September 5, 2006

Dear writers, reviewers, and guests,

Since the site’s launch in October 2005, we as a community have achieved much:

• The site has grown into one of the largest and most trafficked writing communities on the web.
• The site has granted publishing contracts for 24 short stories and poems and published them on TNBW Publishing. TNBW Publishing has received tens of thousands of visits and is profitable – publishing your work. 
• The writers on the site have had their work published by numerous literary magazines, have won writing competitions, and have been recognized by the publishing world at-large for their writing.
• The first TheNextBigWriter Novel Competition was widely reported and covered by online and print magazines.

Now, it is time to raise the bar even higher. 

We have listened to your feedback, studied the publishing world, and come up with several new programs and enhancements that will further the site’s goal of helping our writers improve their work and be recognized. These changes will provide our members with better feedback, more exposure, and greater opportunity.

Very shortly, we will be announcing a new Novel Competition. Our first Novel Competition was a success and we have studied it in detail to come up with an even better second one. The upcoming Novel Competition will be unique to the writing/publishing world and it will be done in a way that strengthens the community and the value of the site to everyone who participates. 

We will continue to enhance the site to help support the competition and to improve the feedback process. As we just posted in the forum, one of these changes will be the creation of a blind rating process. Ratings will no longer be visible on the site. While these changes may be confusing to some long-time members, we believe they will help the site move closer to fulfilling its mission and goals. 

Lastly, we will soon be launching a companion publishing site to TheNextBigWriter that will provide writers with another way to market their work, interact with readers, and promote themselves. We expect that a beta version of the site will launch in the next couple of days. Member of TheNextBigWriter will receive notice of the site and have the opportunity to be the first to participate.

Together, these changes and additions will provide you with more feedback, opportunity, and exposure to propel your writing career.

 

July 24, 2006

Dear writers, reviewers, and guests,

July has been a successful month for writers on TheNextBigWriter. The site’s members continue their streak of being accepted for publication or recognized by the publishing community. Amongst the successes this month:

July 21: “When in Rome” by Paniolo will appear in Defenestration’s August 20^th Issue. 

July 16: Moses was interviewed by the Chicago Field Museum/Lake Park Crescent newsletter for his poem “May 14, 1974.” 

July 15: "The Rosano Job" by Dan Dittmar will appear in the September issue of Skive Magazine (Quarterly Print Mag).

July 13: "Honoring The Other Dog's Point" by Selah Cooper-Holl, the winner of TheNextBigWriter's Bow -Wow Short Story Competition was accepted for publication in the fall issue of Field Trial Magazine.

July 14: CRIMSON ICE by member Joey C (a mystery under her pen name A. J. Alise ) is being published by DigitalPulpPublishers and is already available in digital format for download. It will also be available in audio format next year. In addition, Joey C was chosen as Author of the Month by DPP Store for July. Joey C's short story "Gourmet Buffet" will be published by a new UK magazine called Cloud Nine in its first issue this Sept.

July 7: “CUTTING TOO DEEP” by Gem won a flash contest sponsored by the Writer's Den. It will be published in the September issue of Wet Ink Press.

To see the full list of member accomplishments, click here.

In addition, the novels Coming to Terms by Elle Lockwood and Bluetooth Bayou by HavePenWillScribble reached the Top 10 and joined TheNextBigWriter Top 10 Recognition Program.

Congratulations to all!

In the News

TheNextBigWriter is making news. The sites listed below have recently posted an article about TheNextBigWriter in the past week: 

• The Book Standard
• The Advocate
• Independent Publisher

Site Enhancements

Today we rolled out a major enhancement to the site’s ranking system. While the actual algorithm used to rank submitted material has not changed, the site now displays rankings over various timeframes.  In addition, we have expanded the lists from the Top 10 to the Top 20.  These enhancements will make the ranking system more dynamic and flexible, allow it to better support future challenges and competitions.  The system will also provide more exposure to writers and their work. 

The page entitled All Time Rank uses the same scoring as the old system and corresponds to what was previously on the Rankings page. 

Please note that all previously announced competitions are being run based on the All Time Rank pages. In addition, the rank at the top of each submitted piece as well as in Your Account is also corresponds to All Time rank. 

Short Story and Poetry Competitions

We wanted to remind everyone that the General Short Story and Poetry competition ends on July 31^st. On that date, the top three ranked short stories and poems listed on the All Time Short Story and Poetry rankings page will receive paid publishing contracts. Shortly after that, on August 17^th, we’ll be selecting the winner of the Summer Love Short Story and Poetry Competition.

Star Reviews

A new Star Review was given recently. The first chapter of Fallen by Annie was reviewed by Star Reviewer Paul Bagdon. Additional Star Reviews are on the way.

 

July 7, 2006

Dear writers, readers, and guests,

I want to apologize for the long delay between updates. Time has been tight but perhaps more significantly, we ’ve been using the forum more to communicate changes and developments. The weekly recap has been getting a bit redundant and we have been thinking of making it bi-weekly. 

