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My children's story made the top thirty in the Britwriters Awards!
Okay, still no reply to e-mails, but I managed to get through on the main phone number and have been told that the confirmation will be sent out over the next two days - talk about cutting it fine!
kateyanne, let me know if yours come through... fingers crossed eh? ;)
...added 3 minutes later... wow, after the drought the flood! Leah has got back to me and the tickets are confirmed YAY! I'll get my best frock back out of the wardrobe then! XD
Leah answered the answerphone message I left yesterday. I haven't had a single reply to any of the e-mails I've sent. The tickets are 'standard' ones - no grub sadly... hmmmmmm...I wonder if it's worth asking if they do free upgrades? ;)
I'll be the one being dragged along, clamped to the legs of fleeing agents, and screaming IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! when the winner is announced... ;)
Thanks, Carol. I will be off soon as I'm meeting up with my friend in Coulsdon and we are going from there.
My daughter was coming but she broke her toe.
Well that was a let down folks.
Got there at 6.30pm. Waited outside the door to the theatre with many others all dressed up in their posh frocks and black ties. ( well u know what I mean)
I saw a couple of famous faces in the queue that actor what's his name who was in what was it? etc
Then the doors opened and we started to go in then a young woman who looked in charge, sort of, said oh only VIPS in first standards wait here. ( we were standard tickets)
After they had gone in we 'standards' were taken up to the balcony area and then were, well, just left. We didn't have any particular seats so we sat at the front. Down below were all the tables where the VIPs the £60 ticket holders were having their dinner and also there was the stage. Being in the front seats we had a good view.
So we just sat waiting for the proceedings to get going. There were no book signings or chance to mingle with anyone like promised on the ticket it said'opportunity to mingle with authors, agents,publishers.' So that was a big let down. there was just nothing so we sat waiting for the show to start and watching Lembit Opit eat his dinner below along with Shirley Eaton and Terry Pratchett.
It finally started at 8pm with a very poor presentation on a screen with people making paper aeroplanes and throwing them in the air it was like an advert not sure what it was meant to be saying.
Then there was a poem rap from someone not sure who it was about words on pages and pens and words and pens and lines and words etc and another by someone else.
Then Tre Azam and Charlie Jordan, the hosts, started the presentations which took forever. Sometimes they were interrupted by very poor acts like a play by some people set in a publishers office which we didn't get. Seen better done by children at school. The odd presentation on the screen.
Someone played a cello that was OK. Time was geting on still Roger Moore hadn't appeared!
Fergal Shearkey presented a prize. There were always two people presenting each category like a publisher from Panmacillan and they all did their own speeches which were sometimes boring and went on ond on.
One highlight was an eleven year old girl read out a poem( She wasn't a winner) but it was brilliant and I wished we had had more of this.
Anyway by 10.30 it still hadn't finished and we had to go to get our train so don't know who won overall the big prize and I still didn't get to see Roger Moore! Was he there?
Would I go again? No not unless there is big improvement. What do the £25 ticket holders get? We hadn't paid of course but if we had we would have been miffed. We were not offered any drink not even a soft one, one free would have been nice or any nibbles.
Drinks at the bar were expensive at £4 for a cranberry juice.
I liked watching the winners go up for their prizes. They all made little speeches too thanking partners for putting up with their writing etc. One young girl who won the young poetry section thanked her parents gran and teachers which was sweet.
We both came away feeling very disappointed.
Another highlight met sPam. She's lovely and we had a nice chat. She was also disappointed with the evening as it had promised so much. She'd come much further than me.
I wished I'd stayed at home and watched Waterloo road now and saved my train fair.
Anyway you can now send entries in for BritWriters 2011!
And this has to be my longest post ever on here and I've not had my shreddies yet!
Sorry to hear it was such a disappointment, and £25 for what you got was taking the mickey.
It seems the organisers wanted to make a splash with the competition and last night but hadn't put in the time on the planning and organisation stage of the whole thing.
What a shame, kateyanne.
Seems like the evening was run to the same organisational standards as the competition.
I hope the winners enjoyed themselves more!
Yes it was very badly organised.
At the beginning they had to make an annoucement to people to ask that we make sure that if we were standard ticket holders we weren't sitting at the tables for dinner as it appears some people were!
