Bestseller Author Novel Competition

[Anne Lyle]

But no doubt already has an agent and publisher for.

Why the sadface? It's not like his agent and publisher are likely to be interested in anyone here, so it's not competition in any way. Annoying, maybe, that he has it so easy, but life isn't fair.

Besides, high-profile books that make lots of profit are good for publishing - what worries me is that a lot of celeb book don't actually sell that well.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Why the sadface? It's not like his agent and publisher are likely to be interested in anyone here, so it's not competition in any way. Annoying, maybe, that he has it so easy, but life isn't fair.

Besides, high-profile books that make lots of profit are good for publishing - what worries me is that a lot of celeb book don't actually sell that well.

It was half- ironic, given it's a contest to get an agent who may not be a good fit for the winner and which is a tie-in to the next book deal (though it is a little frustrating to see books published and wonder if they were ghost-written or by the genuine author.) I don't doubt he's worked hard to get where he is, incidentally, and have no probs with that.

Celeb books - returns from the non-sellers can be scary, and returns equal a lot of lost publisher revenue. As a guarantor for creating revenues to invest in small/debut authors I'm pretty sure I read an article that indicated sales of high-profile books and investment didn't quite stack up . It was a good while ago and I don't have the source document anymore, though.

 

[Anne Lyle]

Yes - you regularly hear of celeb "memoirs" that have tanked. I suspect it's the fiction bestsellers that earn the publishers their bread and butter - the huge advances for celeb books are what my husband calls *ahem* "willy-waving"

 

[Boneman]

Take the £50K and run...? I think I saw mention of them looking for the next Harry Potter. Or was it the next JK Rowling? So fantasy has a small chance. But Anne's right about celeb books, and I'm sure they're gearing up to make the winner into an instant celeb - the agenda is 'potentially' to find a best-seller, but in any event the publicity machine of R&J, Quercus and WH Smiths should ensure a profit for them (?).

 

[Ursa major]

At least publishers hope to make money off celebrities' books.


Why some publishers pay large advances for politicians' memoirs is a mystery to me, although I do realise that some of it is recouped from newspapers paying for serialisation rights. (Newspapers have their own reasons to want access to the material: they get to put their own spin onto the content. And as few people will buy a political memoir, the public will recall - if they recall anything at all - the newspaper's version of events.)

 

[lauren$77]

I might submit my ms for this as I haven't submitted it anywhere as of yet! So i'm one of the few that passes the stringent criteria.

So how wrong is it of me to think - if I get shortlisted I could use this as a springboard when submitting to other agents?

 

[Anne Lyle]

I guess - but do you want your manuscript to be tied up in a shortlist for a year?

IIRC they want an exclusive until next March, so you couldn't then submit anywhere else, even if your dream agent turned out to be looking for exactly the kind of novel you've written*. And then you'd be kicking yourself.

If, OTOH, your novel is unfinished and won't be ready to submit to other agents until next spring, it might be worth a punt just to see what response you get.


* There's a Twitter tag #MSWL (manuscript wish list) that makes very interesting reading [N.B. Do not pitch to agents via Twitter - read their submissions page and query in the normal way!]

 

[Boneman]

I might submit my ms for this as I haven't submitted it anywhere as of yet! So i'm one of the few that passes the stringent criteria.

So how wrong is it of me to think - if I get shortlisted I could use this as a springboard when submitting to other agents?

Absolutely! Anything that shows your writing has had serious consideration by others can only help.

Although, if you're submitting to agents, pm me and I'll give you advice on one agent who works a lot in the SciFi/fantasy field: I was recommended to him by JJ, who thought my work might be better suited to him, and he said "well, if it's not good enough for JJ, it's not good enough for me" and didn't bother to read it. When I told JJ this, he raised his eyes to heaven and shook his head...

ps: Notwithstanding Anne's caveat, above. Since the deadline to submit is in January,(I think) I reckon I could write the 10,000 words between now and then, and complete it in the year, while I'm waiting...

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I did that last year; wrote a book for the Pratchett comp. It was the whole book but i had about five months, and whilst it didn't get anywhere in the comp (it really wasn't quite ready), I spent the months waiting for the outcome honing it, getting it edited, and what not and have had reasonable success with agents with it.

So, 10000 we say...

 

[Boneman]

Between 10 and 12K...

 

[Glitch]

So, 10000 we say...

At the speed you type. I'm sure you could come up with several novels by then

 

[Anne Lyle]

I'm doing NaNoWriMo for my new project and aiming to have somewhere between 75k and 100k written by New Year

(Famous last words...)

