Lori Culwell To Be Offered a Publishing Contract from Touchstone Imprint of Simon and Schuster

Media Predict and Touchstone Books, an imprint of publishing company Simon & Schuster, Inc, today announced that Hollywood Car Wash by Lori Culwell is the grand prize winner of Project Publish, a book contest originally launched on May 21. Lori will be offered a publishing contract with Touchstone Books. Senior Editor Amanda Patten will edit.

Hollywood Car Wash is a novel about a young actress who finds herself thrust into the Hollywood machine, where she is reshaped and renamed, and learns the secrets, as well as the price, of celebrity.  The book was originally released in March through iUniverse/ASJA, and has consistently been at the top of their bestseller list, as well as reaching #45 on Amazon.com. Culwell submitted the book to Project Publish after her husband saw a New York Times story on Media Predict.

Several Touchstone senior editors, under the direction of Vice President, Editor-in-Chief Trish Todd, selected the winner from five finalists announced last month.

“I am so thrilled to find a home for Hollywood Car Wash at Touchstone,” said Culwell.  “I’m really looking forward to working with the team, and to bringing the book to a much wider audience.  Also, I really admire and appreciate the innovation of the Media Predict team in demonstrating their vision.   Thanks so much to everyone.”
 
Contestants for the contest included referrals from well-known literary agencies and bestsellers at print-on-demand sites Lulu and iUniverse. Other contestants were drawn from hundreds of proposals directly submitted via the Media Predict site.

Media Predict congratulates Lori Culwell. And special thanks all of the 50 contestants who took part in Project Publish!  

Peter Whitmer’s Navassa Island Murderersis a now finalist in Media Predict’s Project Publish contest with Touchstone Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. We checked in with Peter for a quick e-mail interview.

Navassa describes some fascinating events. Tell us the story of what you’ve gone through to try to get your book into print.

Trying to get The Navassa Island Murderers into print has proved an odyssey.  The story came to me; I did not seek it out; at times I feel as if I am merely a conduit.  It just appeared:  Vivid; graphic; appalling; human; real, and timeless, after one very long day in Lamont Library, my head stuck in a microfilm machine, reading old newspaper accounts of the riot, something I stumbled over on the Net. 

Fleshing-out the story, I came away amazed at the complex scope of it – a human saga of the world teetering on the cusp of immense change – change in industry, technology, warfare, and territorial imperative. 

I spoke with Tom Robbins, a good friend familiar with the story line.  He said, “Take six months – do the Screenplay; take six years – do the book.  But do it.” 

I usually have real trouble writing without a Contract.  The Screenplay emerged with a Herculean force of its own.  It has been done for quite a while.  Puff Daddy – that’s right – came an inch from optioning it. 

Immediately, I rode that beast of inner motivation, and charged onward with the non-fiction book.  As a ‘Period Piece’ it proved a tough sell.  And yet it holds universal themes, some of which were, when I first began, politically incorrect.  The tectonic plates of world politics have shifted.  Issues of Presidential Powers, Terrorism litigation, individual rights, treatment of detainees, and definitions of American jurisdiction have, recently, been full frontal and in heated debate:  This is what Navassa is all about.

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Jason Clampet’s Dirty Cookbook is a now finalist in Media Predict’s Project Publish contest with Touchstone Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. We checked in with Jason for a quick e-mail interview.

OK … for starters, tell us the story of what you’ve gone through to try to get your book into print.

Up until my participation in Project Publish, I was taking a very traditional path towards publishing the novel. Over the last few years I had worked with Melissa Chinchillo at Fletcher & Parry to sell a children’s book to Hyperion, as well as on a separate YA project. When I had the Dirty Cookbook idea, I went to her first, chatted about the idea, and then began writing chapters.

Dirty Cookbook has such a catchy hook – guys who learn how to cook to win over women. You can instantly see how this could be a fun read. When did you first think of that basic idea?

In 2006 I was involved in a partnership to create a community website about food. There were five of us and we spent much of our time in kitchens in L.A. and London, pulling together recipes and cooking for one another. The prep and cooking time before each meal was a lot like the Mother’s Day scene in the online excerpt: trash talking, teasing – basically the same boasting and challenging you get on a basketball court or soccer field, but with knives.

