These are exciting times at SOOP. Our I Heart SOOP Authors Contest is growing more dramatic by the day (and vote), our most recently published book is making waves, and what we’re building here is starting to get noticed by the industry.
So, lots of ground to cover. I’ll start by giving an update on the Contest.
We now have more than ten book ideas duking it on the SOOP stage. The prize: a fast-track to a SOOP publishing contract for three winners, who will be chosen based not only on the quality and execution of their idea, but by their ability to begin building a platform by way of SOOP’s voting system.
Important note: We have extended the deadline for vote-gathering to January 31, 2014.
The contest’s top three vote-getters as of Tuesday, December 10, 2pm EST are:
- The Time Manipulator’s Son by Rohini Singh (580 votes)
- Passing Through by Wendy Karasin (131 votes)
- Snarls of Love by Sandra Carvalho (56 votes)
But we also have several other contenders, some of which boast quickly rising vote totals:
- Climbing the Cross Cultural Cliff by Rali Panchanatham & Wade Fransson (39 votes)
- A Texan Down Under by John Dickerson (38 votes)
- Perceptology by Kellie Gardner (7 votes)
- The Way of WordPress by Vincent Wondra (5 votes)
- The Supernutrients Diet by Natalie Minnis (4 votes)
- Imminent Domain by Sean Koping (3 votes)
- SoMe… Who Me? by deMarie Malnar (2 votes)
- Sixteen by Adam Gibson (2 votes)
It’s going to be an exciting race to the finish. Best of luck to all of the authors above and to any of the rest of you who decide to throw your hats in the ring. No matter where you currently stand, you still have time to move to the head of the class and stake your claim.
Speaking of staking your claim, what is really at stake here? What does SOOP offer you that another publishing company or avenue might not?
In Andrew Doty’s recent (and excellent) three-part blog series (1 2 3), he offered clarity and insight into the major publishing avenues available to today’s authors. After covering the evolving territories of self-publishing and traditional publishing, Doty moved to the fertile middle ground, where those two previously distinct models are increasingly converging. That newly ascendant middle ground just so happens to be where we, at SOOP, have set up shop.
We were thrilled to be highlighted accordingly in Doty’s post, along with our most recently published author, Eric Mondschein:
Though a relative newcomer to the game, having only a handful of publications to its name, SOOP has achieved remarkable marketing and distribution success, placing their books at lofty spots, including Eric Mondschein’s Life at 12 College Road, which topped out at #3 in Amazon’s sibling relationships category and #2,775 overall out of more than ten million Amazon titles, reaching a coveted #1 rated hot new release spot within days.
In describing how SOOP (and other companies in the middle ground) are finding success, Doty summarizes:
With strong elements of traditional publishing, community platforming, and self-publishing author services all incorporated, these new companies are highly self-aware and are filling in authors’ needs as quickly as they develop.
Well said, Andrew. We’re certainly trying.
SOOP’s primary goal is to become the most empowering, most supportive, most author-focused publishing house on the planet. In so doing, we look to the author to define his or her own success so that we can figure out how—or if—we can help them to achieve it. We call this model Author-Driven Book Publishing.
And we invite you to become a part of it. Submit your book idea today! Or, if you’re not an author, peruse what’s on offer from our submitting authors and cast a vote for your favorite(s).
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