2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

Amazon are running their breakthrough novel award again next year, with some differences. Most of them sound for the better. Here is what they have to say about the last competition (from their website)

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is an opportunity for emerging fiction writers to join a community of authors on Amazon.com, showcase their work, and compete for a chance to get published.
Sponsored in partnership with Penguin Group (USA) and CreateSpace, the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award launched in October 2007 and received more than 5,000 initial entries. Of those, excerpts from over 800 fiction entries were eligible for Amazon.com customers to read, rate, and review. Editors at Penguin Group (USA) reviewed the Top 100 semifinalists based on early customer reads and full manuscript reviews provided by Publishers' Weekly. In March 2008, the leading Top 10 finalists were selected for the customers' vote. A panel of experts--including bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert, editor and publisher Amy Einhorn, literary critic John Freeman, and literary agent Eric Simonoff--also weighed in with their reviews for each of the top 10 novels. The top three finalists--Dwight Okita (The Prospect of My Arrival), Harry Dolan (Bad Things Happen), and Bill Loehfelm (Fresh Kills) traveled to New York City for the first weekend in April, where Bill Loehfelm was revealed as the winner.

The only thing I object to about the 2009 competition is that you have to sign up to Createspace to enter. I think Amazon have been dog in the manger-ish enough about their little self publishing baby (squeezing out other POD's by not selling your book on amazon.com unless you have published through Createspace) but making aspiring writers sign up for it in order to enter the comp is low in my opinion.

I entered the last competition and didn't make it past the first round (much to my surprise, as I thought I had a strong entry). However, I was still rushing to get it together as I was going to the airport to fly to New Zealand for a month, so perhaps it wasn't as tight as I thought it was. I'm considering entering the 2009 competition. Submissions are in February so I have enough time to polish up a submission and make it a real cracker this time.

Any other takers?

p.s Ionafey, if you are reading this, I really like your blog but I don't seem to be able to post a comment on any of your posts. Perhaps this is just my computer. I would really like to post, so please have a look at your settings to make sure the problem isn't at your end.