[Contest] Zimbo Books

IdiotsRUs said:

You might want to check this thread in Bewares first Blue

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Thank you. I had no idea that other people have recieved the same email.

I don't think just because there's a fee automatically makes this writing contest a scam. I know Writer's Digest charges an entry fee for their contests right?

I would also like to thank Memento Mori for the info, if not for that I'd still consider entering the contest.


And they sell my books for $10? $10 my A$$! I've seen more books that are sold for more, and I care more about my work being in an actual book store, not an online one.

I received this email this morning too. I knew it was a scam and deleted it. It's odd that we all got it. I wonder if whoever sent it somehow got our email addresses from AW...I can't think of any other reason we would all receive it?

I've received this email twice but not on accounts affiliated in any way with AW so I don't think that's the connection. Oddly enough, the two addresses where I received the spam are personal addies I've never used for writing purposes. Weird...

Momento Mori said:

300,000 words?!!! I hope the judges are fast readers - especially if they've only got until next April to get through all the entries.




MM

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Memento, I've been thinking. You know how agents want like the first three chapters of your entries and if it's interesting enough they will ask for the rest. What if Zimbo is like that too? I'm not disagreeing. I'm just thinking. It's possible that they can trash what they don't like and read the ones that do.

I doubt Zimbo is a scam, but it is clueless to the max, and there are some important reasons to avoid it--for instance, possibly jeopardizing your first publication rights by signing up for what will certainly be perceived by agents and editors as cut-rate self-publishing (since by entering, you grant Zimbo the right to list and sell your book on its site for a year).

I intended to blog about Zimbo today, but something more urgent came up. Watch for the Zimbo post next week.

- Victoria

BlueLucario:
Memento, I've been thinking. You know how agents want like the first three chapters of your entries and if it's interesting enough they will ask for the rest. What if Zimbo is like that too? I'm not disagreeing.

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Fair point. I took a look at their entry page though and it says "After payment send a return email with your attached book and a 750 word synopsis." Interestingly the entrance fee also includes 1 year's listing on the site:

$85 Competition Entry plus 1 year Book listing.

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MM

victoriastrauss said:

I intended to blog about Zimbo today, but something more urgent came up. Watch for the Zimbo post next week.

- Victoria

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I happened to read that blog, about another contest. Sounds almost shadier than this one to me. Is there an increase in the number of contests run by clueless people recently? I've never seen two contest threads go up in such quick succession on here before.

Tips offs, at least to me. Contest closes in April of 2009 giving them lots of time to take your money and disappear. They have no PHYSICAL address and they have no contact PERSON. Not in a million years is this legitimate.

darkprincealain said:

I happened to read that blog, about another contest. Sounds almost shadier than this one to me. Is there an increase in the number of contests run by clueless people recently? I've never seen two contest threads go up in such quick succession on here before.

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I think that maybe we should blame Amazon (why not? It's a big target) and its Breakthrough Novel Contest, as well as Simon & Schuster and its several contest initiatives last year. They made contests seem sexy, and clueless people are jumping on the bandwagon.

- Victoria

As promised, my dissection of Zimbo.

- Victoria

victoriastrauss said:

As promised, my dissection of Zimbo.

- Victoria

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I great post, Victoria. You did a fine job outlining the fault with this 'contest'. Thanks...from writers everywhere who will stumble upon your post when researching this 'contest' through Google...thanks.

I received the latest version of the Zimbo spam today. It invited the reader to meet one of the judges of the book competition, Dr Darrell Hines (PhD, MA, MEd, FIMEB, FTCL, FAGM, LMus, LTCL(CMT), ETC, LSDA, LTCL, DipMus). I googled the guy and it turns out he teaches music. There is no mention of him ever reading or judging books. I suspect his name is there to impress us with all his qualifications.

SWW said:

I received the latest version of the Zimbo spam today. It invited the reader to meet one of the judges of the book competition, Dr Darrell Hines (PhD, MA, MEd, FIMEB, FTCL, FAGM, LMus, LTCL(CMT), ETC, LSDA, LTCL, DipMus). I googled the guy and it turns out he teaches music. There is no mention of him ever reading or judging books. I suspect his name is there to impress us with all his qualifications.

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I just received the same message. I'm not sure I get the music prof connection to judging books. Sure, he wrote a thesis on speech and drama but a thesis isn't fiction. Or, at least, it shouldn't be.

brianm said:

[FONT=&quot]When I clicked on the link and checked out what was being sold on Zimbo, the same five items came up no matter what category I clicked on. That would be a bracelet, two cell phones, a Lego set, and a towball cover.

[FONT=&quot]Seriously. I kid you not.[/FONT]
[/FONT]

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This has changed somewhat, I noticed yesterday when I was thinking about this, it now brings up twice as much stuff as it used to, still unrelated to literature, and two books. Ten or twelve things come up that have nothing to do with what you clicked on, and mixed in somewhere, the same two books will be mixed in. And that is still irrespective of which genre you try to get to. It all brings up the same thing.

All we know about the people behind it is that Dr. Darrell Hines is involved in judging the contest. While there is ample evidence that he is accomplished in different areas of performing arts, there is no indication what qualifies him to judge a novel contest.

I highly recommend anyone even thinking of getting involved with this take a look at Victoria's blog entry on the contest and read Armand's response.

Well here's a different twist to this....

To enter the Competition, please go to​

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​

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They made that change (eliminating the publication requirement and dropping the registration fee) back in December--I noted this in a comment on my original blog post.

Doesn't make this contest any more appealing, IMO.

- Victoria