…why people keep having contests for self-published books where the prize is a
REAL PUBLISHING CONTRACT WITH A REAL PUBLISHER!!!!!!!! YAY!!!! HERE’S YOUR CHANCE!!!! WIN THIS, AND YOU, TOO, CAN BE A REAL WRITER!!!!!
This is like throwing a show-n-shine for hand-built hot-rods where the prize is to have your car ripped apart by a “real” car person and put back together the way you should have done it, if only you knew anything at all about cars, you poor, pathetic hobbyist.
Or, for that matter, why people enter them?
“have your car ripped apart by a “real” car person and put back together”
And this real car person would be Toyota.
Oh, nice touch, Lou! Yeah, your hand-built masterpiece can now be a Toyota!
I believe this is another ploy to separate “real” writers from “pretend” writers. All ye pretend writers out there, give up and let the big dogs have the playground. If you want to join the madness, toss thy manuscript to the hounds to test its worth.
Writers, ask yourself this question: Did da Vinci allow his art to be edited? If he had, would we have one less apostle in The Last Supper? Would Mona Lisa be wearing a feathered hat in order to promote the future of fashion?
I don’t know about you, but I’m going back to my pretend world where real writing is taking place. I don’t much care for commercializing art or allowing it to be rearranged or “repainted” by the corporate world looking for another mainstream stratagem.
.-= J.E. Seanachaí´s last blog ..An Ode to Slacking =-.
For the record, I have no objection to editing, to the extent that it means catching errors. If I misspell something, drop a word, forget to hyphenate an adjective phrase that should have been, etc, I want that caught.
What I can’t understand is the very common belief that editing includes altering the fundamental characteristics of the story, including not only such things as diction, syntax, grammar, etc, but also the length, the character names, the cover art, even the very title itself.
I don’t even want someone else picking my typefaces!
The following comment was left by on another post, because I’d absent-mindedly allowed WordPress to turn off commenting on older posts. I’ve left it there, but I also thought I should copy it over here where it belongs.
(Also, commenting should be turned back on now!)
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That’s sad and so true! I wanted to comment on your post about self-publishing contests where the prize is a trad contract, that annoys the hell out of me. Like I would have liked to have participated in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards competition EXCEPT that the prize is a $15,000 contract with Penguin that if you read the fine print of the contest rules you don’t even get to negotiate, but MUST sign ‘as is.’ I’m really not sure what they think they can do to you legally if you refuse to sign, and I’m fairly sure you can’t MAKE someone sign a contract sight unseen, but what do I know?
What is even more infuriating about that type of situation is that someone who is a good enough writer to make it to the grand prize of a big and well-publicized competition like ABNA, would have plenty of publishers clawing for a piece of the pie. They sure as sh** would get a better deal than a $15,000 contract. A 15k contract is what you get as a debut author if you’re “pretty lucky” and have a “good agent.” I’m not seeing where any publisher has earned the right to publish the winner of ABNA for such a mediocre sum of money.
I find it rather annoying that so many still seem to think trad publishing is the eventual holy grail all self-publishers want. That’s like assuming every bed and breakfast wants to become part of a major hotel chain and every mom and pop flower shop wants to be absorbed by 1-800-FLOWERS. I mean give me a break.
I, like you don’t want someone messing with my content, my title, my cover, or my fonts. My work is MINE, and not everybody wants someone else messing with that. I think I’d always be open to selling subsidiary rights as long as they didn’t interfere with my creative control over the main work. But the more time that passes, the less attractive a NY contract is for ANY reason. All I’ve got to say is the price would have to be VERY high. And I certainly don’t expect that to happen, but I don’t see myself selling my creative freedom for anything but top dollar.
I certainly don’t need the validation. I’m not twelve.