Meet the Winners of the Title Contest and Honorary Author Contest for the Taylor Swift Fan Book to be Published by Simon & Schuster
New York, NY, January 27, 2016 – Simon & Schuster is thrilled to announce the results of the title contest and the honorary author contest for its crowdsourced book (www.swiftfanbook.com) to celebrate Taylor Swift’s first ten years as an artist.
The winner of the $2,500 title contest is Tenay Barker, who submitted the perfect title for the book:
Taylor Swift: This Is Our Song
A native of Buda, Texas, Ms. Barker is currently a freshman at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. She is studying computer science and hopes to be as great a role model as Taylor is someday. “I have always been a fan of Taylor Swift,” Barker says. “My title tries to express the way that Taylor and her fans have grown as one over the course of her incredible journey. She has been so dedicated to us, and we have been so dedicated to her, and I am so ecstatic that we can to do something for her tenth anniversary by creating this book.” Tenay may be congratulated on Twitter at @TenayBarker.
The winner of the $10,000 honorary author contest is Tyler Conroy, who submitted the following video:
Tyler Conroy, twenty-three, was born and raised in Conway, Massachusetts. A 2014 graduate of Iona College, where he directed and starred in the first ever Taylor Swift musical, Mr. Conroy has attended nineteen Taylor Swift shows and personally met Swift three times. At one meeting in 2013, he asked Swift to write the word fearless in her handwriting and he later got it tattooed onto his foot. “I am so excited to be selected as the honorary author,” says Conroy. “I love Swifties, they’re the most supportive and caring people in the world, and I’m honored to be able to represent them and everything it means to be a Swiftie. I can’t wait to meet so many new people and begin this journey to show just how impactful Taylor Swift’s career has been not just in the music industry but in the lives of her fans. She made being different cool and for someone who’s always seen myself as different, she’s given me a reason to stay fearless.” Tyler may be congratulated on Twitter at @tyvid5.
In addition to naming the winners, Simon & Schuster announced that, due to the large volume of high-quality submissions, over the coming weeks it will invite a number of additional fans who submitted compelling videos to become advisors and ambassadors for the book. If they choose to participate, these fans will be paid $500 each and may be named in the book in exchange for assisting with and completing certain editorial tasks to be determined by the publisher, and for helping to spread the word about the book generally.
The next contest, which runs from February 1 to March 1, is the $5,000 cover design contest. For more information, click here. If contestants wish to use text on their cover entries, this is the official title, subtitle, and author:
Title: Taylor Swift
Subtitle: This Is Our Song
Honorary Author: Tyler Conroy
Simon & Schuster advises entrants that effective book covers do not always use a lot of text, instead relying more on original imagery, so contestants are not obligated to use all of the available text for their cover design. Simon & Schuster is looking for the best overall cover based on the contest’s judging criteria.
*This book is a tribute to Taylor Swift, but she is not involved in its creation, nor has she authorized, sponsored, or endorsed it. *
Business and Book 
February 7, 2016 at 5:05 pm
What a creative idea!