They gave out a free magazine like a programme as you came in. All the finalists in each category were listed with a piece about them and a photo. They had to apologise as they missed someone off!
Also twice names were missing on the finalists lists and they had to apologise.
It sounds really frustrating Kateyanne - and fancy not giving anyone a drink or even some nibbles, just treating you all like cattle really. Where does all the ticket money go?
Not good, and so disappointing. Really sorry to hear that. But don't let it take away your pleasure at being shortlisted - that's still a great achievement.
Hi kateyanne! I was hoping to find I had missed a fab night after taking pity on my hubby (who was dying of boredom) and leaving early... but it seems the rest of the night was as bad as the beginning *sigh* what a let-down. All my worst fears were realised really, we were just makeweights, seat-covers, and extra decibels for the applause. Lesson learned - even if you're given free tickets, don't go to awards ceremonies unless you're receiving one! XD
(I'm so glad I spotted you kateyanne! and your lovely friend! Our little chat/grumble was the highlight of the evening! - hope we meet again under more auspicious and fulfilling circumstances.) :)
It was the children's book that won overall just found this
http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/view/pressrelease/the-brit-writers-awards-first-ever-brit-writers-awards-unpublished-winners-announced-at-glittering-ceremony-441220?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Alert&utm_content=pressrelease
Well it seems that the reporter of that piece had a better time than you Kateyanne at the "glittering" ceremony.
I suppose you could complain to someone but then you might sound like an old grouch.
There was nowt on the telly worth watching if that's any consolation ;)
That article only mentioned the awards really nothing about the rest of the night or the guests.
Lexia there was something good on TV see my post above, Waterloo Road for a start and then the last episode of The Silence.
Just caught up with both on Iplayer so no worries . The ending to The Silence was a bit of a let down though much like the Britwriters awards.
Don't let their lack of organisational skills diminish your feeling of achievement though, kateyanne.
It was still a big competition with thousands of entrants and you were in the top few!
I must admit to not being surprised by this. Don't quite understand how the winner's book was already prepared and ready for sale quite so soon - very fast work! Must the winner have signed a contract with Infinite Ideas? I googled them, don't know what the company is, ie whether 'real' publishers like Orion or not, but they look a really dynamic team.
Anyway, never mind all that, well done again sPam and KateyAnne for being Top Thirty
I'm sorry you were disappointed by the event Kateyanne and Pam, and a shame that we didn't have chance to mingle with you. If it's any consolation, we VIPs felt very similar - not so much VIPs as just Ps - and we were never sure what we were supposed to be doing. There were clearly some organisational difficulties (which I'll hope are just first year teething troubles).
I think the main problem was that the organisers were held up until after 6, so there was no one on site to guide everybody else. The lady who Kateyanne saw looking in charge ("sort of" ) was actually o2 staff, if we're thinking of the same lady, and she seemed to be doing a good job of improvising some sort of structure without any guidance!
We will be raising some concerns with Brit Writers in the hope of improving the setup for next year.
I went on a creative writing course with the overall winner, you can find her book on www.pengridion.co.uk. i'm still not quite sure how she won because she had set up her own company and had an ISBN number solely in her name. she was already doing book signings in whsmiths etc, and you could buy her book on amazon. maybe i am getting the rules of the comp completely wrong and she was allowed to enter, obviously as she won. she subjected us to a chapter of her book each week. i have to admit it bored me to tears, but then again, i am not a publisher or an agent, so i'm not really sure what they were looking for. i just still dont understand how it was supposed to be for new unpublished writers, and she was already published. maybe i should just stop wondering about it and carry on writing, hoping i get my big break one day like she has.
Hi Webbo.
Lets hope things are better next year then. Just out of interest was Roger Moore there? We had to go before the end. I really wanted to see him!
Another thing, Webbo. I would love to know which of my books was in the top thirty. ( I entered several) I have emailed Britwriters so many times to ask this and had no answer. Is there anyone in particular I can email about this at BritWriters? I've tried Zareen and the general enquiries email. This info is something I could put on letters to agents, it all helps, so I'd love to know. This info is not on my account either and I think it should be.
