America’s Next Great Author
I’m conjuring the teaser theme music and possible lasers as I type this. America’s Next Great Author is being pitched as a show in the same vein as Project Runway, American Idol, and X-Factor. Kwame Alexander has come alongside Arielle Eckstut and David Sterry (The Book Doctors) to bring it to life.
From Publishers Weekly: “America’s Next Great Author takes more than a little inspiration from American Idol’s format—the plan is for ‘tryouts’ to take place in cities across the country, with would-be authors delivering their one-minute pitches to industry professionals. The field will be narrowed to six contestants who will participate in a month-long writer’s retreat during which they will live together Big Brother-style. During the month, the aspiring authors must start a project on the first day and finish it by the last. Throughout the retreat, they’ll also participate in storytelling challenges and work with mentors to develop their stories. Sterry said the challenges will ‘show off a writer’s ability to use words, think fast, be creative,’ but also help them to learn to market and promote their books ‘because writers are called upon to do so many different tasks now in modern publishing that have nothing to do with writing your book.’”
Well, we shall see if this gets picked up as a series. To me — an outsider — there always seems to be a high/low thing going on with publishing, i.e. the erudite publishers of bygone days (The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris, which I posted about yesterday, captures this well) versus the self-published/fan-fiction outgrowths/TikTok favorites/etc. of a more “grassroots” movement. I’m assuming America’s Next Great Author will strike a note somewhere in the middle, but let’s predict how the drama among contestants is going to unfurl — because you know it has to with shows like these. 🎭📚🎬
originally published on instagram