Comments on: small press book awards? http://ask.metafilter.com/150186/small-press-book-awards/ Comments on Ask MetaFilter post small press book awards? Sat, 03 Apr 2010 09:43:30 -0800 Sat, 03 Apr 2010 09:43:30 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 Question: small press book awards? http://ask.metafilter.com/150186/small-press-book-awards What can you tell me about these book awards? Are they legit? <br /><br /> My friend won an award <a href="http://bengalbookreviews.com/awards.html">here</a> for his self-published book and he's really proud. I'm proud of him too, but I'm concerned about the fact that these are pay-to-play. On the other hand you have to submit entry fees for a lot of respectable things. Does that make these a scam or just a small award from a small business?<br> <br> (And why is this anonymous? Because I think he knows my username, and I would be ashamed if he thought I even thought about this!) post:ask.metafilter.com,2010:site.150186 Sat, 03 Apr 2010 09:26:40 -0800 Anonymous awards publishing By: gum http://ask.metafilter.com/150186/small-press-book-awards#2151616 Well, it legitimately made him proud, and you, too.<br> <br> It's a pernicious scam from the perspective of the "legit" publishing industry, though. Your friend should definitely not mention "winning" this award in future efforts to attract a real publisher. comment:ask.metafilter.com,2010:site.150186-2151616 Sat, 03 Apr 2010 09:43:30 -0800 gum By: Some1 http://ask.metafilter.com/150186/small-press-book-awards#2151627 I would call it more a contest than an "award", but winning a contest is nothing to sneeze at. comment:ask.metafilter.com,2010:site.150186-2151627 Sat, 03 Apr 2010 09:51:37 -0800 Some1 By: rtha http://ask.metafilter.com/150186/small-press-book-awards#2151629 Pay-to-play isn't necessarily a scam, in that those who pay money do get something in return, but it's not how most small press book awards work. Or large press, either. <br> <br> I used to work for a book review magazine, and we also hosted an awards ceremony. No payment was required to nominate titles, and nominations could and did come from readers, authors, editors, publishers, etc. Judges were not paid by us (or anyone) for their time. We requested (and received) free judges' copies from publishers - who were both big houses and small presses - and the judges were chosen by the staff of the magazine based on their fields of expertise (someone who didn't know anything about, say, poetry, or who hated it, would not be asked to judge that category). We definitely looked down on pay-to-play stuff like this, as well as "publishers" who made their authors pay for editorial services. But it was more that we disdained the companies that run them, not the writers who, for whatever reason, felt the need to participate.<br> <br> But! Your friend is stoked. He worked hard on his book. Buy him a congratulatory drink and never tell him about this question. comment:ask.metafilter.com,2010:site.150186-2151629 Sat, 03 Apr 2010 09:53:55 -0800 rtha By: Powerful Religious Baby http://ask.metafilter.com/150186/small-press-book-awards#2151635 I'm not familiar with Bengal Book Reviews, but it concerns me is that entrants are paying $50 to win an award that offers nothing really tangible. I judge entries for the Writer's Digest Self-Published Books contest every year, and the entry fee is something like a hundred dollars--far steeper, but the winner is rewarded with actual publication. For this, all you get is a "seal" to place on future editions, a certificate, and a "featured spot" on their website. You also get a review, but everyone who sends in money gets a review, and they're not particularly good reviews. I think you're right to be concerned, but there's really nothing you can do at this point that won't hurt your friend, so I would stay quiet--unless he starts talking about entering more of these, or unless he's using it as a point of pride in cover letters, which can actively hurt his chances for legitimate publication. Then I would say he deserves to know. comment:ask.metafilter.com,2010:site.150186-2151635 Sat, 03 Apr 2010 10:02:02 -0800 Powerful Religious Baby By: orthogonality http://ask.metafilter.com/150186/small-press-book-awards#2151716 Given that the awards description starts with poor grammar ("Bengal hosts Book Awards for authors that <i>(sic)</i> believe their story stands above the rest.") and continues with bad formatting/typesetting, I'm not inclined to buy or value books based on Bengal's appraisal. comment:ask.metafilter.com,2010:site.150186-2151716 Sat, 03 Apr 2010 11:11:45 -0800 orthogonality By: orthogonality http://ask.metafilter.com/150186/small-press-book-awards#2151720 "Review: Chase has really outdone herself with the first in a series of cop thrillers."<br> <br> Hahahahahahhahahahhahahahhahahhahahhahaahhahahah! comment:ask.metafilter.com,2010:site.150186-2151720 Sat, 03 Apr 2010 11:14:14 -0800 orthogonality By: gum http://ask.metafilter.com/150186/small-press-book-awards#2151726 Ugh, I didn't even see the $50 "entry fee."<br> <br> Google "Bengal Book Reviews," subtract the hits for South Asia and the University of Idaho, and you get precisely one instance of an author claiming this award. Bengal Book Reviews is a person with a website ripping off self-published authors. comment:ask.metafilter.com,2010:site.150186-2151726 Sat, 03 Apr 2010 11:24:35 -0800 gum By: kjs3 http://ask.metafilter.com/150186/small-press-book-awards#2154903 Check out the Making Light blog for discussions of this sort of scam. comment:ask.metafilter.com,2010:site.150186-2154903 Tue, 06 Apr 2010 08:51:25 -0800 kjs3
http://ask.metafilter.com/150186/small-press-book-awards/rss
ask.metafilter.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2018-05
8289
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:GMJ243FKMF3E5BJBZBN7JTIRXFYPGHRY
<urn:uuid:a4aeecac-dc86-4879-8ea9-d66d68244c82>
2018-01-22T16:35:34Z
54.186.13.33
application/rss+xml
sha1:4LW2J4ARU4VYQZOQJTVS5XW2YCSNOB3U
<urn:uuid:75e45ed1-7f30-4f26-bc1a-31b8e68d1bdb>
http://ask.metafilter.com/150186/small-press-book-awards/rss
length
response
<urn:uuid:65762354-450d-4bf7-a1a5-3fc4e696796b>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-180-62-156.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-05
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for January 2018
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf