For
Immediate Release
Contact
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster: Contact
Gather.com: Marcia Burch Liz
Bradley Simon & Schuster Kel & Partners Marcia.Burch@simonandschuster.com liz@kelandpartners.com (212) 698-2100 (857)
891-5531 Additional Contact for Touchstone/Simon & Schuster: Martin Barabas martin.barabas@earthlink.net (212) 865 9797
Winner to be Awarded
Guaranteed Publishing Contract with Simon & Schuster NEW YORK, New York/BOSTON, Mass., May 22,
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, today announced five finalists in the
Gather.com First Chapters Writing Competition. Referred to by numerous media
outlets as “American Idol for Books,” the competition has received 2,676
manuscript submissions since its inception in January. The names and hometowns
of the five novelists advancing to the finals are listed below, as well as
online at firstchapters.gather.com.
“The energy around the First Chapters Writing Competition
is truly electric,” says Tom Gerace, Gather.com founder
and Chief Executive Officer (tom.gather.com). “The Gather.com community has
ignited the blaze of competition and taken user-generated content to a whole
new level.” Four of the five finalists were selected by
Gather.com members and one was picked by the Gather.com editorial staff. The
manuscripts of the five finalists will be evaluated by an esteemed judging
panel, including Carolyn K. Reidy, President of the Simon & Schuster Adult
Publishing Group; Mark Gompertz, Executive Vice President & Publisher of
Touchstone Books; George Jones, CEO and President, Borders Group and Tom
Gerace, Founder & CEO, Gather.com. The panel will select one talented
novelist as the Grand Prize Winner on May 31st. “Everyone loves an underdog and Touchstone is excited to
publish the winner and make one aspiring novelist’s dream come true,” commented
Mark Gompertz, Executive Vice President and Publisher, Touchstone. The Grand Prize winner will be awarded a
guaranteed publishing contract with Touchstone and a $5000 cash prize from
Gather.com. The winning book will
be available wherever books are sold. To obtain more information regarding the
specifics of the judging, please reference the competition timeline below. GATHER.COM FIRST CHAPTERS WRITING COMPETITION TIMELINE Round 1: January 11 – April 3, 2007: COMPLETED Round 2: April 4 – May 1, 2007: COMPLETED Round 3: May 2 – May 22, 2007: COMPLETED Winner Announced: May 31, 2007: The esteemed judging panel will select one
talented novelist as the Grand Prize Winner! The Judging Panel: - Carolyn K. Reidy, President of the Simon & Schuster Adult
Publishing Group - Mark Gompertz, Executive Vice President & Publisher of
Touchstone Books - George Jones, CEO and President, Borders Group - Tom Gerace, Founder & CEO,
Gather.com 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, is promoting the First Chapters competition via email to
its millions of Borders Reward® members. About Simon
& Schuster Simon & Schuster, a part of the CBS
Corporation, is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing,
dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all
ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include
Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children's
Publishing, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Digital, and
international companies in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. For more
information, visit our website at www.simonsays.com. About Gather.com Gather.com (www.gather.com)
is the leader in social media for adults. Gather.com members connect around
shared interests ranging from politics to books and from cooking to travel, and
they’re compensated for their activity on the site. Members can engage in
conversation with state and local politicians, health and financial experts,
personal coaches, bestselling authors, and more. Over one million people visit
Gather.com each month to read content created by Gather.com members. Gather.com
has a highly educated, highly informed adult audience membership -- a
demographic elusive to most social networking sites. This demographic has made
Gather.com an exceptional partner to media companies, advertising agencies,
leading consumer brands, book publishers, and movie studios. Gather.com is a
privately held, privately funded company headquartered in Boston,
Massachusetts. Investors include Allen & Company, The American Public Media
Group, Hearst, The McGraw-Hill Companies, and Southern California Public Radio.
For more information, visit www.gather.com
or call (617) 720-4000, x1032. About Borders, Inc. Borders is a subsidiary of Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE: BGP)
a $4.1 billion retailer of books, music, movies and stationery items that
trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BGP. Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan,
Borders Group, through its subsidiaries, operates more than 1,300 Borders and
Waldenbooks stores and employs more than 32,000 people worldwide who serve more
than 30 million customers each year.
More information on the company is available at www.bordersgroupinc.com. ### |
