Hollywood Novel Wins Media Predict Project Publish

Author to Be Offered a Publishing Contract from Touchstone Imprint of Simon and Schuster

New York, NY, Tuesday, October 9, 2007 -- Media Predict and Touchstone Books, an imprint of publishing company Simon & Schuster, Inc, today announced the grand prize winner of the Media Predict Project Publish competition a novel, Hollywood Car Wash, by Lori Culwell. The winner will be offered a publishing contract with Touchstone. Senior Editor Amanda Patten will edit the book. The author is represented by Matthew Guma at The Guma Agency.

Article continues below...

Hollywood Car Wash is a novel about a young actress who finds herself thrust into the Hollywood machine, where she is reshaped and renamed, and learns the secrets, as well as the price, of celebrity. The book was originally released in March through iUniverse/ASJA and has consistently been at the top of their bestseller list, as well as reaching # 45 on Amazon.com. Culwell submitted the book to Project Publish after her husband saw a New York Times story on Media Predict. The author, of course, lives in Los Angeles.

Several Touchstone senior editors, under the direction of Vice President, Editor-in-Chief Trish Todd, selected the winner from the five finalists that were announced last month. The announcement concludes a four-month contest in which users evaluated book proposals via prediction markets at Media Predict's site, www.mediapredict.com.

"I am so thrilled to find a home for Hollywood Car Wash at Touchstone," said Culwell. "I'm really looking forward to working with the team and to bringing the book to a much wider audience. Also, I really admire and appreciate the innovation of the Media Predict team in demonstrating their vision."

"We were amazed at the wide variety of submissions, and we enjoyed the process of choosing our finalists," commented Ms Todd. "Hollywood Car Wash was the clear winner and is a good fit for our list. We're all looking forward to working with Lori, and we welcome her to Touchstone."

"Project Publish has been a great process and a great experiment," said Brent Stinski, CEO of Media Predict. "This is just a small glimpse of how we can use markets to find great media content, now and in the future. In the end it's a method the media world can't ignore."

Contestants for the contest included referrals from well-known literary agencies and bestsellers at print on demand sites Lulu and iUniverse. Other contestants were drawn from hundreds of proposals directly submitted via the Media Predict site. The contest began on May 21. Similar prediction markets have been used to forecast election results, sporting events, and motion picture box office sales with a high degree of accuracy.

Source: Simon & Schuster, Inc.