Sobol Enterprises Wants to Reward the Slush

by Bridget Kinsella, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 9/14/2006

In a time when slush piles are hardly touched anymore, Sobol Literary Enterprises, announced an awards program for unpublished writers to win not only large cash prizes but also literary representation with Sobol.

Sobol is the brainchild of Gur Shomron, a technology entrepreneur, who is working with a team of publishing industry veterans. Former motion picture and television producer Sue Pollack is Sobol’s executive vice president and she explained how the Sobol Awards work to PW Daily.

Manuscripts of unpublished fiction writers submitted to its Web site, www.sobolaward.com, between Sept. 14-Dec. 31, will be evaluated to win the top prizes of $100,000, $25,000 and $10,000, and seven $1,000 prizes. All winners will then become clients of Sobol’s agency arm. Entries cost $85 each, but Sobol is banking on The Sobol Awards uncovering literary talent that yield book and movie deals to fuel the for-profit company’s coffers and to provide funds to continue the awards on an annual. The winners will be announced at a ceremony next year after several tiers of judging. Judges will include librarians, independent booksellers and, finally, top rung authors, said Pollack.

The inspiration for the awards came to Shomron two years ago when he saw first-hand how hard it was to get literary representation for his own novel. “I bought the Writers Market and saw that there was nowhere for unsolicited writers to go,” he said. “So I decided to change that and help writers.” Sobol is funded by private investors, which include Shomron.

The Sobol Awards website can handle up to 50,000 submissions. Self-published, iUniverse and other online published authors are not eligible. Pollack said she welcomes up to 50,000 submissions. “We want to take care of all those guys who don’t know anyone and can’t get published,” she said.

Other Sobol executives include former Bookspan and Book-of-the-Month Club editor-in-chief Brigitte Weeks who is editorial director and chair of judges, and HarperCollins former creative director Laurie Rippon who is marketing director. Former Ballantine publisher Greg Tobin, former National Book Awards executive director Neil Baldwin, and vice president of Spark Publishing at Barnes & Noble Robert Riger all serve on Sobol’s panel of judges.

“I thought the idea was unbelievably idealistic, but interesting,” said Weeks, who oversees the process of evaluating submissions. Using a pool of paid, qualified readers the manuscripts will be weeded down to 100 and then 50. The final manuscripts will be judged by a panel of authors.

To get the word out, Rippon said Sobol has an extensive advertising, public relations and direct marketing plan in place. Ads are in the works for the trades, the New York Times Book Review and writer’s publications. But Rippon said most of the marketing will be online, with links to online newsletters. “The amazing thing is that, with Gur’s background, we have the infrastructure to track everything daily and see what’s bringing people to our site,” said Rippon. “We have a flexible plan so that we can change and morph the marketing in response.”

“I believe there are major works not getting discovered,” Shomron said. “We plan to build an institution to stand for a long time.”