Mandy that is very interesting. There was another finalist Julie Noble with a book called Callie's secret. When I saw the name and title it rang a bell as I had already seen it advertised in WM or WF. The distinctive yellow cover stood out in my mind in particular. The book is also available on Amazon. I knew that you could be an unpublished author and enter, but I didn't know you could enter the actual novel that was already self published. Callie's Secret was floating around in my subconscious and who knows it might have been in the judges.
Roger Moore, sad to say, was not there. No one told us why! Also, on the day we found out that Honor Blackman was also supposed to be there, but she wasn't. Bizarrely, Shirley Eaton was there - she was the one who was sprayed gold in Goldfinger. Wonder if they just asked Roger if he had any glam friends he could invite!
For the info you're after, Zareen would be my first port of call, but I believe they've gone on holiday this week. As you say, it would be nice to know... I'll try to find out when we catch up. Please could you whisper my your full name, so I've got it on hand?
[quote=heather]It was still a big competition with thousands of entrants and you were in the top few![/quote] [quote=heather]Don't let their lack of organisational skills diminish your feeling of achievement though, kateyanne.
It was still a big competition with thousands of entrants and you were in the top few!
The rest is just window dressing, really. [/quote]
I'm with heather kateyanne on this one, to be one of the top few really is something to be proud of.
The event sounds awful though, fancy having to look down on people eating while not being offered anything at all. And those people who'd sat at tables then asked to move ... how embarrassing for everyone.
It makes it sound like they all got £10,000 but only Catherine got that, the overall winner.
Also they surprised her with a published copy of her book, but it probably wasn't much of a surprise as her book is already published ( self published) and on Amazon. And as Mandy said above she has been doing book signings already.
Comments
kateyanne, let me know if yours come through... fingers crossed eh? ;)
...added 3 minutes later... wow, after the drought the flood! Leah has got back to me and the tickets are confirmed YAY! I'll get my best frock back out of the wardrobe then! XD
But at least you have heard.
By the way are the tickets the ones that include a meal?
My daughter was coming but she broke her toe.
Got there at 6.30pm. Waited outside the door to the theatre with many others all dressed up in their posh frocks and black ties. ( well u know what I mean)
I saw a couple of famous faces in the queue that actor what's his name who was in what was it? etc
Then the doors opened and we started to go in then a young woman who looked in charge, sort of, said oh only VIPS in first standards wait here. ( we were standard tickets)
After they had gone in we 'standards' were taken up to the balcony area and then were, well, just left. We didn't have any particular seats so we sat at the front. Down below were all the tables where the VIPs the £60 ticket holders were having their dinner and also there was the stage. Being in the front seats we had a good view.
So we just sat waiting for the proceedings to get going. There were no book signings or chance to mingle with anyone like promised on the ticket it said'opportunity to mingle with authors, agents,publishers.' So that was a big let down. there was just nothing so we sat waiting for the show to start and watching Lembit Opit eat his dinner below along with Shirley Eaton and Terry Pratchett.
It finally started at 8pm with a very poor presentation on a screen with people making paper aeroplanes and throwing them in the air it was like an advert not sure what it was meant to be saying.
Then there was a poem rap from someone not sure who it was about words on pages and pens and words and pens and lines and words etc and another by someone else.
Then Tre Azam and Charlie Jordan, the hosts, started the presentations which took forever. Sometimes they were interrupted by very poor acts like a play by some people set in a publishers office which we didn't get. Seen better done by children at school. The odd presentation on the screen.
Someone played a cello that was OK. Time was geting on still Roger Moore hadn't appeared!
Fergal Shearkey presented a prize. There were always two people presenting each category like a publisher from Panmacillan and they all did their own speeches which were sometimes boring and went on ond on.
One highlight was an eleven year old girl read out a poem( She wasn't a winner) but it was brilliant and I wished we had had more of this.
Anyway by 10.30 it still hadn't finished and we had to go to get our train so don't know who won overall the big prize and I still didn't get to see Roger Moore! Was he there?
Would I go again? No not unless there is big improvement. What do the £25 ticket holders get? We hadn't paid of course but if we had we would have been miffed. We were not offered any drink not even a soft one, one free would have been nice or any nibbles.
Drinks at the bar were expensive at £4 for a cranberry juice.
