Wow. Have you seen inkpop? It's a new forum created by HarperCollins to let their teen community choose which books they consider for publication - and it's a completely radical idea. Submitters post their books (finished or not) and readers comment. The most popular books move up in the rankings and once a month the top five choices are reviewed by the publisher. Talk about a new way to do things. And such different interaction with readers! They're reading and they're actually having a say on what will become a physical book. Trippy. Very, very trippy. Could this be the future of publishing?
In theory it sounds great! The problem is that dishonest people can skew the results in their favor. I've read many accounts from ladies involved in this type of contest who ultimately beg votes from everyone they know and when all is said and done have lost the contest because someone else cheated. It's just so sad. I think the only fair contest is to have a panel of judges make a decision on which is best. But, that wont happen after all because ultimately the company giving the contest is trying to get people to their site.
ReplyDeleteI suppose that could be a concern Mindi. I wonder if they have any sort of restrictions in place to keep that from happening. Hm!
ReplyDelete