We’ve seen a large influx of new members over the last couple of weeks and I want to say welcome. New members bring fresh material, ideas, and perspectives. We’re currently examining the welcome process to ensure that the process of becoming part of the community is a pleasant experience for everyone. I welcome any ideas you have as a new member of an existing member for making the experience of joining the site as stress-free as possible.

The site has grown significantly in the last couple of months and this growth will continue. More members mean more diverse opinions of your writing, more writers to read your work, and more reviewers to provide you with interesting perspectives. A larger site will also increase its clout and lead to more opportunities for members. I

As the site has grown, we’ve been enhancing it to manage more writers and more posted writing. The fan system and the tag system are two enhancements we’ve added to help members find work and navigate a rapidly growing list of writing.

We have several other enhancements in-progress. These include a broadening of the ranking system so that top work can be seen across different timeframes, simplifying the listing of novels on the site, and adding a full-novel review option. The developers are also looking into the integration of an internal site messaging system.

As we add new members though, the site will not waver in its commitment to create a civilized place for writers to receive feedback and develop their writing. Nothing has been more gratifying to me than seeing the caring, helpful, supportive community that has developed. Thank you. 

Competition Update

Congratulations to Selah Cooper-Holl, the winner of the Bow-Wow Short Story Contest with her short story "Honoring the Other Dog’s Point." "Bones of Dogs" by Sarah Dawn took second place and "More Than A Dog: Woman's Best Friend" by Michele Cozzens took third.

Current Competitions

The Summer Love Competition kicked off on July 5^th. Submit a short story or poem that incorporates Summer Love between July 5, 2006 and August 17, 2006 and you could win a Star Review.

The Short Story and Poetry Publication Competition is also underway and will end on July 31, when the top 3 ranked short stories and poems will be offered paid publishing contracts.

June 19, 2006

Hello all,

We wanted to let everyone know that we are in the midst of launching two significant enhancements to the site. We’re rolling them out over the next couple of days so if you see a new feature and it appears a bit buggy, please bear with us. Some of you have already noticed the new features and have asked about them, so here’s a bit of detail about what to expect. 

Fan System

The first enhancement is the addition of a Fan system that will allow readers and reviewers to support their favorite writers and to also be alerted when a writer they are a fan of has posted something new. A reader can become a fan of a writer by clicking on the “Become a Fan” button on any posted novel chapter, short story, or poem. Or, they can click the same link at the bottom of each author’s profile.

For writers, the fan system offers a way of attracting and communicating with a dedicated base of readers and reviewers. Writers can accept or decline fans and manage their fan list from within the Your Account tab or from any of the Become a Fan links.

Tag System

The second enhancement is a tagging system that will allow writers to add keywords to their posts. These keywords will be searchable and will also serve as an alternate way outside of the usual genres to navigate the site. Readers will have an easier time finding work that interests them and writers will have an even greater chance of their work being read, even if it isn’t at the top of a list.

Writers can add tags to their writing via the Main Story Information link for each posted work. To get to this page:

• Go to Your Account
• Click the name of the work you want to add tags to.
• Click Edit Main Story Information
• The Edit Main Content Info page will allow you to add tags.

Writers posting new work will see the box for adding tags as they create their new post. For novels, tags are added to the main section of the work and not to each individual chapter.

On The Move

Please join us in congratulating Kirk Ort, whose short story 'Prairie Girl' posted on Pitwit.com was selected as the winner of the 'Pitwit Short Story Competition May 2006.' To read about other member successes please click here.

 

June 12, 2006

Dear writers, readers, and guests,

This week we concluded the novel competition and the latest round of the short story and poetry competitions. Before we announce the winners, we want to congratulate everyone who posted their work on the site. Feedback is like oxygen to writers and hopefully through posting your writing, regardless of where you ranked, you have received insight that will improve your craft.

We do want to take a moment to recognize the novelists on the site. Competing in the novel competition was a grueling eight month experience. The three finalists (IveyBanks, Lesley C Weston, and Kirk) together posted more than 200 chapters, reposted countless more, and received more than 5,000 reviews and ratings. They received feedback from readers, writers, and Star Reviewers and have all worked tirelessly to improve their novels. They have all garnered the respect and admiration of the site. 

Now, onto the winners.

Novel

In the Novel category, Out of the Dark (Armageddon Lost I) by IveyBanks was the winner of the $5,000 Novel Competition. As the winner, IveyBanks will receive $5,000 in cash as well as lifetime membership to the site.

The runners-up were Nancy Boy by Lesley C Weston finishing second and The Journey of Addie Boyd by Kirk finishing third. 

Congratulations Ivey, Lesley, and Kirk!

