What do people think - "American Idol" model writing contest

Amazon's Breakthrough Novel pretty much follows this model, except there's no entry fee and the grand prize is a publishing contract with an advance.

I would definitely enter such a contest... but I'm not sure I'd pay to vote in it.
Depending on what stage people come in to vote, that would be a lot of reading to make a proper comparison (unless it's a flash fiction sort of thing?) and the stories might not be all that awesome.

Possibly would work if the stories already go through a judging process before being available to the public... if there was more of a guarantee of quality people might be more likely to pay to participate. But even then I'm not sure they would. It would depend on how small the fee was, and how easy it was to pay.

This is all just IMHO of course.
Still, an Idol contest would be fun... maybe just take out the money component?

We had an AW Idol contest in 2005.

Here's a link if you want to read about it:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=64

Unless it involves reading a few pages aloud and then a panel of judges verbally assaulting the writer afterward, I don't think it'll get many viewers.

Why would people want to pay to vote?

Why would people want to read all the entries? Surely you'd just get people reading their friends' entries and voting. I can't imagine paying even a small amount in order to read hundreds of short stories which for the most part will be substandard.

In the real world, judges of contests don't pay to judge; they get paid. Judging is work, not pleasure, if you have to read all the entries! And having to read all entries to the end also isn't realistic. In the real world, some stories are worthy of elimination after the first paragraph!
So no, I don't think it would work.

Chris_Wilkins said:

no entrance fee

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So anyone who can put half a sentence together will enter. How will the initial entries be sorted, who will do it, and how will they be paid? Or does the general public have to read through them?

They've been firing this idea around the UK for about ten years now.

It's basically youwriteon.com or Authonomy, but charging for it. The same result will happen: politics will become more important than the writing.

There've been a couple of false starts with it over here, too.

The problems seem to be: the prize is basically a vanity published book, the mechanics of writing aren't exciting visually, and you can't guarantee a publishable final product.

Yes, this sounds like a fun idea, and it would put the focus on writing.

It is also a horrible idea that would increase the amount of snark everywhere in the writing world. Idol is mainly about finding the negative and eliminating the weak. I don't want that kind of culture to be promoted in the writing world.

Well, that's exactly what happens behind the scenes when publishers and readers choose books, but it's one thing to think negative things while reading in ones bedroom, and another thing to say negative things on TV every week.

I remembered when I watched the first season of Idol. Probably it was only in my own mind, but I could feel how the world became a harsher place. At least it made my own comments in writing groups more snarky, even though I generally tried to avoid that.

The jury of this competition would lead by example, and if they are like the jury of Idol, that example would be that advising unskilled writers to stop writing is the duty of every critic.

BenPanced said:

Amazon's Breakthrough Novel pretty much follows this model, except there's no entry fee and the grand prize is a publishing contract with an advance.

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Also, the public doesn't get to judge ABNA till the very last round. By that time, hopefully, the chaff and thee wheat have been separated.

Camilla Delvalle said:

I remembered when I watched the first season of Idol. Probably it was only in my own mind, but I could feel how the world became a harsher place. At least it made my own comments in writing groups more snarky, even though I generally tried to avoid that.

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I've never watched Idol and never intend to! I watched a few episods of Britain's Got Talent the year Susan Boyle was in it.

Actually, the thing I always loved about Idol was the Cowell snark in the initial rounds. As in writing, it seemed for the most part that those with the least talent were the ones with the delusional belief they'd succeed and the chips on their shoulders to prove it. I'd love to see him clean out some of the crazy on the ABNA boards.

I'd enjoy that! But we'd need a celebrity like Miss Snark or Query Shark for that!

aruna said:

I'd enjoy that! But we'd need a celebrity like Miss Snark or Query Shark for that!

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Dang. 'Cuz I would totally volunteer for that job.

fourlittlebees said:

Actually, the thing I always loved about Idol was the Cowell snark in the initial rounds. As in writing, it seemed for the most part that those with the least talent were the ones with the delusional belief they'd succeed and the chips on their shoulders to prove it. I'd love to see him clean out some of the crazy on the ABNA boards.

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Yes, that would be hilarious. I would love watching that, which in itself scares me.

