We named five finalists today in Project Publish, which Media Predict has conducted in conjunction with Touchstone Books, an imprint of publishing company Simon & Schuster, Inc. Contestants for the contest included referrals from well-known literary agencies and best-sellers at print-on-demand sites Lulu and iUniverse. Other contestants were drawn from hundreds of proposals directly submitted via the Media Predict site.

Since it was launched, Project Publish has attracted international media attention including articles in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Economist, and The International Herald Tribune, and a feature on American Public Radio.

Several Touchstone senior editors independently selected five finalists to compete for future publication with the imprint:

• Dirty Cookbook, a humorous novel by Jason Clampet, of Philadelphia, PA: In this outrageously funny tale of sexual misadventures, Paul Chambers and his bachelor friends have discovered one of the best-kept secrets of dating: few women can resist the romantic allure of a wonderful meal prepared by a man. Paul and his friends make it their mission to perfect every recipe and record the greatest hits of their cooking and dating lives in their “Dirty Cookbook.”
• Hollywood Car Wash, a novel by Lori Culwell, of Los Angeles, CA: In a shockingly accurate look at the entertainment world, a normal college student in Michigan appears in a TV pilot that gets picked up by a network. She then undergoes the “Hollywood Car Wash” consisting of losing twenty pounds, getting new teeth and blonder hair, and accessorizing with a megastar boyfriend with a big secret.
• Think Twice, Click Once: The Little Black Book of E-Style, a non-fiction book by Jan O’Neil, of Norfolk, MA: What’s the window to your professional image? Today, it’s your “E-Style.” Think Twice, Click Once enhances your e-mail management and writing skills, providing up-to-date know-how and informative and humorous anecdotes from America’s top executives.
• The Didymus Contingency, a fantasy thriller by Jeremy Robinson, of Barrington, NH: If you could go back in time and witness any event, where would you go? Dr. Tom Greenbaum faces that question after successfully discovering the secret to time travel, he knows the time, place and event he will witness: the death and failed resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• Navassa Island Murderers, a historical book by Peter O. Whitmer, of Boston, MA: Could an illiterate deaf-mute Black teen, a defendant in America’s largest murder trial, possibly topple the U.S. President? The answer is yes. This historical work traces a bizarre and fascinating series of events surrounding Congress’s 1856 U.S. Guano Act and a “Haitian Relocation Plan” for slaves – a plan that left hundreds in horrifying labor conditions in the Windward Passage on Navassa Island.

In the next phase of the contest, the five finalists will post expanded excerpts from their books on the Media Predict site. Media Predict users then will evaluate the expanded proposals via prediction markets until Tuesday, October 9 when a grand-prize winner will be announced. As in the initial selection of finalists, Touchstone editors will make an independent judgment of which book to choose for future publication.

So the race is on – predict who will walk away with the grand prize today. See a full listing of new finalist markets here.