America, Inc. (SFWA) have criticized the International Library of Poetry's business model, describing its practices as "deceptive and misleading" in that they misrepresented their activities as a contest based on the quality of poetry submitted, whereas in fact the quality had little or no influence on the outcome. It was also accused of describing the anthologies it published as a "real literary credit that poets can be proud of" while simultaneously producing anthologies that were available on special order only and which were full of poor quality poetry. When poets receive their purchased volumes they are given a discount to ILP's convention and are told they are "semi-finalists" for a grand prize. All conference attendees are semi-finalists. Semi-finalists for their poetry contest have also discovered their anthologies are different from other volumes sent to other semi-finalists, featuring the buyer's work near the front with work from other semi-finalists missing. The Library of Congress lists Poetry.com as a vanity publisher. Poetry.com is not an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau, which has given the business an "F" rating. In 2004, the New York State Consumer Protection Board launched an investigation into ILP, which it said "takes advantage of people both emotionally and financially," but it suspended the investigation due to a shortage of complaints. Other critics pointed out that standard industry practice was for winners of poetry contests to receive gratis copies of any publication of their work, and that ILP failed to follow this protocol. Also, Poetry.com did not always work correctly. References External links Book publishing companies of the United States