This was one of the silliest writing-related (well, sort of) things I ran across last year: the Book Millionaire "reality show." It's the brainchild not of a publishing industry insider--or even a publishing industry outsider--but of Lori Prokop, purveyor of a variety of get-rich-quick tapes, seminars, and books, and owner of her very own vanity press, Best Seller Publishing, Inc. (which currently has no working website, but here's what it looked like in 2003).

And guess what--these lucky would-be authors don't need to squeeze out a single line of prose! According to the show's FAQ: "We are looking for a person who desires to be America's next Book Millionaire and best selling author. This means the book may or may not be written yet nor would it need to be written before filming of the show."

So this is a book contest in which an actual book is irrelevant. For any potential contestants who might be feeling a little nervous about that, not to worry--if you don't have your own book, you can use someone else's! "You will not need to have your own book finished for the filming," the FAQ helpfully explains. "Rather, we will use prominent company products and currently published books for the tasks." Clearly, this is a competition for all the people who always kinda thought they might write the Great American Novel but never quite found the time, or the people who have a fab idea for a book if someone else would just take care of writing it for them, or the people who want to be authors but don't want to take the time to turn themselves into writers.