Richard and Judy have announced the winner of the £50,000 advance from Pan MacMillan for a debut novel- it is Christine Aziz, a '50-something homeopath from Bournemouth'. her novel, The Live Readers, is set in a dystopian future. MacMillan are so impressed with the standard of other entries that they have also offered the four other finalists £20,000 contracts, and the plan is for all the novels to be published this autumn.

Anna, do you have any idea what happens to all the other submissions? Straight to the shredder, or are they returned? My question arises from the last thread on R&J about writers who are worried about their ideas being nicked:
http://www.writewords.org.uk/forum/51_32431.asp

Adele.

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PS I''m not for one moment suggesting that PanMac would nick people's ideas, it was more a general thought about the industry.

Adele,

There is always a risk that someone will nick ideas from other writers; I am sure this goes on all the time. However I do feel that an announcement needs to be made on R&J programme about the fate of the thousands of submissions that were sent in. After all, none came from published Authors and these works are quite precious to the writers who submitted them.

All Writers take a risk when submitting to anyone outside their front door. To people like me it really is no big deal and I 'open' my work on our site for anyone, anywhere to read. One never knows - there may well be a Hollywood Producer with lots of dollars surfing the net and.... well, we can all dream.

But remember there is a world of a difference between someone nicking your idea
and someone stealing your written work.
Len

Len, yes I know you're right and that ideas can't be copyrighted. Anyway, although I was inadvertently lax and recently emailed my book without my name on it, my lawyer has a copy, but let's hope that I won't need her services.

Adele.

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PS I didn't enter the PanMac competition.

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Turns out I was simply being very, very paranoid!

A homeopathic dystopian future sounds............disturbingly soothing, perhaps?!



Mike

Adele, I haven't a clue about what happened to the other submissions, other than I'd assume they simply got pulped- that would be the norm. Nice to see that the winning author defied people's expectations though, not trendy by the sound of her, more like a new Margaret Atwood? which cannot be a bad thing in my opinion, but let's read the book in the autumn and find out!

Thanks for your reply Anna - now I realise what pulp fiction really means! I saw the programme where the top five were announced and they had a good mix of men and women (all, notably, brunettes!) and a spread of ages. I would have thought that a fifty-two year old woman who left school at sixteen is probably the perfect demographic for the programme's viewers. Her book sounded interesting, but I thought it was called The Olive Readers, which is a puzzling title. As you say, though, let's see what she's written before passing judgement.

Adele.

You are quite right Adele, it is indeed called the Olive Readers as opposed to the Live Readers, and my typo is probably due to my over-excitement that the winner wasn't in fact a twentysomething with all that implies! But have just seen somewhere that she isn't quite as unwordly as that '50-something homeopath and grandma from Bournemouth' makes her sound- she's also been a freelance journalist, so.... anyway, all luck to her. Have a look at the http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/R/richardandjudy/keep4archive/how_to_publish.html site for more in-depth info on the winners.

yes saw that somewhere else too:

heres the info:
Curriculum Vitae of Christine Aziz

International freelance journalist. Experience working under difficult conditions in Afghanistan, Iraq, India, Africa etc. News and feature writing for international press. Corporate articles and interviews and editing copy into good English. Articles syndicated worldwide. Travel features for inflight mags. Corporate articles for in-house publications. The Guardian, The Times, Daily Mail, Marie Claire, Red Cross publications, International Committe for Humanitarian Reporting, plus publications in South Africa, America, Australia.

Paints a different picture now doesn't it?

Interesting, Jai. It seems she's certainly paid her writing dues! I was thinking too that in a few years Julie Burchill will also be able to describe herself as a fifty-two year old who left school at sixteen. Ah, the power of spin!

Adele.

I think that Christine Aziz is a different one actually- the one who's a war reporter is not the R and J winner. (pretty sure anyway as I found the same info then realised there were two.)

actually this is exactly the same woman; christine aziz has worked for years and years as an international journalist. i worked with her years ago at bella magazine where she was a very very feisty features writer; so as for the articles that site her as having 'worked only for 3 years at westminster press then didn't like the pressure of journalism' that's rubbish. what i dislike is the disingenousness of it all. why not say she's a practising journalist? why paint this little old gran picture?
do a google check on her - it's all there. here's her pic too - see www.iran-interlink.org/files/info/Jan05/christine_aziz

you'll see it's the same person. from a 2004 article for the independent.

but why not admit it; why hide it?

well yes garry, i agree with your comments. it would be more refreshing for someone to celebrate who they are fully, reveal what has informed them etc. She is undeniably a fully formed writer - and nothing wrong with that. but state it; declare it, it's like going through the green channel at customs.
be like oscar wilde, i have nothing to declare but my genius!
it will be interesting to see whether richard and judy reveal this. perhaps they don't know. i believe they are going to be filming 'work in progress'. viewers should be given the fuller picture.
by the way garry, the full web ref is
www.iran-interlink.org/files/info/Jan05/christine_aziz.htm

i tried it; doesn't work without last 3 digits. got there in the end. yes it is exactly the same person that wept on r and j . . .
z

My delightful colleague Joseph Marins entered this somewhat shabby old thing, he was not impressed.

J Cham