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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kel Kelly
TOUCHSTONE/SIMON & SCHUSTER AND GATHER.COM ANNOUNCE WEB-BASED WRITING COMPETITION FOR GUARANTEED PUBLISHING CONTRACT Publisher Leverages Power of Social Media to Find America's Next Great Writer NEW YORK, NEW YORK/BOSTON, MASS., January 11, 2007 -- Gather.com, the leader in social media for adults, and the Touchstone imprint of Simon & Schuster, a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, announce the Gather.com First Chapters Writing Competition. Beginning today, Gather.com members will have the opportunity to submit fiction manuscripts to be evaluated and voted on by a community of readers, writers, and aspiring authors at FirstChapters.gather.com. The Gather.com community will select five finalists through a series of three voting rounds, after which a Grand Prize winner will be chosen by a panel of judges including Carolyn K. Reidy, President of the Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group; Mark Gompertz, Executive Vice President and Publisher of Touchstone Books, the imprint publishing the winner; Borders Group CEO George Jones; and Gather.com Founder and CEO Tom Gerace. The Grand Prize winner will be awarded a $5000 cash prize from Gather.com and a guaranteed publishing contract with Touchstone. "Simon & Schuster is dedicated to finding good writers wherever we can," noted Carolyn Reidy. "It's very exciting to begin using the Internet as one of the tools we use to do that." "Gather.com is the most interesting and exciting social networking site on the internet," commented Mark Gompertz, Executive Vice President and Publisher, Touchstone. "The quality of their user-generated content is first-rate. We believe that out of this impressive and creative membership, and with the three successive rounds of voting stimulating reader interest prior to publication, that we will find a great new author to bring to the public's attention." Through Touchstone and Simon & Schuster, the winner's book will be available wherever books are sold. In addition to receiving a guaranteed publishing contract and distribution with Touchstone, the winner's book will receive significant promotion at Borders, the official bookseller of Gather.com. As the retail sponsor of Gather.com, Borders, Inc., a leading retailer of books, music, movies, and stationery items, will also promote the First Chapters competition via email to its 15 million Borders Rewards members. "Amongst the millions of Borders customers there are many exceptionally talented writers; we are excited to give them access to the Gather.com First Chapters Writing Competition and to give all of our customers the opportunity to enjoy their talent," said Borders Group Chief Marketing Officer Michael Tam. "We are very excited to work with Simon & Schuster to give aspiring writers a launching pad for their careers as professional authors," said Gather.com Founder and CEO Tom Gerace. "It's a thrill to have the Gather community actively participating in choosing one of our members to be published by such a prestigious publishing house." All First Chapters contestants are required to have completed a manuscript in order to participate in the contest, and all manuscripts must be works of commercial fiction. For more information on the First Chapters Writing Competition, please visit FirstChapters.gather.com.
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