Ready to Write Your Novel?

Santa Clara County Library District (SCCLD) has joined forces with JukePop, Inc. and Black Hill Press to promote and support writing and reading with the launch of the Summer Writing Project.

A collaborative effort to identify up-and-coming literary talent, the Summer Writing Project provides aspiring authors with an opportunity to create novellas (a written, fictional narrative normally longer than a short story but shorter than a novel) and submit these stories one chapter at a time for immediate quantitative and qualitative feedback from readers.

Writers are encouraged to create novellas and submit chapters via jukepop.com. All entries must follow JukePop, Inc.’s criteria for submissions at www.jukepop.com/home/submissions. Novellas should be 10,000 to 30,000 words in length, although compelling characters and evocative content are deemed more important than word count. Novellas will be featured on the SCCLD web site based on JukePop, Inc. reader analytics (retention + reading time).

“JukePop, Inc. is excited to bring this project to a community of readers, writers and library users,” stated Jerry Fan, Founder and CEO of JukePop, Inc. “It’s really simple. The Summer Writing Project benefits the community, is free for writers to join, and is reinventing Santa Clara County Library District’s role in this new publishing era.”

Writers eighteen and older are invited to submit their stories to this year’s Summer Writing Project. “Do we have another Jack London, John Steinbeck or Amy Tan amongst us? I don’t know, but it will be fun to find out,” commented Gail Mason, SCCLD Library Services Manager for Collection Development and Reading Services. “This project provides the perfect complement to our annual Summer Reading Program, which encourages and celebrates reading for all ages.”

After the contest ends on August 31, 2014, Black Hill Press will select three (3) novellas from submitted entries and publish them in a special Summer Writing Project collection with cover artwork by noted artist Jeannie Phan. In addition, JukePop, Inc. and Black Hill Press will promote contestants’ serial eBook works to public libraries throughout California.

--Announcement from Santa Clara County Library District