Step right up, bona-fide schmucks aspiring writers! The time has come to hand out the Sobol Award! Yes, $100,000 is on the table, kiddies! With $25,000 and $10,000 for the runner-ups! That’s some good bread, don’t you think? Why, all of you Writer’s Digest subscribers who have always thought about sending in your novels but haven’t done a thing because you fear rejection now have the perfect opportunity to get with the program right now! We’re the Sobol Awards! Why, the name’s almost a palindrome!
Oh, did we mention an $85 non-refundable registration fee? Well, contrary to those pesky critics of ours who claims that this isn’t an award. It is an award! Did you not see “Award” in “Sobol Award?” Is that noun not provenance enough?
Vanity presses? Poppycock. Did you not read the large print?
ONE. HUNDRED. THOUSAND. DOLLARS!
We think this should quell any doubts.
Who cares if we’re run by Sobol Literary Enterprises? You act as if a word like “enterprise” is a bad thing. Okay, so we’re not a foundation. But isn’t any writing experience an “enterprise” of sorts? Writing is an adventure! Embarking into the unknown. To boldly go…hey, you Star Trek fan fiction writers, I’m talking to you. Enterprise — it’s a good name, right? Send in your Kirk/Spock love stories to us and we might give you — what are those four words again? Let’s see.
ONE. HUNDRED. THOUSAND. DOLLARS!
Yes, that’s right!
Remember, it’s first come, first served. Just like any great scam. And if you’d like to send us $85 anyway, we’ll be happy to send you a postcard straight from Sobol Literary Enterprises headquarters thanking you for your money. Because that’s the kind of people we are.
Congratulations! You’ve written an article that doesn’t say a thing. Are you in the agent business or something? I don’t know whether the award is good or bad. All I know is that the publishing industry is incestuous. Publishers use agents to screen manuscripts. All agents want is previously published writers. Frankly, I don’t know how new writers get discovered, unless they already have some sort of tie. I guess that’s also why most of what’s published is self-indulgent, contemporary crap.