Wednesday, February 22, 2006

The 2005 Needle Award Nominees

Welcome, folks. Hold on to your Cheerios because the 2005 Needle Award Nominees are here!

It has been a tough road to making the final selections. There were four other books that I really wanted to nominate but, having balanced as many variables as I could muster, these are the absolute best.

The cream, if you will.

And the nominees are . . .

In the Literary Category:











WAITING FOR THE WORLD TO END by Nicole Hunter (iUniverse)
ENVY THE RAIN by Jamie Boud (CafePress)
THE SEARCH FOR AN INAPPROPRIATE MAN by RoseMarie London (iUniverse)
MORNING GLORY'S LONG LOST ORDER OF WORSHIP by Brian A. Massey (iUniverse)
DAYS OF GRACE by Mark Falkin (Lulu)


And the nominees in the Commerical Category are:











RATED F by Todd C. Noker (iUniverse)
ISN'T THAT BIGAMY? by Mike Vogel (Lulu)
GOLEM by Greg Vilk (Ricochet)
THE DIDYMUS CONTINGENCY by Jeremy Robinson (Lulu)
ANGEL DUST APOCALYPSE by Jeremy Robert Johnson (Eraserhead Press)


Congrats to all those who were nominated--and to the other 40 authors who wrote books that managed to make it to the top of a pile of over 1,400 novels, memoirs and nonfiction projects. The nominated books will soon be in the hands of the judges. From this point on, I have nothing to do with who wins or loses. Winners will be announced Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006. Good luck to all!

Monday, February 20, 2006

Walking in my shoes (the 2005 stats!)

When I said it has been a long journey to the Needles, I was not kidding. I kept a running list of statistics from the beginning (for some things) at the advice of one of my POD sisters-in-crime. I'd find a good book and she'd always say, "Yeah, but how many crappy books did you have to read to find it?"

So I started keeping track.

Below you will find the hard truths of this past year. You will know about everything that happened in order to bring you a mere 50 titles worth reading.

And it's been a blast. I have met some great folks and read some great books and made some super friends. I can only hope it was as worth it for you and is was for me.

Read 'em and weep:

Total number of queries received: 5,959
Total number of books considered: 1,398
Total number books read to completion but did not get reviewed (the ones that came "this close"): 43

Total number of books submitted to me via email: 927
Total number of books submitted the first week of the blog: 6
Total number of books submitted last week: 81

Total number of books not read past first page: 132
Total number of books not read past first paragraph: 12
Total number of books not read past first sentence: 2


Total number of books I read past 3:00 a.m because I simply could not stop: 2

Total number of books (print) that fell apart before I finished them: 2

Total number of book covers that had me laughing hysterically: 14

Total number of book covers that had me laughing so hard I nearly peed myself: 2

Total number of times my editor told me I was wasting my time: 7
Total number of times my agent told me I was wasting my time: 1


Total number of times I was harassed for not reviewing a submitted novel: 4
Most times a single author submitted a single book: 14

Total number of POD books (that I had purchased) donated to local libraries: 78
Total number of POD books (that I had purchased) rejected from local libraries: 227

Total dollar amount spent on this venture: $0.00 (I do not count books purchased since I own them.)
Total dollar amount made on this venture: $0.00

Total number of emails received (non-spam) to
girlondemand@yahoo.com: 63,345
Total number of gigabytes worth of data I received in PDF files: @ 3.1 GB

Number of selected/reviewed books by publisher:

iUniverse: a mind-blowing 22
Lulu: 4
Xlibris : 4
PublishAmerica: 3
Authorhouse: 2
UKA Press: 2
VirtualBookWorm: 2
Booklocker: 2
Llumina: 1
CafePress: 1
PageFree: 1
Zumaya: 1
Firewalk Press: 1
Ricochet: 1
Pearl Street: 1
Eraserhead Press: 1
Dog Ear Publishing: 1

Based on a search, number of emails with "murder" in the text: 227

"sex": 132
"thriller": 119
"literary": 5

Number of people who, while on my book tour, asked me if I was POD-dy Mouth: 0
Number of people who, while on my book tour, asked me if I knew where the book store bathroom was: 7

Total number of authors who submitted a nude or semi-nude picture of themselves along with their manuscript PDF: 4 (3 men and 1 woman--at least, I think it was a woman)

Total number of agents (so far) who requested to see the Needle awards data: 18

Total number of editors who requested to see the Needle awards data: 15

And the most painful statistic of all: Total number of offers to buy my book if I surrendered my identity: 677.

Total number of regrets I have for starting this project: 0

Happy reading everyone.