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Amazon is doing their annual writer's contest. Not sure what to think about it; the first comment on that blog is telling, though:
"Quick question:What happened to LAST YEAR's winner of this stupid contest? Exactly..."
Article over at Nathan Bransford's pad with some links and blurbs on the industry. Random House's CEO is promoting a demand-based pricing model for ebooks; on the whole, the industry seems to continue to favor the Hollywood-style big-tent model.
I'm halfway through Ghost Story, and loving it. Just got Updike's Rabbit, Run in the mail today.
I'm dipping my toes back into Mojave, but it's slow going. I keep veering off into other story ideas, and have done nothing but notes and (wait for it:) a wad of story notes that turned into a half a poem. My notes just started rhyming, so I wrote it all out in a 1,1,2,3 pattern. Kind of fun, I never do poetry. I may try to incorporate it into the story that spawned it, if it ever gets written.
All of a sudden my fonts are wonky, and I'm too lazy to fix them. Must be time for bed.
5 comments:
That commenters sounds like a sore loser (i.e., his phrase "this stupid contest"). Besides, what happens to many first novelists? Everyone expects novels to be instant bestsellers, which is sad because that is just too unrealistic. I mean, look at the writers that dominate today's bestseller lists -- it took them years to rise to the top. As for the contest itself, I don't see any harm -- the winner gets published by Penguin with an advance of twenty-five grand, which is more than many writers can ask for. In other words, it's a start.
Apparently last year's contest winner didn't do too badly, sold about 5k copies in hardback. That's what I read somewhere yesterday, anyway.
I entered last year and made the semi-finals, which sounds a lot cooler than it was. I very not impressed with the way the contest was run, although I'm sure they're doing better this year. I hope they redo their "Publishers Weekly" "reviews," which were so very badly written (some of them were barely literate) that PW should have been embarrassed to have their name attached.
One thing I noticed, the manuscripts that made the semi-finals were not necessarily any good. Very few would ever be publishable even after major revisions. But I know one very good writer whose book didn't even make the semi-finals cut. I don't know what criteria they looked at to narrow the field, but it wasn't writing quality.
Hmm, I hope I don't come across as bitter that I didn't win. I'm really not, I swear. (I'm bitter about lots of stuff, but not winning contests does not rank up there as important.)
Um, the comment was from Cliff Burns. He's full of piss and vinegar, so to speak. Read his blog for a hoot. http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/
I'd take $25K for a book. More than most first novelists receive for an advance.
Robert: that was my first thought, too. Anyone who cares enough about the outcome of a contest to bash it probably had his little feelings hurt at some point.
K.C.: about this time last year was when I really started digging in to figure out how to get published, and I read a couple of the finalist stories too. One wasn't bad, one I didn't like. I figured just being a finalist would probably help with publicity. And I'd take a public pummeling and $25k over a private pummeling and $0 any day of the week. I think someone said on Nathan's blog that 4 of the top 10 ended up getting deals anyway. So...that rocks.
Aaron: I thumbed through his blog...does come off as slightly bitter. It almost reads like shtick.
I have the same problem with wandering off to other stories when I'm trying to concentrate on my novel.
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