The partnership went bad, and I retreated into a bit of a funk. Fortunately, though, my wife and I were living in Paris at the time, and we went for a run every morning that took us past at least one large market. During one of these runs a few days later, my wife told me to snap out of it and suggested that I should write about the positive aspects of the experience. I said that I would if she’d run back and buy some pork chops we just saw. She did, and I took the elements of the partnership that I loved – the camaraderie and friendships – and mixed them with a love story.

With such a good hook, have you had any interest from film companies?

I’ve always thought of this as a novel first, and I haven’t pursued writing or pitching a screen version. That doesn’t mean, though, that I don’t think there’s a place for the characters and their stories on TV or at the theater. With the exception of buddy-cop flicks, I don’t see many solid friendships between men at the movies, and on TV you have to watch a football game to see guys express any real camaraderie.

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Jan O’Neil’s Think Twice, Click Once is a now finalist in Media Predict’s Project Publish contest with Touchstone Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. We checked in with Jan for a quick e-mail interview.

First question: tell us the story of what you’ve gone through to try to get your book into print.

I started writing this book over eight years ago.  I was the senior marketing communications manager for a Fortune 500 company and resigned to become a stay-at-home mom.  To keep the brain going between loads of laundry and dirty diapers, writing this book gave me the opportunity to escape to the office with the hope of helping fellow professionals.
Getting the book into print was much more excruciating than I thought.   You not only have to woo an agent — the agent has to woo a publisher.  Media Predict certainly made the process more enjoyable.

You’ve collected some hilarious anecdotes about bad e-mail use, most of which are in the book. What’s the worst example you can think of?

Have you read the news recently?  Bad e-mail stories ar e popping up everyday.  One just occurred recently when an airline CEO responded to a customer complaint issue by pressing “reply all,” which included the customer. The CEO’s response said, “ . . . we owe him nothing as far as I’m concerned.  Let him tell the world how bad we are. He’s never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny.” That’s a big oops.

Why does this stuff keep happening?  We all know that e-mail has drastically changed the way we communicate, yet it should never have changed how we communicate.  Only a decade ago, most professionals relied on the “discerning eye” of the secretary to manage the communication tasks of the office.  Today, the assistant has been tragically replaced by the personal computer, giving way to professionals to spew scores of poorly composed e-mails.  Think Twice, Click Once is a handbook that gives professionals the know-how to better manage communication. 

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A best-seller on self-publishing site iUniverse, Lori Culwell’s Hollywood Car Wash is a now finalist in Media Predict’s Project Publish contest with Touchstone Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. We checked in with Lori for a quick e-mail interview.  

OK: everyone gets this question. Tell us the story of what you’ve gone through to try to get your book into print.
 
Hollywood Car Wash was written last year, after many of friends in the industry told me horror stories and I decided they all needed to be put into a novel.  When I was done I gave it to to my agent, and she sent it around to some publishers.  The main piece of feedback I got was that while they loved the writing, they didn’t think anyone would buy a novel that was based on the inside of the Hollywood industry. Obviously, I disagreed!

So what exactly happens when someone gets the “Hollywood Car Wash”?

Here’s the “Hollywood Car Wash,” in a nutshell.  You can see it on any actress that gets into the business young, and maybe isn’t as aesthetically pleasing as the network might want.  First comes weight loss, then whiter teeth, then blonder hair, then stylish clothes.  Then you start to notice subtle changes, like “Did that person get a new nose?  How come they look so much thinner?”  There are some great before and after shots on my blog, if you’re interested.  Right now, I see this happening to America Ferrerra, which is ironic because she’s in a show called Ugly Betty, but ABC obviously wants to make sure you know she’s NOT REALLY UGLY.

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A top best-seller on self-publishing Lulu.com for the past two years, Jeremy Robinson’s The Didymus Contingency is a now finalist in Media Predict’s Project Publish contest with Touchstone Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. We checked in with Jeremy for a quick e-mail interview. See his market page and tell us what you think.

MP: Tell us the story of what you’ve gone through to try to get your book into print.