Short Story and Poetry

The winners of the Short Story and Poetry competition are:

Short Stories 
 
1. "The Journal" by Derek Atkins 
2. "Being a Drag on Your Future Wife" by Barry N Davidson 
3. "A Man Like Me" by Gem 
 
Poems 
 
1. "Poets" by L.P. Thomas 
2. "I Cannot Breathe" by Jennifer 
3. "Dancing with Mary-Jane" by Pamelablack62

These writers will receive a paid publishing contract to have their work published on the TNBW Network of sites. In addition, we recently learned that based on her success in the competition, Gem’s piece was accepted to be published by Sirens, an online magazine. Congratulations to all!

Upcoming Recognition & Competitions

TheNextBigWriter has launched several new competitions for members. They are:

The Bow-Wow Short Story Competition. Submit a short story that incorporates man's best friend between June 8, 2006 and June 30, 2006 and you could win a Star Review. 

Short Story and Poetry Publication Competition. The three ranked short stories on July 31st will receive paid publishing contracts to have their work posted across the TheNextBigWriter Network of sites. 

In the future we will continue to roll-out competitions and challenges to provide site members with the motivation, recognition, and rewards needed to achieve success.

For more information on these competitions, click here.

Top 10 Novel Recognition Program

In addition, the site launched The Top 10 Novel Recognition Program. Any novel that reaches the Top 10 on the site’s rankings will be officially recognized as a Top 10 Novel and authors have explicit permission to use the title and the logo to promote themselves and their book. The site will soon be launching a program to help Top 10 Novelists make the most of this designation.

Site Enhancements

The site continues to grow and evolve. Within the next two days, we will be launching several key enhancements. They are:

• A tag system. You will now be able to attach keywords to your posted stories. These tags will be fed into a search engine as well as a tag cloud to allow readers another way to sort through the work on the site and find writing of interest. The tag system will provide more visibility to all of the writing on the site regardless of where it sits on the different lists.
• A fan system. Readers and reviewers will now be able to become fans of authors they like. An author’s fans will appear on their profile page and their fans will have the option of receiving an email notification when they post something new.

In addition, we’ll be correcting the formatting of reviews accessed through the Your Account tab. In the near-future, we’ll be making some additional enhancements to the ranking system as well as the novel review system. For novels, we’ll be adding the option of providing a full-book review.

Site Rankings

As many of you noticed, the site rankings have not run since June 7^th. They will start again tonight and we will review the rankings in the next recap.

Thank you for being a part of the community and congratulations again to all the winners, writers, and participants. 

June 1 - Week 34

Dear writers, reviewers, and guests,

May was a busy and successful month for members and the site. As of May 31, over 41,000 reviews have been posted for the short stories, poems, and novels on the site. In addition, the site now has over 3,000 registered members and is growing at a rapid pace. 

Writers have used the feedback they have received to fine-tune their writing and the end-result is a string of publishing success. Some recent examples of this success include: 

• May 23: Dditmar’s short story Wendy will be published in the June issue of Skive Magazine (print).
• May 19: Xxena's poem "You, Me & the 10,000" which will be published in the next edition of Events Quarterly on June 1st.
• May 17: Ben Duiverman's short story "Fade Away" was purchased by The Dark Krypt, one of the Net's finest (and paying) horror mags.

To see an expanded list of member accomplishments, please view the Members On the Move page.

Writers are being recognized and so is the site. In May, the BostonHerald Online published a story about TheNextBigWriter, and the site was featured on variety of sites including Yahoo, MSNBC, and Hollywood Reporter and more. The site is growing, writers are achieving success, and the world is paying attention. 

And we plan to continue enhancing the experience. 

The Novel Competition

On June 7, after hundreds of entries, thousands of posts, and tens of thousands of reviews and ratings, the winner of the Novel Competition will be selected.

Although there can only be one competition winner, we hope that everyone feels that they have won in some way. A process that has produced 41,000 reviews in eight months has also hopefully produced many improved manuscripts. 

On June 7, the winners of the short story and poetry competitions will also be selected. These winners receive paid publishing contracts and if they accept the contracts, will have their work published online at TNBW Publishing.

Parody Challenge

TheNextBigWriter Parody Exercise is underway. If you’re looking for a good laugh, I’d suggest you check out this thread in the forum where you can find a list of all submitted entries. 

Site Rankings

The rankings as of June 1, 2006 are as follows: 

Out of the Dark by IveyBanks and NANCY BOY by Lesley C. Weston traded the #1 spot throughout the week. As of June 1, Out of the Dark was #1, followed by Nancy Boy, and The Journey of Addie Boyd by Kirk.

In the short story category Derek Atkins remains in the #1 spot with “The Journal” for the second week in a row, followed by Barry N Davidson with “Being a Drag on Your Future Wife” and “Mr. and Mrs. I (That’s for Idealistic if You Must Know)” by K.Jergens.

In poetry “Poets” by L.P. Thomas moved into the #1 spot, followed by “I Cannot Breathe” by Jennifer and “Dancing with Mary-Jane by Pamelablack62.

Rankings are determined solely by reader ratings. Site rankings are run daily so please check the rankings page for the most up-to-date listing.

As always, look for breaking news in the forum.