The greatest problem with this kind of show would not be the jury themselves, because they would be basically right in their opinions. The problem would be that this kind of people are put on TV as if they were the leaders and figureheads of the writing community, people that others would adore and try to emulate.

And the people that would try to copy the Idol jury would be exactly the ones who have the delusional beliefs that you are talking about. They would act as if they had the right to judge and bully others, and a culture of negativity would poison writing groups everywhere.

If someone did a Simon Cowell on my work I don't think I'd like it very much. I've seen people in SYW flip over constructive critique, his kind of snark would lead to homicide

We already have a competition for short stories, and for longer works for that matter. It's called publication with legit literary journals and publishing houses. If y'all would rather get into a competition that emphasizes how many friends can be lined up to vote over thoughtful and professional critique, idol is the way to go. If there is a way to get rid of loyalty votes in favor of votes based on unbiased evaluation, I'd like to hear it. And this would be necessary if any kind of monetary award was involved. Same if the participants intended to use the competition for writing credits in future writing ventures. Competitions for new and developing writers may not be that useful if they become popularity contests because they are too easily abused and manipulated. Just look at the shenanigans in Amazon reviews to see what can happen if evaluations are open to unrestricted web participants.

For me the big issue is that in Idol/X-factor, what people vote for doesn't necessarily mean they will pay for the final product. Just this week Simon Cowell has had a clear out of X-factor winners from his label because of poor sales. To add insult to injury, one of his biggest pre-2000 acts has resigned with Sony because Cowell wasn't giving them enough attention.

That is the last thing a publishing company needs.

In the UK they had a kind of televised writing contest, but it was playwrighting, and it wasn't voted on by the public. It was more like a Project Runway setup where the judges chose. I think that would be a preferable model, as you simply aren't going to get as many people interested in voting for writing, nor willing to spend the time to read the work. A short story even is longer than a song, let alone a longer work.

I know I'd like to see such a show, and I think it could be produced, but it wouldn't be as popular and so would probably air on one of the speciality channels.

I might be the minority here.

In my opinion, American Idol is all about grooming the talented contestants to fit a certain mold. So, if we follow this model for writing, who would be the ones to groom the talented future authors to write a certain way?

Really, who wants to be American Idol writer? All you would be is some cardboard character based on three judge's perceptions of what a writer should be.

Romantic Times (now known as RT BookClub) has been doing this sort of thing for years, but with novels, rather than short stories. They pick .... I don't know, some number of "finalists," and then over the course of several episodes, they compete in things like first pages, cover copy, characterization of hero/heroine, dialogue, first kiss, etc. And there are guest judges, including in this past round, a top agent in the romance genre. The final winner is determined by reader votes and gets a contract with ... I think it's Kensington.

As best I can tell, it's a HUGE amount of work for the participants, and involves a HUGE amount of networking, making the end result more about social-network skills than writing skills.

What I object to is the "American Idol model", where a big part of the entertainment comes from negative critique. I do not object to competitions on TV in general.

I can imagine a TV competition to which people submit stories, a jury chooses say 10 of them (without dizzing the bad ones), and after that stories from those people are put to the Internet so that viewers can read them and vote. Also, during the show, which would run for maybe 10 weeks, the participants would receive advice and education from well-known authors, agents and publishers.

JanDarby said:

I don't know, some number of "finalists," and then over the course of several episodes, they compete in things like first pages, cover copy, characterization of hero/heroine, dialogue, first kiss, etc.

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That sounds like a great idea. Another possibility would be that they every week write a short story from a different genre.

In my country there was a short story competition on TV, but they had new participants every week. It was a nice but not a very ambitions show that had only one season.

Chris_Wilkins said:

For the same reasons that millions of people do it American Idol. Not that I understand that either.

Lastlittlebird did suggest the voting be free. But then again of course the prize money would be less. Again, just as per American Idol (in that the votes pay for the huge production that goes with the show).

But perhaps free voting could be done.

I just thought it would be fun to do. That's all.

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I'm slightly embarrassed to admit knowledge of this, but it doesn't cost anything to vote for an American Idol contestant. It's a free call. Advertising pays for the show.