UP Publishing

Did you pay any money to enter this contest?

And what made it seem a good idea to do so?

James, I don't know if it's different in the USA, but it's common in the UK to pay an entry fee for writing competitions. Awards like the Asham and Bridport short story competitions all charge an entry fee, and are considered good ones to win--or even be shortlisted for.

Having looked at the Up Publishing website I'm not going to lump their "competition" in with the Asham and the Bridport. UP states on its "The Contest" page,

At this time, submission is only through the contest. We're looking for a minimum of five books to publish by mid-2008.

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So the only way to submit to them is by entering this contest, which will incurr an entry fee of £25. Bingo! That entry fee has now been revealed as a reading fee. They try to explain this away by adding,

The fee is there because we're professionals and we have to eat and none of us expects to be able to do anything else between now and March except deal with submissions to this contest.

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When I was an editor I earned my salary by producing good, saleable books. Not by charging people to add their books to my slush-pile.

If the website's not been updated for several months and the people behind the contest have gone quiet, I'd suspect that the whole thing has died. There is an issue here concerning all the "entry" fees that UP has mopped up, and the writers whose dreams have been stamped on: but I'd not be too surprised if UP has disappeared.

UP Publishing

UP stands for "Unpositioned". We chose this name because "positioning" is the essence of marketing today and we want no part of it.

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If UP isn't going to "position" its books, how is it going to sell them? This is at best naive, and reveals a marked ignorance of how publishing works.

Lack of communication is a very bad sign, whether it be answering emails or updating the site to indicate why the winner(s) have not been named.

It could be they were overwhelmed with entries, but that does not excuse updating the site to indicate there has been a delay. How long can it take to place a small blurb on the site with an explanation?

Add the red flags Old Hack has pointed out and one begins to smell rotting fish.

I don't think the point is that paying a fee is a blanket bad idea, but that you should have a reason (i.e. the prestige of the contest) to do so. 99% of fee-charging contenst on any country are primarily ways to raise money, like a white elephant stall, and most are about as professional.

Yes, but the analysis is still only useful uf done by a professional who knows what editors in your genre are seeking (e.g. an editor at some kind of 'real' publisher that sells a decent number of copies of each title). Otherwise you can get a beta-reader for free.

I felt suspicious about this but was almost at the end of my rope with one particular novel (in terms of subbing) so I sent it to this lot. A few weeks later I got an agent so I withdrew the ms from this comp and they refunded me in full. Have you tried emailing them?

Mat, sorry. It's all very well for us to tell you why this wasn't a good idea after the event, but it's not helping you now.

Try emailing UP and asking them to let you know what's happening with the competition. If they don't reply within a couple of weeks email them again, giving them a fortnight to tell you or to refund your money.

Meanwhile, it might be worth Googling for those titles and authors that UP claimed were going to be published in May. Just because they're not on Amazon doesn't mean that they weren't published, although it could very well be the case that nothing's happened there. Chances are you'll find at least one of them via a blog or other discussion forum, and you'll be able to find out more about UP.

Overall, though, I think you're going to be out of luck. It could be that they've closed shop, in which case it might be difficult to get anything out of them. The Office of Fair Trading tends to only get involved where they've had lots of complaints, as do Trading Standards; the police might be interested if UP has taken your money and scarpered. Even if you do manage to get a critique out of them, I doubt that you'll get a critique worth having unless the person writing the critique has plenty of industry experience in the genre in which you write.

Old Hack:
the police might be interested if UP has taken your money and scarpered.

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Given that the financial sum involved is £25, I doubt the police will be interested. If you do find others who were similarly affected, it might be more effective to report it to the Trading Standards office for wherever the postal address of the competition was.

MM