May 22 - Week 33

Dear writers, reviewers, and guests,

We’ve now begun the final countdown to the end of the next contest period where we’ll be awarding the $5,000 Novel Award as well as 3 poetry and 3 short story publishing contracts to the top ranked work on the site.

In preparation for the finale of the novel competition, we had one of our Star Reviewers Paul Bagdon read and review the first chapter of the top three novels. See for yourself what he had to say.

Out of the Dark by IveyBanks

Nancy Boy by Lesley C. Weston

Little Girl Lost by Knighthawk

The writers on the site continue to achieve success in the literary world. Ben Duiverman’s short story “Fade Away” was recently purchased by The Dark Krypt, Roisin Moriarty’s novel The Willow Tree of Tullamaine is currently being evaluated by a major publisher, Rhiannon’s short story “As I See the Snow Melting” was recently selected as an editor’s choice on bewilderingstories.com. Read more member successes.

The site is continuing to grow and attract attention. BostonHerlald.com recently published an article about TheNextBigWriter. 

We’ve achieved some significant success and the site is less than a year old. In the next couple of months we’ll making enhancements to continue improving the site. These include:

• Providing more ways for writers to gain exposure for themselves and their writing.
• Improving the competition based on your feedback.
• Providing more ways for you to interact with one another.

Our goal is to make TheNextBigWriter an important part of your writing success.

After the Competition

Many of you have asked what happens after June 7 when the next competition period ends. Here’s what you can expect:

• All prior rankings will remain. We do not plan to wipe out all of the rankings you have accumulated over the past 8 months.
• Rankings will be broken down into weekly, monthly, yearly, and All Time categories. This may not be done by June 7. 
• Within the next couple of weeks, we’ll announce upcoming competitions. For the Novel Competition, expect some changes based on your feedback, such as more awards of lower amounts given more frequently.

As always, we appreciate your feedback.

Site Rankings

We are now 16 days away from the end of the novel, short story, and poetry competition period. The rankings are as follows: 

Out of the Dark by IveyBanks occupies the top novel spot for the twelfth week in a row followed by NANCY BOY by Lesley C. Weston and Little Girl Lost by knighthawk. 

In the short story category Derek Atkins moves into the #1 spot with “The Journal” followed by Barry N Davidson with “Being a Drag on Your Future Wife” and “Razorblades” by Reb_elle.

In poetry “Vague” by Westwitch remained in the #1 spot, followed by “Poets” by L.P. Thomas and Danse Macabre” by reb_elle.

Rankings are determined solely by reader ratings. Site rankings are run daily so please check the rankings page for the most up-to-date listing.

Well, that’s it for now. As always, look for breaking news in the forum.

Regards,

Sol

May 14 - Week 32

Dear writers, reviewers and guests,

May 8 - Week 31

Dear writers, reviewers, and guests,

We are now less than a month away from the end of the $5,000 novel competition. As most of you know, on June 7^th, the author of the top ranked novel on the site will be selected as the winner of the $5,000 award. In preparation for the finale, the first chapter of each of the top three novels as of 11:59 PM EST on Friday, May 12 will receive a Star Review. This not only recognizes three of the top novels, but also provides a third party review of how we as a community are doing in producing compelling, marketable material.

We are also putting together a new program that will recognize more than just the top winner, since there are so many great writers and books on the site worthy of mention. I hope to have an announcement about this program within the next week.

The site will also continue its commitment to “promoting the best undiscovered writing talent.” Many of you have read the press release issued earlier this week. Below are some of the sites that ran the story. Several major newspapers and magazines are interested in doing a story and I will keep you posted on what develops.

• Yahoo Finance
• CapeCodOnline
• The Dallas Morning News
• The Columbus Dispatch
• Entertainment Zone
• HollywoodReporter.com
• The Star-Ledger
• Morningstar.com
• Hoovers.com

The site is little more than six months old and we are still learning what works and what doesn’t. The old Member Lounge unfortunately fits into the latter category. Many of you have asked why we shut it down. The answer is that it was becoming an increasingly volatile place that was sucking up management resources while alienating many members of the community. We also took the Suggestions thread down not because we don’t want your suggestions (we do) but because arguments were breaking out over which direction the site should take. While we appreciate the passion, it was once again becoming a distraction on the site. You can always send us suggestions at contact@thenextbigwriter.com.

The Site Rankings

We are now 38 days away from the end of the novel, short story, and poetry competition period. The rankings are as follows: 

Out of the Dark by IveyBanks occupies the top novel spot for the tenth week in a row followed by NANCY BOY by Lesley C. Weston and Little Girl Lost by knighthawk. 

In the short story category Reb_elle claims the #1 spot with “Razorblades,” and the #3 spot with “Dust to Dust.” “Final Performance (Flash Fiction Autobiography)” by Westwitch rockets into the #2 spot in its debut in the Top 10.

In poetry “Vague” by Westwitch remained in the #1 spot, followed by “Poets” by L.P. Thomas and Danse Macabre” by reb_elle.

