To Xccorpio:
There are many people in the marketplace ripping people off, which is why we decided to do the contest in the first place.
There are indeed, yes, but I'm not sure how a contest remedies that.
The fee: $149, is to eliminate anyone who thinks they want to be published from entering.
Wow. So you don't want people who think they want to be published?
Or you only want people who have $149?
Or you're not interested in people who aren't up to your standard, and don't want them to even bother thinking something as big and important as your contest is open to the likes of them?
We hope to have only serious authors apply.
Serious authors would never pay $149 to enter a contest for a newbie epub with no experience and no visible contract who takes all those rights. A serious author knows the industry and wouldn't touch this with a ten-foot pole.
And the $149 entry fee will make someone think before just uploading any old manuscript.
No, it won't.
It will make good writers without money avoid entering, and it will make poor writers who have money enter.
Ever heard of the
Dunning-Kruger effect?
I can assure you that everyone out there who writes, no matter how badly they do it, thinks their work is far superior to everyone else's. Your fee isn't going to dissuade people who think there's no way they can lose, even if their book is totally incomprehensible. There are thousands of such submissions to agents and publishers every day; slush piles full of them hit the ceiling.
The fact that you're not aware of that makes me seriously wonder how much publishing experience you actually have, which is distressing because it was my impression that you did have some very good, solid experience.
Also, we have professional editors from major publishing houses judging the books we receive and they are being paid for their work.
That's excellent! What are their names? Pretty much every legitimate contest I've ever seen divulges the names of their judges; it's a draw, actually.
If you have attempted to publish a book via one of the self-publishing arenas, you will pay considerably more than $149.
And if you attempt to publish a book via a real commercial publisher, it costs you nothing and they pay you. I'm not sure I understand your point. Is it that author will pay less to enter your contest than they would to self-publish? But surely you're looking for "serious authors only," which means people who don't think simply having money means they should be published?
We plan to publish many runners-up, and with that will come marketing, publicity and all of the things a person attempting to publish themselves simply will not have.
1. So your first-place winner and your runners-up all have to sign contracts, is that correct?
2. So your contest is aimed at people who would otherwise self-publish, is that correct too?
Whatever is telling you that something is amiss, is lying to you.
I beg to differ.
To judge a book before you've read it is unfair. Let us launch the contest (Feb. 11). Join it. And if you have a problem, then you have a right to criticize. But it's not even officially launched yet.
Apples and oranges. Not to mention, I judge books before reading them all the time; we all do. I don't care for the work of Author X, for example. So I don't have to read Author X's book to know I won't like it. I don't enjoy medical thrillers, so I don't have to read them all to know I wouldn't like this one or that one.
I don't have to enter your contest to know that it's not real publishing, and it's not really beneficial to the authors who might enter it.
But we do thank you (and others) for alerting us to the things that make you raise an eyebrow. We will fix many of your concerns.
And that speaks very well of you. Not everyone is willing to take comments on board; that's excellent, and refreshing to see.
Regarding rights. We will not take anyone's copyright. If you enter and do not win or are not a finalist, you are free to do whatever you want with your book. If you are a finalist, we want the right to pitch your book for movie, TV, webisode opportunities. We want the right to garner sponsorships and any method to push your book into the marketplace? We are better equipped to that than an individual, so we would like the right to put your book and you as an author into the marketplace to the best of our ability.
In other words, you don't take copyright but you take a whole bunch of rights. And if someone is a finalist, the fact that they paid you $149 means that even if they revise the work and receive an offer from a commercial publisher, they can't sell the book because you've taken a bunch of their rights. Which you may or may not have the ability to exploit; what are your connections in the movie/TV/webisode industries? How many other projects have you sold to those market, and what are their names?
Here's the deal: If you want to be a part of something bigger than what you're currently doing, join us.
With all due respect, what you're doing isn't bigger than what most of the commenters in this thread are doing. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Be a part of the solution, not a part of the naysaying and the problem. It's very easy to sit on the sidelines and poke holes at everything. It is far more difficult to get out there and do something different. That's what we're doing.
But what is the problem? What should we be the solution to? Forgive me, but I honestly don't know what you mean.
If your goal is to be a boo-bird. Good job.
Can I borrow this? Seriously. I think "boo-bird" is one of the most charming things I've heard in days (I have a six-year-old, so I hear charming things a lot
). I honestly find it delightful.
If your goal is to help change publishing, get in the game and let's play.
Either you're part of the solution or you're part of the problem.
But again...this seems to me that you think publishing is the problem, and we all need to find a solution to publishing. I'm not sure how or why that is? Publishing as it is generally serves everyone it's supposed to serve--that would be readers--just fine, really.
And is this saying that if I don't think publishing needs to be changed it means I'm part of a problem? In what way is me being perfectly happy with the way the industry is run a problem? How id that detrimental to anyone?
Publishing isn't apartheid. It's not as if by saying nothing or not working to change things we're condoning the abuse of others. Publishing is a business, and the way it runs works for millions of people.
I have eight New York Times bestsellers under my belt. I've sold millions of books.
Those are all ghostwritten celebrity nonfiction/celebrity memoir, is that correct?
I'm certainly not downplaying your achievements and I sincerely hope I don't seem to be doing so by asking. My point is just that fiction and non-fiction are, as I imagine you're well aware, very different, so I'm just wondering how that plays out in terms of First One.
Thanks and blessings, all!
-Karen
And I sincerely wish the same to you, and very much appreciate you coming by to answer questions.
PS: The anonymous nature of the web is cool but it also makes cowards of people. You sit behind your computer throwing poisonous darts. I'm here. I sign my name. I'm transparent and I'm responding with an eye on correcting the problems. Are you? Or are you an internet coward, hiding behind fake names and fake screen images, spewing negativity at will because there is no way for anyone to check you directly. That doesn't make you clever, or smart or perfect. That makes you a coward. If you have no intention of participating in this contest, then what's your goal? To protect people? From what exactly? Again, I'm out here transparent. How many publishers can you put a name to who would even take the time to address you? Think about that? Also, how possible is it that someone who has built a successful career would toss it all away on a contest designed to rip people off? Really? You all seem so much smarter than to think that.
With one or two exceptions, no one commenting on this thread is anonymous. Everyone has links to their websites, their books, whatever else in their sig lines. We're easily findable.
Calling people who prefer to post pseudonymously "cowards" is quite insulting, too. Momento Mori, for example, is an attorney. We value her input. We also know that were she posting under her legal name it could open her up to problems in her career. Several people here post psuedonymously because they've been or are being stalked. I post psuedonymously on a large sci-fi/fantasy site because I just want to participate in the conversation as a fan and reader, and don't want it to look like I'm shilling for my books. There are a lot of reasons why people don't post under their own names. That doesn't make them cowards; it makes them smart, frankly.
As to how many publishers would answer us...well, lots of them have. Lots of them answer all sorts of questions elsewhere, too.
And just because we think this isn't a good idea doesn't mean we think it's a scam or a deliberate rip-off, and no one has said that or accused you of bad faith. I can tell you I think buying that yellow dress is a mistake; that doesn't mean I think you plan to commit murder while wearing the yellow dress. A mistake is very different from a crime.