Zeno's Bar & Grill

In the wake of the Sobol book competition--which was roundly criticized for requiring aspiring authors to pay an eighty-five dollar entry fee--and was ultimately canceled, there's a new show in town.

A contest announced today at Gather.com (think MySpace for grown ups, if you haven't checked it out yet), will allow unpublished writers to submit their first chapters. They'll be voted on by members of the site. In the second round, the top 20 manuscripts will have second chapters posted and voted on, and so on. Final judging will be done by an expert panel and the winner will receive a book contract from the Touchstone division of Simon & Schuster. The only thing missing is all the glitz and drama, but maybe they'll figure out a way to work that in as well. Maybe they need controversial celebrity hosts--how about Judith Regan?


--Melanie