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Apr 21, 2008 – (Choteau, Montana) Teton River Productions is proud to announce the launch of AbandonedNovel.com, a website soliciting authors to submit the first several chapters of their best unfinished works of fiction.

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Teton River Productions will be accepting submissions through November of this year, stating that it intends to select the ten best “beginnings” and publish them in a single volume in the Summer of 2009.

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Aspiring writers can visit the website, Abandoned Novel.com for submission guidelines and information on how to submit their original works for consideration.

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On a personal note, I'd love to see what you guys have sitting around gathering dust. If you're anything like me, you've got a manuscript or two that hasn't seen the light of day in a couple of years!

PM me if you have any questions.

Scott

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Beginnings: A Novel (or Ten)

Now accepting submissions of the opening chapters to your unfinished novel, for inclusion in a collection to be published in Summer 2009.

Abandoned Novel.com

valeca

What, or who rather, is your potential target market? As a reader I can't say I'd be interested in buying something that only contained unfinished stories. It'd be frustrating to be constantly left hanging. Maybe you could elaborate on the idea behind this or explain what goals you have in putting something like this on the market?

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"...make your own nature, not the advice of others, your guide in life." --Pythia, Oracle of Apollo at Delphi

ANdotcom

Valeca -

We find in our sampling that there are two polar groups in terms of opinions. One group feels very much like you do. The other group thinks it is intriguing and would be an interesting read.

Without getting too specific, the concept appeals more to males than females, <35 years old more than >35, and more to those who describe themselves as "internet savvy" or "frequent/constant users" of the internet. Those who describe themselves as infrequent or occasional readers like it less than frequent/constant readers.

As to the goals of a book like this, I'd say its the same goal that every publisher has - to recover more from sales than the cost of production and promotion - not to be crass about it. On a more human level, it would be nice if it encouraged some authors, particularly unpublished authors, to take a second look at something they abandoned, and it would be great if one of these beginnings led to an opportunity to finish that novel for one of the authors.

Thanks for your questions!

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Beginnings: A Novel (or Ten)

Now accepting submissions of the opening chapters to your unfinished novel, for inclusion in a collection to be published in Summer 2009.

Abandoned Novel.com

valeca

I see. As a 33 year old internet savvy female writer who's also an avid reader, I'd have to pass. But thanks for answering my questions.

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"...make your own nature, not the advice of others, your guide in life." --Pythia, Oracle of Apollo at Delphi

lin

I hear Tarantino is going to do a film composed entirely of first acts of films that fizzled out.

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Mike C

Reservoir Flops?

The only home for the unfinished novel is in the trash. If it's good enough to be read, finish it, don't publish snippets. I'm over 35, internet savvy, a frequent/constant reader... and I think your idea stinks like the corpse of a dead dog's arse.

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ANdotcom

You know, I didn't ask for reviews of the idea, and I didn't ask for any money from you to fund the project (nor is this some scam to charge submitters reading fees/editor fees/book copy fees or any of those games that disreputable ventures play). All I did was offer people a chance to submit something they may have put away years ago, not to do any extra work or write something new for consideration. So I am not sure what about this post engenders such passion from you, Mike.

If we are wrong about this, the only people who lose money on this deal are me and my business partner. As someone who "hasn't ruled out the possibility of one day finishing 'that damned novel'," surely you can admit that there are reasons novels don't get finished other than that they belong in the trash.

I gladly and non-defensively answered a question about target markets and shared a basic outline of the focus groups we have done. Whether you align with the focus group or not, really isn't relevant to anything. I never claimed every person in the demographic did. That would be a silly claim to make. However, if you wish to use that strawman, so be it.

I'm happy to answer questions about the submission process itself, but I won't again feel the need to answers the criticisms of people who really have no stake in this project, nor will I make the mistake of using the Writers' Resources section of this forum to advise anyone of any future projects we undertake. I was apparently suffering the misapprehension that this section of the forum was the proper area to post submission opportunities. Mea culpa.

__________________
Beginnings: A Novel (or Ten)

Now accepting submissions of the opening chapters to your unfinished novel, for inclusion in a collection to be published in Summer 2009.

Abandoned Novel.com

Mike C

More fool you. I wasn't being personal when I said the idea stinks, and I think you are rather childish if you take it personally. On a purely business level the idea has so many holes in it I find it hard to believe you've done any research at all - besides maybe posting on internet forums. If you had, you'd know this had already been done at least 3 times (to my knowledge) and bombed every time.

You must realise that this is, at best, a long shot. You don't have a publisher on board, you're not publishers yourself, but some kind of web design person, so it'll be self-published, so you then have issues of marketing...

I would really, really like to see your business plan.

If you don't want your idea questioned, don't tell people about it. I think you should consider your position very carefully before continuing with this. But I don't really care, it'll be your loss.

I do care more about writers though who are potentially pissing away their first rights on a no-hoper. There are no gift horses in this industry.

__________________
My writing
My Photo Blog
Web design for Writers
The Oddville Press