Friday Morning T-Bone, Rare, Side of Fried Taters

Good news! Chef Jack is on parole and back in the kitchen--and itchin' to deliver some good home cookin'. Just try not to make eye contact, eh?

To kick things off: your P5 for Friday, September 23, 2005:

(1) SUFFER IN SILENCE: 16,225 5
(2) WAITING FOR THE WORLD TO END: 22,349 6
(3) THE CIRCLE OF SODOM: 73,760 5
(4) COOKIN' FOR LOVE: 99,561 5
(5) INFERTILITY SUCKS: 129, 966 6
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If you're wondering if publishing POD is a total waste of time, money and effort, the answer is this: No (not total.)

iUniverse has managed to sell foreign rights to three of their titles in the last six months to various publishers. THE DEVIL'S APOCRYPHA, THE GHOST NEXT DOOR, and THE KNIGHT RIDER LEGACY have been sold to Russia, Indonesia, and Japan, respectively. (All sold via Judy Klein @ Kleinworks.)

So even if you do not sell well here in the States, there is still hope abroad. Of course, keep in mind the odds are just as dismal as with the traditional publishers. These are just three titles of the many thousand that iUniverse publishes.
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Here's a little surprise for your Friday feast: I have a single-question Q&A with my agent and editor friends in NY (actually, I was going to post it two weeks ago, but Agent Two was a tad, um . . . tardy.

Girl: What impact, if any, does winning a self- (or un-) published writing contest have on whether or not you would sign/publish an author?

Agent One: First off, there is no downside. No one is ever going to say, "What a shame you won that contest." It can only help sell a book. Do I go out of my way to read up on contest winners? No. Will it help me prioritize a query? Sure.

Agent Two: Big impact! In fact, I love award winners and have sold many (maybe over a dozen?) in the several few years. Many times these books are judged by people who review for other magazines, like Publishers Weekly, which gives these books an immediate leg up.

Agent Three: I would say it has some influence. I will pretty much read any award winner that gets submitted as long as it is not for genres I do not represent.

Editor One: Well, I leave it up to the stable of agents who submit to me to sort through what is good and bad, award-winner or not. That said, nothing could be finer than having something to make my P&L stand out from the crowd, like an award from a widely-known contest. It is getting tougher and tougher to find ways to push books on our publisher and winning awards is a good one.

I had a novel last year that actually won two awards and I knew I would have no trouble selling it. As a result we bought the book and it has been a great success.

Editor Two: The more renown the contest, the more interest I would have. Writer's Digest and others run some good contests, but I would not be interested in the Southeastern Mountain Tennessee Writer's Contest where only 25 people submitted in the first place.
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That's all she (me) wrote, fellas and gals. Yours truly needs to actually do some writing this weekend that generate some income, tough as it may be.

See you Monday for some shiny, new treasure.