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Three Guesses Who Gets To Pick America's Next Top Novelist.

Emily Gould · 01/11/07 09:00AM

That's right (yawn) — You again. Simon and Schuster's Touchstone imprint, freshly burned by the whole Sobol prize snafu, has decided to give the whole 'publishing a book by a contest winner' thing another shot. But this time, the contest, called First Chapters, will be judged by You, via social networking site we've never heard of Gather.com. According to the Times, this is a last-gasp attempt by the "struggling book industry," which, as ever, is "eager to tap into mainstream tastes." We'll let Michael Cader have that one. Our problem with the First Chapters contest: it's too damn complicated. Here's how it works: