Since January 25, the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is open to submissions until February 7.

To register and enter you will need to submit:

• The full/complete version of your manuscript (the “Manuscript”), which must be between 50,000 and 150,000 words;
• Up to the first 5,000 words, but no less than 3,000 words, of text of that manuscript, excluding any table of contents, foreword, and acknowledgments (the “Excerpt”);
• A pitch statement (cover letter/summary) of up to 300 word (the “Pitch”);
• Other registration information as asked for on the entry page (such as name, contact information, book title), and
• An author photo (if desired), which must be in .jpg format (at least 72 dpi and 500×468 pixels)

How the Contest Works

Beginning January 25, 2010 through February 7th, 2010 you can enter your unpublished or self-published English-language novel into the General Fiction category, or the new Young Adult Fiction category. The contest will then proceed through four phases of judging:

First Round: Amazon editors will review a 300 word Pitch of each entry. The top 1000 entries in each category (2000 total entries) will move on to the second round.

Second Round: The field will be narrowed to 250 entries in each category (500 total entries) by Amazon top customer reviewers from ratings of a 5000 word excerpt.

Quarterfinals: Publishers Weekly reviewers will read the full manuscript of each quarterfinalist, and based on their review scores, the top 50 in each category (100 total entries) will move on to the Semifinals.

Semifinals: Penguin USA editors will read the full manuscript and review all accompanying data for each semifinalist and will then select three finalists in each category (six total finalists).

Two (2) Grand Prizes will be awarded, one in each of the two categories; Young Adult fiction and General fiction, consisting of:

• A full publishing contract with Penguin to market and distribute Grand Prize winner’s winning Manuscript as a published book, including promotion for such published book on Amazon.com.
• Upon the full execution of the publishing contract, Penguin will pay the Grand Prize winner US $15,000. This US $15,000 payment is an advance against the royalties to be earned by the Grand Prize winner under the publishing contract.

Click here for complete information.

January 29, 2010 in Features, News by Henry Baum