The story seems innocent enough. A new contest for writers. Send in a book length manuscript get chosen and receive a publishing contract. An age old, time tested marketing theme.
The problem is this story is not about publishing, books or publishers this story is about a social networking site that has turned up its pr engine.
These days social networking is a hot play, publishing is not. With the recent mega-payment buy outs of MySpace and YouTube the social network sector is a blaze with websites trying to follow the formula and cash out.
There is a good chance Gather.com is one of these sites and the gimmick is the First Chapters Contest with Simon & Schuster as the front man.
The Contest Details (or American Idol Goes Publishing):
-submit you manuscript to Gather.com
Round 1- first chapter will be posted on Gather.com and voted on by members of the site.
Round 2- the second chapters of the top 20 manuscripts will be posted, followed by a vote
Round 3- the third chapters of the top 10, followed by a vote
Round 4- the entire manuscripts of five finalists will go before a “Grand Prize Judging Panel”
Winner gets a book contract from Touchstone (a division of Simon & Schuster) and 5k from Gather.com.
The Other Details:
-Gather.com’s target audience is between 30-59 and the majority of which “cite reading as a primary interest”
– “It is akin to an ‘American Idol’ for thinking people,” was the way Gather.com’s CEO Tom Gerace put it. This one is so unbelievable I can’t even touch it. Using a television concept to promote writing is simply embarrassing.
– “The idea for the contest was hatched on a Gather.com literary cruise in October, when Simon & Schuster marketing executives casually brainstormed with Gather.com employees on how the companies might combine their efforts”. Almost as embarrassing as quote above. How does one casually brainstorm?
-This is the second major literary press release for Gather.com in the last 48 hours. The first was a joint project announced with Borders “in which shoppers at the superstore chain can click on to the social media Web site and share their thoughts on books, music and other entertainment”.
-The day before the announcement Borders reported very disappointing earnings
-George Jones, the chief executive of Borders is on the “Grand Prize Judging Panel” that will choose the winner in The First Chapters Contest. Hmm I wonder if the winning book might be available exclusively through Borders?
-Comes right on the heels of the Sobol Literary Award scandal in which Touchstone was intimately involved in. There they wanted an $85 entry fee for writers and now they will just let the general public pick them a winner.
-Unfortunately, if the concept succeeds literary agents will be in the same endangered boat as travel agents.
Can’t wait to see where this one ends up.