First One Digital Publishing--Sign Away All Your Rights and PAY Us For It!
So a new ebook publisher called First One Digital Publishing and they're holding a contest called Who Wants to be an Author? Sounds nifty, right? Then you have a look at the rules.

Okay, must be original, must be in English, Microsoft Word format, yadda, yadda, yadda . . .

7. FEES: There will be a $149.00 entrance fee for each submission. The fee must be paid online before the manuscript will be accepted.

Wait, WHAT?

One Grand-Prize Winner will receive:

• First One Publishing contract for terrestrial and digital publication of winning book.
• Five thousand ($5,000) cash
• A complete marketing and publicity tour tied to the winning book.
• First One Publishing Library (20 books valued at $240.00)
• Grand-Prize Winner must sign the publishing contract, which contains additional terms and conditions in order to be published.

Twenty Second-Prize Winners will receive:

• A First One Publishing contract for digital publication
• A complete marketing and publicity plan to promote the digital book as well as feature placement (bio, blog, etc.) on the First One Publishing website.
• A First One Publishing Collection (10 books valued at $120)
• Second-Prize Winners must sign the publishing contract, which contains additional terms and conditions in order to be published.

So, a $149 "entry fee" for a shot at a $5,000, um, award? Advance? Oh, and you get published! Yay! Right?

Then we get to the dreaded Paragraph 13:

All submissions become sole property of Sponsor and will not be acknowledged or returned. By submitting an entry, all entrants grant Sponsor the absolute and unconditional right and authority to copy, edit, publish, promote, broadcast, or otherwise use, in whole or in part, their entries, in perpetuity, in any manner without further permission, notice or compensation. Entries that contain copyrighted material must include a release from the copyright holder. Prizes are nontransferable. No substitutions or cash redemptions, except by Sponsor in the event of prize unavailability. Sponsor reserves the right to its sole discretion to not publish the winning entry for any reason whatsoever.
In the event that there is an insufficient number of entries received that meet the minimum standards determined by the judges, all prizes will not be awarded.

Pay $149, lose all your rights to your own work and maybe we'll publish you or something.

Laura Anne Gilman is not impressed.

Neither is Janet Reid.

Nor John Scalzi.

Okay, so a budding self publisher does something stupid and writers warn them about it. Where's the wank, exactly?

That would be where Karen Hunter herself shows up in the comments of Janet Reid's blog and also in the comments in this thread at the Absolute Write forums.

Could I, a 20-year veteran in publishing as a writer and publisher, afford to put out a contest that rips people off? I'm not desperate. The goal is to truly find the next great author, something not too many people are actually looking for. What's been your success track record?

Note she asks for the 'success track record' of Janet Reid.

On Absolute Write, she drops such gems as:

And regarding the term "major publisher," which seems to be a point of conversation, First One will be releasing 5-10 titles a month. I think that's pretty major. Don't you?

LOL...to most of the responses. Here's the deal: If you want to be a part of something bigger than what you're currently doing, join us. Be a part of the solution, not a part of the naysaying and the problem. It's very easy to sit on the sidelines and poke holes at everything. It is far more difficult to get out there and do something different. That's what we're doing.

Again, we're grateful for the feedback because it certainly forces us to do a better job, which we will. But it seems as if the comments and the criticisms are not edifying. If your goal is to be a boo-bird. Good job. If you're goal is to help change publishing, get in the game and let's play.

And play they do. Two pages so far and it may yet blossom into greater things if she comes back to bawwwww some more.

ETA: Smart Bitches, Trashy Books weighs in. (Thanks to midnight_hawk for the tip.) The comments also link to a "contest" by Evil Reads, with additional suggested clauses in the comments. (khym_chanur finds quite possibly the best one here.)

It's also hit sf_drama. (Thanks to seiberwing.)

ETA Part Deax: aaaaaand, the rules now lead to a 404 page. (Per John Scalzi via sistercoyote.)