american idol for the writer
Yesterday I checked that email address I never check – and I’m glad of it. Amidst all the annoying chain letters, the phentermine and porn spam, I had a note from the lovely Dina.
The food blogess and publishing girl sent me an email re: Gather.com’s First Chapters Writing Competition. It’s being promoted as something like American Idol for the Writer. The social networking site is teaming up with Touchstone/Simon & Schuster to look for unpublished authors – with full length commercial-fiction manuscripts. The contest goes something like this…
The first three chapters will be posted online, one at a time, where the Gather.com community will vote for their favourite. The manuscripts still remaining after three elimination rounds (one for each chapter) will be judged by a panel of industry big wigs including Carolyn K. Reidy, President of the Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group; Mark Gompertz, Executive Vice President & Publisher of Touchstone Books and George Jones, Borders Group CEO.
The winner will receive a publishing contract with Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, a $5,000 cash prize from Gather.com and promotion and distribution by Borders.
All you writerly people, what do you think? Anyone fancy it?
