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Check
out our site to meet our latest All-Star Guest-Star memoirist, Felicia Sullivan,
author of The Sky Isn't Visible From Here
THE
MEMOIRISTS COLLECTIVE is a group of four established, recently published
memoirists who met online through MySpace.com, and banded together to start
a revolution in the world of book promotion, through collaboration instead
of competition. Not only is The Memoirist's Collective on a mission to help
ourselves, we're also on a mission to help other writers find success, readers,
and publishers, and we're sponsoring contests to make it happen.
The
Collective consists of Josh
Kilmer-Purcell, author of I
AM NOT MYSELF THESE DAYS -- Hillary
Carlip, author of QUEEN
OF THE ODDBALLS: And Other True Stories from a Life Unaccording to Plan
-- Maria
Dahvana Headley, author of THE
YEAR OF YES -- and Danielle
Trussoni, author of FALLING
THROUGH THE EARTH.
DO
GO CHECK OUT OUR BOOKS!
Memoirists
Collective contests offer real entry into the world of publication, not
just the typical contest prizes of "publication on our site" or… maybe…
just maybe… a read from someone lurking in the caverns of some small publishing
house somewhere. Not that we have anything against small publishing houses.
We love them. Especially the ones that take risks and publish the truly
great writers in the world.
However, we're also firm believers in the idea that a person can, in fact,
make a living doing what they love. Even if you happen to be a writer.
Therefore, our prizes are readings by Agents. Editors with Large and Commercial
Publishers. And us. Well, okay, we're writers too. We do, however, happen
to be opinionated writers, and we've historically been available in a
semi-workshop format to comment on our winner's work. We don't have a
magic wand. We can't make bad writing good. We can, however, introduce
good writing to the right people.
The
rest is up to you.
Write
on!
And
here's a little something on our credentials, lest you think we're fly-by-night-freaks...okay,
we ARE fly-by-night-freaks, but we do have some high class history:
Individually,
the Memoirists Collective members have been:
- On the cover of the New York Times Book
Review (with a rave inside)
- Preached against in the Bible Belt
- Kissed on the lips by professed CIA assassin and Gong Show host,
Chuck Barris
- Blurbed by James Frey
- Featured on Oprah, who was a bit nicer to them than she was to
James Frey
- On the New York Times Bestseller list
- Boycotted by PETA
- On the couch of the Today Show causing Matt Lauer to say
something about "beating around the bush," but we're sure he didn't mean
it that way
Since banding
together in April 2006, the Collective has already sponsored three
contests on MySpace. In the first, the winner got their manuscript
read by a literary agent at William Morris Agency for possible representation.
Hundreds of aspiring authors entered, and all entries were posted online
for a special "Readers' Choice Award," voted on by the Collective's followers.
In their second contest, "Win a Date with the Memoirists Collective,"
the winner got to hang out with all four authors when they gathered together,
for the first time, in New York City.
The Memoirists
Collective's third contest, "WIN A SHOT AT GETTING YOUR MEMOIR PUBLISHED!"
was sponsored by Joseph-Beth Booksellers, and drew a
lot of attention.
From June
12th through July 19th, the Collective accepted submissions of 800 words
excerpted from a memoir in progress, along with a one paragraph synopsis.
The Collective chose six finalists out of hundreds of entries. A "Readers'
Choice," voted on by the Collective's followers, was also named. Finalists
submitted an additional 2,000 words, and the grand prize winner was selected
from those submissions. CHECK THE BLOGS ABOVE TO READ THE FINALISTS' pieces,
and look in the COMMENT BOXES below for all entries.
In their
first joint reading extravaganza, at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cleveland,
OH, on August 7th, Josh, Maria, Danielle and Hillary announced the winner
via a live webcast
The grand
prize winner, LUKE SON, is getting his proposal read by not one, not two,
but THREE editors at prominent publishing houses - HarperCollins, Hyperion
and Holt!
For mo' info on the Collective, to read press, etc, check out our website!
www.thememoiristscollective.com
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