will have to log in to your Poethood account.

Fees

How do I pay and when do I pay?
Once you have entered a contest and submitted an entry for one, you will be taken to the payment screen. In case you want to create more entries, or are not ready to pay quite yet, you can always access your entry on the My Poethood page, which will display a link to the payment process.

What payments do you accept?
Currently we accept the payment of contest fees via PayPal, which means you can also pay by the most common credit cards, even if you don't have a PayPal account.

Prizes

How will I get paid?
We offer the payment of prizes in cash (currently over PayPal) or in Amazon gift vouchers. Your pick!

I don't have PayPal. Can I get something else instead?
Amazon gift vouchers are an option for you. Alternatively, get in touch with us and we can consider some other gift vouchers for you instead. Hey, we just want you to be happy.

Royalties and book deals

Do you pay royalties? How are they paid?
This depends on the type of contest that you have participated in, but we generally aim to pay royalties to our published authors (please, always refer to the contest terms!). Royalties vary not only per contest but also per medium we publish in. There are also limits to the amounts before which we pay out royalties, and this depends on the currency you have selected, the payment options (such as PayPal, check or even Amazon gift certificates).

Will I get offered a book deal if I win?
This depends on the type of contest that you have participated in. Please see the terms of each individual contest. In all bigger contests, we aim to offer a book deal to the winner.

What are the conditions of a book deal?
While the terms will differ for each contest, we want to make one thing clear: unlike in all the vanity presses that charge you an arm and a leg for their "publishing packages" and "promotional services", you don't need to pay us anything. It's a real deal.

Bookstore

Where do you ship?
We ship books all over the world. Order anywhere.

How long does shipping take?
Depends on the location, but generally we ship within 48 hrs. Expedited shipping is available.

Can I buy Poethood books from elsewhere?
While our books will be available first on Poethood.com, they will also quickly be listed with Amazon.com and other major online retailers and major bookstores. E-books will be distributed even faster.

About Poethood

Who is Poethood?
Poethood was started by two friends with experience in online technologies, marketing, publishing, and generally doing new and innovative things, located in London, UK, and California, US. Especially after a personal experience with a self-publishing process many of the pain points became clear to us. We are constantly developing the service to help more and more writers get started on their writing careers and participate in fun and exciting contests. Poethood is a part of Cluster Press, which operates its sister sites.

Why Poethood?
There are lots of people out there wanting to be writers. Many millions. Being a writer is a very desirable position - it is a celebrated social status that conveys the image of intelligence, creativity and personality - even fame, fortune and heritage as your work lives on even after you pass. This is the ideal, but the road to get there is long, of course.

While print-on-demand has brought the possibility of publishing to nearly anyone in the world, there is still a major opportunity cost that a writer-in-waiting must face (not to mention the higher costs of vanity presses). People need to know if they are any good, if they should pursue their dream, if they should dedicate long hours to that one novel or book that they would then present to the world. It is a huge leap, and there are only a few ways to achieve this. Writing a personal blog is one but it does not qualify one as a traditional writer, does it? Submitting to a journal, a literary publication or a magazine is another avenue but most prefer established talent. Self-publishing is a final alternative but that is a long road in the case of a book and the opportunity cost is high. Importantly, a new writer needs to have a place where, if they are published, they have cleared professional reviews and evaluation and not just paid for their manuscript to be printed by a vanity press. This is why Poethood can help poets.

What do reviewers and judges do?
Our paid reviewers form a review panel who review and evaluate all incoming entries according to the contest rules, recommendations and other specific guidelines from Poethood. All entries are reviewed by multiple reviewers to ensure that all get a fair hearing and no single perspective dominates in the review round. The judge (or judges) then select the best of the best to be published and awarded.

How do I get to be a reviewer or a judge?
Our reviewers have a training and experience in English literature, the classics, creative writing or professional editing. Our judges fit this description and in addition are accomplished in their chosen art. Please browse our contests to get a better idea of what being a reviewer or a judge entail, and if you think you should work with us, please contact us at reviewboard@poethood.com.

About Cluster Press

What is Cluster Press?
Cluster Press is the umbrella brand for Poethood. We operate Poethood and other similar sites. Our aim is to make the first steps into publishing fun, exciting and encouraging.

What other sites do you run?
We'll tell you when we launch them! Stay tuned by following Poethood on Twitter at www.twitter.com/poethood.