Rankings are determined solely by reader ratings. Site rankings are run daily so please check the rankings page for the most up-to-date listing.

Well, that’s it for now. As always, look for breaking news in the forum.

Until next week,

Sol

Sol Nasisi
Founder and Director
theNextBigWriter, LLC
Helping Make It You^SM

April 30 - Week 30

Dear writers, reviewers, and guests,

It was a warm spring day in Boston today. Yes, the opening line was a bit challenging, but that was part of the fun of the Spring Writing Challenge that ended today. We had 22 submissions and hopefully the writing got everyone in the mood (except for our members down-under) for the warmer weather. Selah Cooper-Holl’s short story “A Warm Spring Day” has the highest rank of any of the entrants as of today, April 30^th and she will receive a Star Review for her efforts. Congratulations Selah and everyone who participated!

We plan on running additional challenges in the upcoming months so if anyone has suggestions about fun topics to write about, or stimulating prompts, let me know. We’ve also been studying your suggestions for making the challenges better by providing a separate category where they can all be seen. 

Site Enhancements

We have made three site improvements over the last week. As mentioned in the forum,

- Work that you previously reviewed is now shaded a light blue color.  As you're clicking through the site, you can now quickly see what you have read and reviewed before.  It the writing is reposted, it will no longer be shaded. 
 
- Open reviews (reviews that you have given but that weren't rated by the author) older than 30 days are now automatically closed.  If the author does not provide a rating within the 30 day window, the system will automatically give you a 5. 
 
-  Novel chapters have been removed from your Profile Pages.  To clean up Profile Pages, only the title of your novels will appear, not the individual chapters.  Clicking on the title will bring readers to the Table of Contents for your novel.

Site Rankings

We are now 38 days away from the end of the novel, short story, and poetry competition period. 

In the rankings this week, Out of the Dark by IveyBanks occupies the top novel spot for the ninth week in a row followed by NANCY BOY by Lesley C. Weston and Little Girl Lost by knighthawk. 

In the short story category the top spots remain the same from last week. Reb_elle claims the #1 spot with “Razorblades,” and the #3 spot with “Dust to Dust.” “A Man Like Me” by Gem remains at #2. There were no new short stores in the Top 10.

In poetry “Vague” by Westwitch remained in the #1 spot, followed by “Poets” by L.P. Thomas and Danse Macabre” by reb_elle.

Rankings are determined solely by reader ratings. Site rankings are run daily so please check the rankings page for the most up-to-date listing.

Well, that’s it for now. As always, look for breaking news in the forum.

Regards,

Sol

Sol Nasisi
Founder and Director
theNextBigWriter, LLC
Helping Make It You^SM

April 23 - Week 29

April 17 - Week 28

Dear writers, reviewers, and guests,

Spring is here, as I can tell from my itching eyes and watering nose. In the spirit of rebirth and re-growth, we are in the process of planning some additional enhancements to the site over the next couple of months. The changes are going to make the site an even better place to receive feedback, get noticed, meet other writers, and read great writing. As I’ve mentioned before, your suggestions are extremely important in helping us prioritize the list.

We launched another enhancement several days ago that many of you had been asking for: a reading list. If you find an interesting piece of posted writing but don’t have the time to read/review it, you can now flag the piece and save a link to it for later. You can find out more about this enhancement here.

Spring Writing Challenge

In addition, the flowers outside the window inspired us to launch a Spring Writing Challenge. We’ve already received 14 short story and poetry entries. This was as a lighthearted exercise but to provide an additional incentive, the top rated work at the end of the month will receive a Star Review.

Site Rankings

We are now 50 days away from the end of the novel, short story, and poetry competition period. The site rankings, as of today are:

In the rankings this week, Out of the Dark by IveyBanks occupies the top novel spot for the seventh week in a row followed by NANCY BOY by Lesley C. Weston and Little Girl Lost by knighthawk. A Forbidden Cure by Slysir makes it debut on the Top 10.

In the short story category the top spots remain the same from last week. Reb_elle claims the #1 spot with “Razorblades,” followed by “A Man Like Me” by Gem and “The Journal by Derek Atkins.” There were no new short stores in the Top 10.

In poetry “Vague” by Westwitch moved into the #1 spot, followed by Danse Macabre” by reb_elle and “Poets” by L.P. Thomas.

Rankings are determined solely by reader ratings. Site rankings are run daily so please check the rankings page for the most up-to-date listing.

Well, that’s it for now. As always look for breaking news in the forum.

Regards,

Sol

Sol Nasisi
Founder and Director
theNextBigWriter, LLC
Helping Make It You^SM

April 8 - Week 27

Dear writers, reviewers, and guests,

The recap is going to be short this week.

This week we made one change to the homepage, launching a new section called Members On the Move. It’s where we are going to promote the achievement of members of the community. If you’ve written a book, published a short story, or accomplished something else that you want to let the writing world know about, tell us know via the Success Stories forum and we’ll make sure that it’s included. Over the next couple of months we’ll be adding more features to allow writers on the site to promote themselves and their writing and to manage and grow the base of support many of you have started on the site. 

