Well, I''ve just read that the big competition launched by Waterstones and Cosmopolitan magazine to find the next up and coming chick lit writer ended with a 'shortlist' of 5 runners up but no winner. Congratulations to Elisa McGarry, Kristen Paul, Nicola Brear, Gail Haslam and Stacey Taylor. Apparently none of the 2,300+ entries were good enough for 'immediate publication' according to Sphere/Little Brown Books. I would have thought that no submitted book was more than a draft, a polished draft but a draft all the same; even JK Rowling must get edited, surely?
The runners up get a coaching session with Louise Cavendish, £100 Waterstones voucher, a book a week for a year (how cool is that!) and a subscription to Cosmo.
The entrants submitted 3,000 words which, in my humble opinion, is certainly enough to judge if the writer can write and if the book has a good enough hook and depth to engage the reader (and get them to spend their hard earned cash on the book!)
Louise Cavandish judged the shortlist but even she wasn't told none would get a contract. She had to email them to find out the situation.
I wonder how many copies of the magazine they sold in anticipation of this announcement? Missed sales surely for the mag as well as potential sales of the resultant book for all the entrants and near-entrants (no I didn't enter but I thought about it) so they could all see what type of writing makes the grade.
Comments in blogs I will write my book and best in fiction and a Writers where one of the runners up has comments and Once Upon a Time who is a runner up!
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