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
Quality of Submissions
Drives Judges to Award a Second Book Contract NEW YORK, New York/BOSTON, Mass., May 31, 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 Terry Shaw as the winner
of the Gather.com First Chapters Writing Competition. As the Grand
Prize Winner, Shaw received a guaranteed publishing contract from Simon &
Schuster. In a surprise move, due to the tremendous quality of the submissions
received, Simon & Schuster decided to award a second publishing contract to
runner-up contestant Geoffrey Edwards. Referred to by numerous media outlets as
“American Idol for Books,” the First Chapters competition received 2,676
manuscript submissions since its inception in January. Shaw’s novel, The Way
Life Should Be,
and Edward’s novel, Fire Bell in the Night, will both be published in September 2007 and both
books will be available for purchase at bookstores nationwide, and at Borders,
the bookseller for Gather.com. “Just before Christmas I was told by an
agent that it was ‘just impossible
to sell a first novel, unless you're a celebrity or have the flavor of the
month,’” said Terry Shaw. “A few weeks later, I read about the First Chapters’
contest in The New York Times and thought it sounded like a great opportunity to make
use of a new medium to sell a
book. Needless to say, I'm glad I gave it a shot! I'm
also grateful to the Gather.com community for providing me with the platform to
be discovered by a publisher like Simon & Schuster.” Shaw’s novel, The Way Life Should Be, tells the story of a modern-day
newspaper editor who investigates his best friend’s death in a coastal Maine
town, while Edward’s novel, Fire Bell in the Night, is a character-driven historical thriller set in the antebellum south. “It is so empowering to have just been
discovered by one of the world’s greatest publishers,” said Geoffrey Edwards.
“I am so grateful to the Gather.com community for the support, encouragement
and votes that I have received over the last five months.” “It was a pleasant surprise to discover that the
Gather.com community had done their job so well that in the end
we decided to go with a grand prize winner and a runner
up,” commented Mark Gompertz, Executive Vice President, Publisher,
Touchstone. “We look forward to publishing both of these terrific novels in the
fall.” “The enthusiasm around the First Chapters
Writing Competition has been tremendous,” says Tom Gerace, Gather.com founder
and Chief Executive Officer (tom.gather.com). “The collective voice of
Gather.com members has identified, elevated and amplified the voice of two
outstanding novelists who had yet to be heard.” In addition to receiving a guaranteed publishing
contract and distribution with Touchstone, the winning books will receive
significant promotion at Borders®, a leading retailer of books,
music, movies and stationery items. As the official bookseller of Gather.com,
Borders, Inc. will also promote the books via email to its millions of Borders
Reward® members. “First Chapters is perfectly aligned to our mission to be a
headquarters for knowledge and entertainment,” said Borders Group Chief
Marketing Officer Michael Tam. “We celebrate new and emerging authors and
always want to help them gain visibility and recognition.” Following three rounds of judging by the Gather.com community, the
winning manuscripts were selected 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. About Terry
Shaw, Grand Prize Winner, Gather.com First Chapters Writing Competition Terry Shaw, 44, is the author of The
Way Life Should Be,
for which he was named Grand Prize Winner of the Gather.com First Chapters
Writing Competition. Shaw first began writing in grade school as a way to
entertain his classmates and later used his writing talent as an editor for
several newspapers, including The Times-Record in Brunswick, Maine and the Niagara
Gazette in
Niagara Falls, New York. Shaw holds an undergraduate degree in Political
Science and English from Penn State and he currently resides in Knoxville, TN
with his wife Beth. Additional information about Shaw can be found at
terrys7.gather.com. About Geoffrey
Edwards, Runner-up, Gather.com First Chapters Writing Competition Geoffrey Edwards, 30,
is the author of Fire Bell in the Night, for which he was named Runner-up in
the Gather.com First Chapters Writing Competition. Edwards first began writing
in the eighth grade to
enter the Florida Times Union Christmas Story contest. He
holds an undergraduate degree, with a major in History, from the
University of Illinois/Champaign-Urbana and he currently lives in Chicago, IL with his wife Anne. Additional information about
Edwards can be found at geoffreye.gather.com. 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. ### |