 

[Jo Zebedee]

At the speed you type. I'm sure you could come up with several novels by then

Except for the writing list as long as my arm that I've acquired, I might have had a go.

I'm doing NaNoWriMo for my new project and aiming to have somewhere between 75k and 100k written by New Year

(Famous last words...)

Good luck with it! I've never done one. I should sometime.

 

[Anne Lyle]

Good luck with it! I've never done one. I should sometime.

Thanks! I've done it twice - got a couple of awful first drafts that I eventually rewrote and sold

Hopefully with three finished novels under my belt, the next one will be less crappy...

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Well I'm out since I've self pubbed some books. Damn that 50k looked good too! However my thought is that next year I'll put something out in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Lot of fish hooks in the terms and conditions, but my thought is that it'll still be good PR.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[LittleStar]

Most of my works are SFF and i agree with others here, they might not get the best showing in a competition such as this, but my current WIP is, i think, the perfect blend for this comp, being mostly romance with a hint of non-normality. My only hang up with this is getting stuck with an agent that isn't right for the rest of my stories and ideas, which are pure SFF to varying degrees.
If (a big one) I were to enter and win, the rules state i would be contracted to another book with the assigned agents. If I completed that book in a similar genre(i assume one couldnt switch to hard SF and have it work for the contract?) and wanted to try publish in the fantasy genre, would it be a problem to drop this agent (who seem to publish, from what I can see, mostly in the non-fiction market, Hairy Bikers for example) and pick up another? As far as I can tell that's not a done thing in the publishing world, but if they wouldn't be able to get me the deals where I would ultimately want them, I would have to pass however good an opportunity it might seem...

 

[Anne Lyle]

If I completed that book in a similar genre(i assume one couldnt switch to hard SF and have it work for the contract?) and wanted to try publish in the fantasy genre, would it be a problem to drop this agent (who seem to publish, from what I can see, mostly in the non-fiction market, Hairy Bikers for example) and pick up another? As far as I can tell that's not a done thing in the publishing world...

Absolutely not a problem, especially if they're not a good fit for your work. An agent works for you, not vice versa - as long as you're professional in the way you break off the arrangement, it should be fine. I know a number of writers who have switched agent, though it's never an easy decision.

Just look very carefully at the contract before you sign anything!

 

[MattC]

Originally Posted by Anne Lyle
...call me cynical, but unless a competition is specifically looking for SFF, I very much doubt the chances of such a book, especially for a mainstream outlet like Richard & Judy. Crime, women's fiction, sure - SFF, snowball's chance in hell.


I second this.

Don't be so hasty. This isn't the first Richard and Judy book competition, and SFF books did okay in the long-list in the previous one (though they all missed out on the final five places). But then sometimes, the long-list is a good thing. I made it into the final 20 out 40,000 entries, with a historical fantasy novel. Macmillan, who were running the competition, found me and signed me up anyway and I got two books out of it and a chance to write part-time. My advice is that it's worth a punt...

 

[lauren$77]

Don't be so hasty. This isn't the first Richard and Judy book competition, and SFF books did okay in the long-list in the previous one (though they all missed out on the final five places). But then sometimes, the long-list is a good thing. I made it into the final 20 out 40,000 entries, with a historical fantasy novel. Macmillan, who were running the competition, found me and signed me up anyway and I got two books out of it and a chance to write part-time. My advice is that it's worth a punt...

Thanks for posting this Matt. I didn't realise they release such a long list of top entries. I think I will give it a go

Did you find you couldn't submit to agents while you were waiting? It doesn't say that you can't but like was already mentioned by Anne I think it's probably implied.

 

[MattC]

Thanks for posting this Matt. I didn't realise they release such a long list of top entries. I think I will give it a go

Did you find you couldn't submit to agents while you were waiting? It doesn't say that you can't but like was already mentioned by Anne I think it's probably implied.

Hi Lauren$77

They don't usually release a long-list but as a new Macmillan author the editor who discovered me gave me the low-down on those who made it through (several of the long-list became Macmillan writers, though I was one of only two SFF authors who made it to print).

I didn't have an agent then, and I wasn't submitting books anywhere at that point - to be honest I had given up on seeing anything published and was writing for the enjoyment of it and only for family and friends who loved my books. It was a friend who suggested I enter the R&J competition - glad I did.

I'd say publishing is a business and to expect anyone to sit still on a book for months on end, especially if the competition over-runs (it did last time by several months and 30,000 entries), is nonsense. Having said that, they don't want to be gazumped by another publisher or agent and the contract will be non-negotiable anyway.

If you're willing to be patient and you're going to enter it, I'd advise to hold off submitting it elsewhere.