Dimestore Productions Offers Aspiring Writers and Artists the Ultimate Opportunity – to be Published

Madison, OH, July 09, 2007 --(PR.com)-- After four months of hard work, triumph and defeat, the final six contestants of Small Press Idol are ready for the final fight. They have composed their scripts, designed their characters and digested their feedback. Now it’s time to put it all together in an Issue #0 to be published and sold through Dimestore Productions.

Among the top contenders:

• Talon: Written by David Doud, Art by Scottie Ray Watson (SWAT)
• Sky Pirates: Written by Everett Soares, Art by Brian Brinlee
• Danger Ace: Written by Chad Bowers, Art by Jerome Hinds
• Ninja Garden: Written by Kenneth E. Olson, Art by Chris McJunkin
• Ruthless: Written by Randall Parker, Art by Lyle Pollard
• Translucent: Written and Drawn by Ed McKeough

All 6 Issue #0 stories go on sale at www.dimestoreproductions.com beginning July 9. 2007. Round 4 of Small Press Idol will continue for 2 weeks, ending July 22. The book with the most sales will be declared the winner of Small Press Idol 2007. Among other prizes, the winner will receive a 4-issue series of their book, published also by Dimestore Productions.

Under the direction of Ian Shires, Small Press Idol started its 4th year with 113 entries. Those freshman contestants submitted their story premises and a cover “in the rough.” Then came the feedback. Three judges took turns offering both positive and not-so-positive thoughts to each attempt. Their ultimate job though was to decide who should advance to the next round. Sixty entries were given the opportunity to continue on the journey to publication.

Round 2 was all about the characters and the “finished” logo. Contestants were allowed to submit sketches and bios for up to 5 main characters of their story. However, this round was not up to the judges alone. Contestants now had to demonstrate their promotion skills as well. Like its namesake, the future of Small Press Idol was under the control of the fans. Through online voting, friends, family and the fans voted for their favorite stories. Traffic on the website reached record highs while the top projects acquired over 100 votes to advance to round 3. The competition was tough and only the top 30 survived.

The stories came to life in Round 3. Each of the 30 “semi-finalists” presented 3 finished sequential pages of their concepts. The contest reached an all new popularity with over 100 visitors to the website at any given time. With only one week to make the top 6, contestants used every opportunity to gather up the votes. Many used paid ads through Project Wonderful, while others posted bulletins on websites, such as MySpace and ComicSpace. Everyone put out all the stops to climb to the top. When everything was said and done, the contestants tallied over 2500 votes in Round 3.

Dimestore Productions began printing small press, “minicomics” back in 1986, and has grown and changed over time. In the 90’s Dimestore began producing newsletters/review magazines to help promote other Small Press creators. Dimestore helped found the Small Press Association, which later became the Self Publisher Association (SPA), in 1999. Small Press Idol began in 2004 in a humorous way. The SPA holds a weekly online chat Tuesday nights, and that year, noticed most of the chatters signing off when American Idol came on TV. So when someone said “we should start a comic book Idol” Ian Shires said, why not, and within 2 weeks, Small Press Idol was accepting submissions for its first year. Now, every year right after the NFL Big Game, a new year of SPI begins.

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