Victoria Strauss -- News of the Weird: Author's For Reality Show

No, I haven't lost my apostrophe smarts. "Author's For Reality Show" is a direct quote from a Craigslist ad posted today. Can you believe it? Yet ANOTHER author reality show is threatening to rear its pointy head.

A brief recap of the others, both funct and defunct:

- Book Millionaire (defunct)
- Publish My Book! (possibly funct, but no one really seems to know--this is the only one of the lot that has even a whiff of credibility)
- The Ultimate Author (apparently funct)
- American Book Factory (defunct)

This one makes five.

According to Craigslist, Healeth Publisher, "an Independent Publisher located in New York with satellite offices in Atlanta and LA," is looking for contestants for a new reality show featuring writers, to be conducted in conjunction with The Next TV, an Internet TV and radio network (I think the radio part, which calls itself U Tube Radio, might have a small trademark issue).

Getting published is a very difficult challenge that most writers face. The most difficult task is convincing any publisher that you the new author has an audience that will generate book sales. The very first thing a publisher will ask a new author is How Do You Plan To Market & Promote Your Boook? We want to know how you plan to market and promote your book but we also give you the chance to show us. Most publishers want a written marketing plan but we want you to show us you can self promote. Now here's your chance to do so with our new author internet reality show...HP and THENEXT.TV have come up with a competition that will change the publishing game forever.

Okay.

Specifics on how the show will work are sketchy (and come only from Craigslist--the show is mentioned on Healeth's website, but without details, and I couldn't find any mention of it at all on Next TV's website). Apparently it will travel to 20 US cities searching for contestants, who will face a three-part challenge: "I.)Writing challenge II.) Editing challenge III.)Promotions challenge." Ten winner's (their apostrophe, not mine) will be chosen. All will receive book contracts (the publisher isn't named, but it's not a stretch to assume it will be Healeth) with "The Top Writer" also getting a publicist and a $5,000 "advancement."

According to Healeth's website, CEO Jay Williams "spent over a decade working in traditional publishing houses in New York...as an editor for Harper Collins [sic], Pocket Books; [sic] amongst other large book publishing companies," but the website's sparse content, unappealing design, and grammatically shaky text does not (to put it kindly) convey a strong impression of publishing professionalism. Despite Healeth's purported 2005 startup date, it has so far published just one book, Pam Pinnock's The Father Fracture. Interestingly, Healeth's URL is registered to Pam Pinnock--and if you Google Healeth, the only references, apart from its website, involve Pinnock and her book. Pinnock is the only one of the contest's "celebrity judges" who is named. She also claims to be a publicist. Remember the publicist who is promised as part of the contest winner's prize package?

Hmmm. That's a lot of roads leading to Pam Pinnock.

No bets on the longevity of this one.