Miss Write competition update no. 2 - what a swizz!
Hmm. Just read Cally Taylor's blog about the Cosmopolitan/Waterstones Miss Write comp, and the entry on the Cosmo website by author Louise Candlish. There isnt going to be a winner, so no published book, and the 5 runners up are only going to meet Louise C in London.
People are saying that apparently out of 2333 entries, not one was good enough to be published?! I'm not sure I believe that, to be honest. I suspect that something has gone wrong with the comp prize or the money (contract for publishing plus a mentoring session with Louise Candlish.) Perhaps Cosmo were not willing to take a chance on 3000 words + synopsis. Maybe next time they'll ask for a completed manuscript. But still this all leaves a very nasty taste in the mouth and I am not sure if I will enter anything through Cosmo again. I would like to know that my work is going to be worth something, not dropped mid-competition with no notice. In the terms and conditions it was stated that the prize could be cancelled at any time. Looks like they have.
The thing that makes me the most annoyed is that Cosmo didnt tell anyone this. People were left to flounder. One of the 5 runners up only found out about her success when she saw her name in Cosmo! Disgraceful.
I'm sorry, but I'm disgusted at this treatment, on behalf of all the entrants.
Size Hero will still be finished, and will be sent off to a publisher in its own right. I am good enough. Sorry if that sounds like I am blowing my own weasel, but I know I am.
At some point - when I've written a full synopsis and more than the 3 chapters I've already done - I may also be canvassing for a title for my second chick lit book, which I have so far been calling Polly Flint after it's protagonist, but which will not be its finished title, obviously.
(Actually, I'm also hesistant to call it chick lit any more. Modern womens' fiction? I dont want to be stuck in the How-to-be-a-WAG genre. Neither Polly nor Harriet are WAG material, and I dislike the shopaholic-type role models given in some chick lit. But Marian Keyes, Kate Harrison and Anna Maxted manage to avoid the WAG-style heroines, so hopefully I will be able to, too.)