Some of you have noticed that we put Members On the Move in the Reviewer Rankings spot. We’re looking for a new home for the Reviewer Rankings and expect to have them up again soon.

Site Rankings

In the rankings this week, Out of the Dark by IveyBanks occupies the top novel spot for the sixth week in a row followed by NANCY BOY by Lesley C. Weston and Little Girl Lost by knighthawk. There were no new additions to the Top 10 this week.

In the short story category the top spots remain the same from last week. Reb_elle claims the #1 spot with “Razorblades,” followed by “A Man Like Me” by Gem and “The Journal by Derek Atkins.” New to the list is “Curling Toes” by HavePenWillScribble and “Directions to Assemble” by Barry Davidson.

In poetry “Danse Macabre” by reb_elle remained in the #1 spot for the fifth week followed by “Poets” by L.P. Thomas and “Cockamamie” by Westwitch. New to the list is “Vague” by Westwitch.

Rankings are determined solely by reader ratings. Site rankings are run daily so please check the rankings page for the most up-to-date listing.

Well, that’s it for now. As always look for breaking news in the forum.

Regards,

Sol

Sol Nasisi
Founder and Director
theNextBigWriter, LLC
Helping Make It You^SM

April 1 - Week 26

Dear writers, readers, and guests,

I thought about starting with an April fools joke but realized that by the time I post it, it will probably be April 2. I’ll have to wait until next year.

In the meantime, the fact that it is now April means that we are a little more than two short months away from finding out who will win the novel award. There are a couple of tough contenders in the top spots but the competition is still open. Time will tell if someone on today’s Top 10 takes the award or if it will go to a writer who hasn’t even posted yet. Good luck to everyone.

Today, we posted the winning short stories and poems from last quarter’s competition on tNBW Publishing. If you haven’t given them a read already I would highly recommend you take a look. On June 7^th we’ll also be selecting the next three short stories and poems to be added to the site.

Site Rankings

In the rankings this week, Out of the Dark by IveyBanks occupies the top novel spot for the fifth week in a row followed by Little Girl Lost by knighthawk and NANCY BOY by Lesley C. Weston. There were no new additions to the Top 10 this week.

In the short story category reb_elle claims the #1 spot with “Razorblades,” followed by “A Man Like Me” by Gem and “The Journal by Derek Atkins.” New to the list is “Love in the Time of HIV” by Doinmybestatlast and “Being A Drag for Your Future Wife by Barry Davidson.”

In poetry “Danse Macabre” by reb_elle remained in the #1 spot for the fourth week followed by “Poets” by L.P. Thomas and “The Beast” by Elle Lockwood. New to the list is “Keystrokes” by reb_elle.

Site Enhancements

We made several site enhancements this week. The Recently Posted/Reposted section on the homepage was expanded and divided by type of work – novel, poetry, short story. This will provide more visibility to all newly posted/reposted writing and also provide readers with an easier way to find the type of writing they wish to read. 

We also eliminated the review comments from the print-friendly pages to reduce the amount of ink needed to print a copy. 

Guided by your comments and feedback, we continue to develop the site and work on both large and small enhancements. The goal is to give you the best writing/posting/feedback experience possible. So thank you for the feedback and your continued investment in the site.

TheWritersSite & The Million Pound Story Project

I wanted to remind everyone of a resource that is available for all site members. Clicking on the Writing Resources link in the upper right section of the site brings you to the front page of theWritersSite. theWritersSite (which is owned by theNextBigWriter) is a constantly evolving set of resources about the art and business of writing. We have hand-picked hundreds of links to help you navigate the publishing world. 

In addition, the site allows you to submit a link to your website (only writing related) and it will be posted in the directory. I encourage all users to take advantage of this resource.

Lastly, I wanted to let everyone know about a neat online writing project that came to my attention. It’s called The Million Pound Story Project and it’s a collaborative writing project that has just kicked off. In the words of the project’s founders:

“The concept is very simple - we are offering contributors the opportunity to take part in a unique writing project which, if successful, will be turned into an interactive DVD and iTunes download. The characters, plot, theme, setting will all be put to the sites online community we hope to attract and they will decide how the project should develop.”

Check it out and let us know what you think.

That’s it for this week.

Keep writing,

Sol

Sol Nasisi
Founder and Director
theNextBigWriter, LLC
Helping Make It You^SM

March 25 - Week 25

Hello writers, reviewers, and guests,

The last week has been a week of growing pains. As our member base and readership has continued to grow, it has put an increasing strain on the site’s technology infrastructure. And so this week we were forced (rather suddenly) to make some changes to accommodate this growth. Over the course of about four days we upgraded our hosting environment (the equipment that shows the site on the Internet). During that period, the site was down several times and we apologize for any disruption or inconvenience this may have caused. The new environment will allow us unfettered growth and should provide you with a faster, more responsive website.

