Sobol Award Defunct
Wellington Leg: Publishers Weekly announced the demise of the Sobol Contest also known as the Sobol Award. Rachel Diehl, PW’s correspondent, observes, “lower than expected responses dogged the contest since its announcement in September.” A thousand manuscripts arrived at Sobol’s virtual slush pile, far short of the fifty thousand expected after the flood gates opened. Sue Pollard, spokesperson for Sobol Award, blamed their inability to heighten awareness of the contest. Sobol founder Gur Shomron is out over one million dollars according to PW.
Wow. The mind reels. A million dollars to establish a dubious literary agency with an $85 reading fee. Most scams work the other way around: $85 invested, one million received. If all scams turned out this way irrational exuberance will propel the US economy to dizzying if not wuthering heights. Instead of being broke starving artists would be driving Bentleys flush with backdraft funding from inept schemes promising literary fame.
By the way 50,000 manuscripts at $85 a pop would have generated 4,250,000 smackers. Organizers could’ve reduced overhead by reading 2,976 manuscripts each week, finishing the great task in just over three years. Remember, they planned to select winners out of this seething mass of prose. The whole thing might have been more tempting if they’d hired Ed McMahon to rush the front door with a camera crew. Cue screaming.