I liked watching the winners go up for their prizes. They all made little speeches too thanking partners for putting up with their writing etc. One young girl who won the young poetry section thanked her parents gran and teachers which was sweet.
We both came away feeling very disappointed.
Another highlight met sPam. She's lovely and we had a nice chat. She was also disappointed with the evening as it had promised so much. She'd come much further than me.
I wished I'd stayed at home and watched Waterloo road now and saved my train fair.
Anyway you can now send entries in for BritWriters 2011!
And this has to be my longest post ever on here and I've not had my shreddies yet!
It seems the organisers wanted to make a splash with the competition and last night but hadn't put in the time on the planning and organisation stage of the whole thing.
Seems like the evening was run to the same organisational standards as the competition.
I hope the winners enjoyed themselves more!
At the beginning they had to make an annoucement to people to ask that we make sure that if we were standard ticket holders we weren't sitting at the tables for dinner as it appears some people were!
They gave out a free magazine like a programme as you came in. All the finalists in each category were listed with a piece about them and a photo. They had to apologise as they missed someone off!
Also twice names were missing on the finalists lists and they had to apologise.
(I'm so glad I spotted you kateyanne! and your lovely friend! Our little chat/grumble was the highlight of the evening! - hope we meet again under more auspicious and fulfilling circumstances.) :)
http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/view/pressrelease/the-brit-writers-awards-first-ever-brit-writers-awards-unpublished-winners-announced-at-glittering-ceremony-441220?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Alert&utm_content=pressrelease
I suppose you could complain to someone but then you might sound like an old grouch.
There was nowt on the telly worth watching if that's any consolation ;)
You did good anyway !!
Lexia there was something good on TV see my post above, Waterloo Road for a start and then the last episode of The Silence.
Just caught up with both on Iplayer so no worries . The ending to The Silence was a bit of a let down though much like the Britwriters awards.
It was still a big competition with thousands of entrants and you were in the top few!
The rest is just window dressing, really.
And I will enter again. This was their first year so things can only get better.
But I wish they'd tell me which book it was!
Anyway, never mind all that, well done again sPam and KateyAnne for being Top Thirty
I think the main problem was that the organisers were held up until after 6, so there was no one on site to guide everybody else. The lady who Kateyanne saw looking in charge ("sort of" ) was actually o2 staff, if we're thinking of the same lady, and she seemed to be doing a good job of improvising some sort of structure without any guidance!
We will be raising some concerns with Brit Writers in the hope of improving the setup for next year.
Lets hope things are better next year then. Just out of interest was Roger Moore there? We had to go before the end. I really wanted to see him!
Another thing, Webbo. I would love to know which of my books was in the top thirty. ( I entered several) I have emailed Britwriters so many times to ask this and had no answer. Is there anyone in particular I can email about this at BritWriters? I've tried Zareen and the general enquiries email. This info is something I could put on letters to agents, it all helps, so I'd love to know. This info is not on my account either and I think it should be.
Mandy that is very interesting. There was another finalist Julie Noble with a book called Callie's secret. When I saw the name and title it rang a bell as I had already seen it advertised in WM or WF. The distinctive yellow cover stood out in my mind in particular. The book is also available on Amazon. I knew that you could be an unpublished author and enter, but I didn't know you could enter the actual novel that was already self published. Callie's Secret was floating around in my subconscious and who knows it might have been in the judges.
For the info you're after, Zareen would be my first port of call, but I believe they've gone on holiday this week. As you say, it would be nice to know... I'll try to find out when we catch up. Please could you whisper my your full name, so I've got it on hand?
It was still a big competition with thousands of entrants and you were in the top few!
The rest is just window dressing, really. [/quote]
I'm with heather kateyanne on this one, to be one of the top few really is something to be proud of.
The event sounds awful though, fancy having to look down on people eating while not being offered anything at all. And those people who'd sat at tables then asked to move ... how embarrassing for everyone.
Yes Dora and Heather of course I am very pleased to be in the top thirty and very proud. I was just telling it how it was for those who'd asked.
Also they surprised her with a published copy of her book, but it probably wasn't much of a surprise as her book is already published ( self published) and on Amazon. And as Mandy said above she has been doing book signings already.