We also made two other enhancements over the last week.

Slight changes were made to the credit system. The ratio between New/Reposted and all other work was narrowed. This was a common request and it should make it easier for readers to start novels at the beginning. In addition, for every week that a piece of writing does not have a cumulative three reviews, the credit is pays will increase by 10%. This change will ensure that every piece of writing posted receives a minimum of three reviews.

We also changed the way work is listed on the Read and Review and Genre pages. The chapter summaries are now hidden, condensing the listings and allowing more work to fit on each page. This makes it easier to scan the page for writing. Readers can access the summaries by clicking the + box next to the title of each piece. This change, combined with the search engine that was added several weeks ago, should make it easier to sort through all of the work posted on the site. We’ll be doing more in the coming months to provide even more ways of searching for and finding writing.

Star Reviews

Many of you have asked for a list of Star Reviews that have been done. We were planning to have this done last week but the hosting switch delayed our schedule. Nevertheless, I want to post some of the reviews that have been done over the last couple of months. A more detailed list will be forthcoming. In many cases, the piece that was Star Reviewed has been taken down from the site or reposted so that the Star Review is no longer available to the community.

Micah: Chapter 1 by Westwitch – Reviewed by Debra Hamel

Broken Sparrows I: The Keeper of the Sparrows: Chapter 1 by IveyBanks – Reviewed by Paul Bagdon

“Remote Control” by reb_elle – Reviewed by Terri Brown-Davidson

“Partner and Partner Co. Ltd.” by reb_elle – Reviewed by Maria Ganado

“The Beast” by Elle Lockwood – Reviewed by Terri Brown-Davidson

We’ll be adding more Star Reviews shortly and we’ll be sure to let the community know when they have been done.

Site Rankings

In the rankings this week, Out of the Dark by IveyBanks occupies the top novel spot for the fourth week in a row followed by NANCY BOY by Lesley C. Weston and Little Girl Lost by knighthawk. There were no new additions to the Top 10 this week.

In the short story category reb_elle claims the #1 spot with “Razorblades,” followed by “A Man Like Me” by Gem and “The Journal by Derek Atkins.” New to the list is “Frame Up” by Chiefdanka and “Rosehearty Restaurant” by Westwitch.

In poetry “Dane Macabre” by reb_elle remained in the #1 spot for the third week followed by “Poets” by L.P. Thomas and “The Beast” by Elle Lockwood.

That’s it for this week. Thanks everyone!

Until next week,

Sol

Sol Nasisi
Founder and Director
theNextBigWriter, LLC
Helping Make It You^SM

March 11 - Week 23

Hello writers, readers, and guests,

I want to congratulate the winners of the Quarterly Short Story and Poetry Competition. This quarter, over 20,000 reviews and ratings were given by other writers and readers to determine the winners from over 1,000 posted pieces of writing. The winners are:

Short Stories 
 
"Elemental Changes" by Lesley C. Weston 
"Cliche: An Accident Waiting to Happen" by Barry N Davidson 
"The Swing" by J Baker 
 
Poetry 
 
"Pass Us Through" by Diana Methot 
"Pyro_Man" by reb_elle 
"The Mirror of Soul" by Barry N Davidson

This writing will be posted on tNBW Publishing shortly for your reading pleasure.

The next Quarterly Short Story and Poetry Competition has begun and will end on June 7, 2006. In addition, on June 7 the Novel Competition will also end. For more details, please see the Member Awards page.

Search Engine

Per your requests we have added an upgraded search engine to the Read and Review page. The search engine allows you to find writing based on genre, type, country, status, and time on the site – or any combination of these criteria. Please visit Read and Review to give it a try. Please also let us know what you think.

Star Reviewers

Please join me in welcoming Paul Bagdon to the site as a Star Reviewer. Paul has published 30 novels, his latest, Partners (Dorchester/Leisure) was released last month. He is an instructor at the Writers Digest Online Workshop and his critiques and reviews of manuscripts provided to him by Writers Digest have appeared dozens of times in the last few years – the latest in the March issue of the magazine. He enjoys working with writers and several of his students have sold novels, short stories, and articles. 

The latest Star Review done was a review of reb_elle’s poem Partner and Partner Co. Ltd. It was reviewed by Maria Ganado. There will be several more Star Reviews done over the next couple of weeks. 

Rankings

In the rankings this week, Out of the Dark by IveyBanks occupies the top novel spot for the second week in a row followed by NANCY BOY by Lesley C. Weston and Little Girl Lost by knighthawk. New additions to the Top 10 include Friends of the Family by J Baker and The Willow Tree of Tullamaine by Roisin Moriarty.

In the short story category reb_elle claims the #1 spot with “Razorblades,” followed by “Requiem for a Bank Robber” by KnightWriter at #2 and “A Man Like Me” by Gem at #3. 

In poetry "Dane Macabre" by reb_elle moved into the #1 spot followed by "The Beast" by Elle Lockwood and "Poets" by L.P. Thomas.