In 2002 I wrote the novel, which was a big change for me as I had written screenplays for years prior. A few months after finishing the first draft I contacted James Rollins, who at the time only had three novels out (Subterranean, Excavation and Deep Fathom). Long story short, he read and loved the novel and provided a blurb. Then…I did nothing with it for three years (while I wrote two more novels and two more screenplays).

I kept in contact with Rollins over the years and he’s read several of my novels to date, and when we spoke about The Didymus Contingency again, we agreed that while it was original and a fun read, the mix of religious and mainstream thriller genres would be a hard sell at the time. So I decided to self-publish the book, having never sent it to an agent or publisher, and prove the book’s worth before bothering to spend a massive amount of time, energy and money only to end of in the frigid land of the submission slush pile.

The book debuted [on self-publishing site Lulu.com] in 2005, and after a slow start, during which I realized I needed to learn a lot about marketing, sales began to pick and have done so since. Sales were close to 6,000 last time I tallied them and may well be beyond that now. My goal for the book has been to sell 10,000 copies (the number of sales agents and publishers look for in self-published books to gauge their worth) and I’m well on my way to reaching that goal. But what has been most interesting about my experience with self-publishing the book is that recognition for it came long before reaching my goal. Just two months after publishing the book I was contacted by my agent, and signed with him a week later. I’ve also been contacted by more than 30 publishers, foreign and domestic, which has resulted in four foreign translation deals and put me in the crosshairs of several U.S. publishers that have taken an active interest in my newest novels. I can’t elaborate on that yet, but I’m expecting news soon.

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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.

After three months, we’ve just posted the last of our 50 contestants for Project Publish. Top-notch book proposals have come from literary agents, print-on-demand sites like Lulu and iUniverse, as well as hundreds of direct submissions to the site. We have proven authors and first-time writers, covering genres like fiction, memoir, health, humor, history, and more. As we enter the final month, you can predict who will make the shortlist of five finalists – and who won’t. We’ll make the announcement on the week of September 17. Until then, see our full listing of book proposals and make your trades.

From Olympic gold-medalist Dorothy Hamill and former Miss America Kate Shindle, to best-selling UK author Jasper Cooper, Media Predict is delighted to offer a remarkable group of writers for our launch:

• Dorothy Hamill and Ellen Levy Sarnoff (producer of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) bring you Skatey Katey, the first in a projected series of children’s books.
• Jasper Cooper’s self-published Candara’s Gift shot to the top of the Amazon.co.uk charts. He’s looking to bring his magical story to America.
• From former Miss America and Broadway star Kate Shindle, we have Crown Chasers, a hilarious inside account of the pageant world.
• B. Brandon Barker’s NASA conspiracy novel, Operation EMU, created hilarious buzz when theorists and UFO magazines believed it wholesale.
• Brenna Hajek ’s Characters In Search Of An Actress explores what happens when an Academy Award® winning actress comes face-to-face with her own fictional characters.
• Greg Olear’s uS and TheM is a romantic comedy with a mischievous twist. (S&M anyone?)
• Catherine Raffaele’s The Thirteen Virtues is the first focused look at Benjamin Franklin’s Thirteen Virtues as a map for personal growth.
• Jason Clampet’s Dirty Cookbook is an outrageously funny tale of sexual misadventures in which a group of bachelor friends discover one of the best-kept secrets of dating: food.
• Penelope Estrada’s One True Love is an international tale of lovers forced to keep their relationship secret from both family and friends in the fast-changing 1960s.
• Certified Military Physical Training Specialist Mark Lauren brings us You Are Your Own Gym, with innovative bodyweight-only exercises that require no special equipment and can be performed anywhere.
• Alison Oliver writes and illustrates the children’s book Yoo-Hoo, Bunnie McFoo!, in which Bunnie learns that what counts the most is how she feels on the inside, not what she looks like on the outside
• Dan Markowitz’s Coming Up Short takes a candid and often heartbreaking look at sports greats who never won a championship.
• Lastly, Vicki Nicholson’s I Don’t Know Jack portrays a loveable, scruffy Jack who is plagued by a phony marriage, a new lawyer girlfriend, and (among other things) the Law of Karma.

We’re proud to have them all on Media Predict. Will they get a book deal? Make your predictions in our markets. See our full listing of books.