![[Logo]](/images/101ReasonsLogo.png "101 Reasons to Stop Writing")
Updated with links to winners!
Caught just in time: OneMinuteBookReviews is hosting the first annual Delete Key Awards, which honour “the worst writing in hardcover or paperback books published in the past year”. The awards are compiled by author, journalist and reviewer Janice Harayda. For more info, read the Delete Key Awards FAQ, so you don’t have to ask me.
This should be televised, with the finalists and winners forced to read aloud passages selected by the judge(s), and any future royalties surrendered to fund literacy programs.
The awards are (apparently) presented in two categories, Novels/Memoir and How-To [Update: categories for convenience only, not separate awards]. The finalists, and honourable mentions, are listed below. Links go to their nominations:
Novels/Memoir:
Honourable Mention: Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier
How-To:
Honourable Mention: Your Management Sucks: Why You Have to Declare War on Yourself and Your Business, by Mark Stevens
Update — winners announced, Miss America style: Second Runner-Up, First Runner-Up (who will take the crown if the winner cannot fulfill its duties), and the Winner is …
Did you pick it? Who was robbed? What should the statue look like? Can you believe a single human read all these books without buying a ticket to Happy Town on the Prozac Express?
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Oh, what a fantastic idea — having the Delete Key Awards finalists be forced to read their writing aloud and donate their royalties to literacy programs! It’s brilliant.
Dare I suggest that the perfect place for the reading would be the “Oprah” show, given that at least one of the finalists (Elizabeth Berg) owes some of her success to having been a selection of Oprah’s book club? Tom Cruise could jump up and down on her couch to show how much he admires their work.
About the categories: I did consider others including biography, essays, and poetry). But I didn’t find anything in those that was bad enough. This is baffling given, for example, all the bad poetry that gets published. What is it about Mitch Albom’s novels and all those awful business books that makes them seem even worse than bad poetry? Perhaps visitors to your excellent site might like to leave comments with their thoughts on this one? Thanks a million for the link.
Jan Harayda
One-Minute Book Reviews
http://www.oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com
Well, we all expect to run into horrible poetry once in a while. But a bad business book takes a certain kind of anti-talent to write
LOL. That’s totally awesome. It’s been a while since I’ve stopped by but I’m going to have to check this one out.
I apologize for the deleted post. My brain hasn’t been properly marinated in caffeine this morning, and the typo police have no mercy! Let’s try again.
The Slushpile Diva *tried* read Handmaiden and the Carpenter–tried being the key word. The voice didn’t sound like Elizabeth’s. Voice is what once made Liz a best seller.
Is there a moral to would be authors? Don’t let the whims of market, or calls for seasonal writing, cause you to stray from your author’s voice (once you’ve found it). It’s your fingerpint as a writer.
Gosh, just found my next blog. ;c)