Ebury Publishing in the UK (Random House subsidiary) is kicking off a contest to uncover the talents of a bookseller/writer (open only to booksellers in the UK).  They are asking for the first 5 pages of a draft.

Cool idea – most booksellers I know are/were/could be writers of some caliber and imagination, and they may well uncover the next John Dunning or Larry McMurtry.

But I’m a little less than blown away by the prizes:

Grand prize:  “the chance of having an extract published on our new book club website, editorial advice from one of our editors, along with a bottle of champagne and a signed copy of We Can’t All Be Astronauts.” ?

Runner up: “a signed copy of We Can’t All Be Astronauts.” ?

Am I reading that right?  Surely I’m missing something.  Seems a little… err… lame.  With all due respect to the author of We Can’t All Be Astronauts, I’m not convinced this would convince me to cough up the postage necessary to send the five pages to them.