Rankings are determined solely by reader ratings. Site rankings are run daily so please check the rankings page for the most up-to-date rankings.

Thank you everyone for a great week!

Regards,

Sol

Sol Nasisi
Founder and Director
theNextBigWriter, LLC
Helping Make It You^SM

March 4 - Week 22

Hello writers, readers, and reviewers,

I want to start out by congratulating Doinmybestatlast for his first place finish in the Tropical Vacation Challenge. His short story “Taking a Tropical Vacation with my Elephant” was voted as the top short story in the challenge by the site’s writers and readers. 

I also want to remind everyone that on March 7, 2006 at 11:59 PM EST, this quarter's short story and poetry competition period will come to a close.  At that time the top three eligible short stories and poems on the rankings list will receive paid contracts to be published on tNBW Publishing. You can view last quarter’s winners by visiting tNBW Publishing. 
 
The competition does not end with the selection of the six winners.  The next round begins at 12:00 midnight on March 8 and will continue until June 7th when the next 3 short stories and poems will be selected based on the rankings.  In addition, on June 7th the top eligible novel will receive the $5,000 novel award.   
 
For full details about the competition, click here. 
 

Star Reviews

We’ve had several Star Reviews over the last month. Many of you have asked which work was Star Reviewed and to answer this question we are going to list the reviews that each Star Reviewer has given next to their profile. Look for it by the end of the week.

Site Rankings

As of today, Out of the Dark by IveyBanks occupies the top novel spot followed by The Bellisimo Valley Bunco Squad by Michele Cozzens and NANCY BOY by Lesley C. Weston. There were no new additions to the Top 10 this week.

In the short story category Lesley C. Weston maintained her hold on the #1 spot for the ninth week in a row with “Elemental Changes.” Barry Davidson moved into the #2 spot with “Cliché: An Accident Waiting to Happen” and J Baker moved to #3 with "The Swing."

In poetry "Pyro Man" by reb_elle moved into the #1 spot followed by "The Mirror of Soul" by Barry Davidson and "Pass Us Through" by Diana Methot.

Rankings are determined solely by reader ratings. Site rankings are run daily so please check the rankings page for the most up-to-date rankings.

I also want to take a minute to thank everyone for all of the suggestions you have provided on how to improve the site. As I've mentioned before, we read and consider every one and you'll consider to see the site improve based on this feedback.

Until next week,

Sol

Sol Nasisi
Founder and Director
theNextBigWriter, LLC
Helping Make It You^SM

February 24 - Week 21

Hello writers, readers, and guests,

I wanted to use this week’s recap to remind everyone that we are coming to the end of two contest periods. The first deadline is February 28^th for the Tropical Vacation Challenge. There is still time to post your short story. And if you haven’t read the entries and provided your feedback and rating, now is the time to do it. You can find all of the tropical vacation stories by typing “tropical vacation” into the search engine on the left hand side of the homepage. More information about this challenge can be found here.

In addition, on March 7^th we pick the winners of the quarterly short story and poetry competitions. The top 3 short stories and poems receive paid publishing contracts and join last quarter’s winners on tNBW Publishing. 

For reviewers and guests, if you haven’t visited the site and read any of the stories, I highly encourage you to do so. Make your opinion heard. It is reviews from members of the site alone that determine the winners. And please provide the writers with the thoughtful feedback they are looking for.

Now, I know many of you are wondering what happens to the stories on tNBW Publishing. Does anyone read them? The answer is, yes. tNBW Publishing has received over 7,000 unique visits since its inception in mid-January. We expect traffic to grow as we add the winner of the Tropical Vacation challenge and the six pieces selected in March.

Site Rankings

The competition for the top novel spot has tightened significantly in the last week. At various times in the week, The Bellisimo Valley Bunco Squad by Michele Cozzens, NANCY BOY by Lesley C. Weston, and Out of the Dark by Ivey Banks occupied the #1 spot., alternating on an almost daily basis. The week ended with NANCY BOY at #1. New to the Top 10 was Snakehead by Selah Cooper-Hall.

In contrast, the short story rankings remained relatively static. Lesley C. Weston maintained her hold on the #1 spot for the eighth week in a row with “Elemental Changes.” Rounding out the top three are“Razorblades” by reb_elle and “Cliché: An Accident Waiting to Happen” by Barry Davidson. New to the charts was “Tropical Vacation Downgraded to Tropical Depression” by HavePenWillScribble. “Tropical Vacation Downgraded to Tropical Depression” is also the leader in the Tropical Vacation Challenge.

In poetry Elle Lockhart remains at #1 with The Beast. Diane Methot takes the #2 spot with "Pass Us Through" and Barry Davidson claims the #3 spot with "The Mirror of Soul." 

Site rankings are run daily so please check the rankings page for the most up-to-date rankings.

That’s it for me. Have a nice weekend.

Regards,

Sol

Sol Nasisi
Founder and Director
theNextBigWriter, LLC
Helping Make It You^SM

 

February 17 - Week 20

H