Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest

Amazon.com has announced 2011 writing competition.

"You are eligible to enter the Contest if you are at least 13 years old at time of entry and a legal resident of one of the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada (excluding the Province of Québec), China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States (the 50 states and D.C.), or the United Kingdom."

You must also be available to travel to USA somewhere between 9.-15.6. so if you live outside US, see that your passport is good and you're allowed to travel to USA ;-)

"We must receive your Contest entry between January 24, 2011 at 12:01 a.m. (U.S. Eastern Standard Time) and February 6, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. (U.S. Eastern Standard Time)."

"You must register at www.CreateSpace.com/abna to enter the Contest". I'm not sure if you need to provide the taxing information... I suppose not. I hope not. :-D You'll be providing that to Penguin, if you win ;-)

"You need to include
(1) the complete version of your manuscript ("Manuscript") (in digital .doc, .docx, or .rtf format);
(2) up to the first 5,000 words, but not less than 3,000 words, of your Manuscript, excluding any table of contents, foreword, and acknowledgments ("Excerpt");
(3) a pitch of your Manuscript consisting of up to 300 words ("Pitch"); and
(4) the personal information required on the entry form"
, but all personal information, like your name, must not be in the manuscript, excerpt or the pitch.


"You must be the only author of your Manuscript, and your Manuscript must be a novel (not poems, collection of short stories etc.) between 50,000 and 150,000 words", in English and your original work and fictional, unpublished and without images

You may only submit one Entry for only one category - either YA or adult fiction.

BTW, I joined the 750 words. There's plenty more interesting ideas at "I wrote a novel, now what" :-D

8 comments:

mshatch said...

Thank you so much for this! I've put it in my favorites so I won't forget where it is :)

Hart Johnson said...

I participated last year, and intend to this year, too. You are correct on the tax stuff--doesn't matter unless you win. It was a great experience and I made some long-term friends through it (in fact oddly, I keep making them, as I meet people and we have common acquaintances)

I strongly suggest taking advantage of the discussion boards (the ones at AMAZON, NOT the ones at CreateASpace--they are connected but not the same) in the month of January to polish your 300 word pitch--there are some people who are great at it, and the community is friendly and helpful (mostly), even though it is all a competition. In fact that pitch polish alone is worth the experience, as you can use it in queries later.

Henric C. Jensen said...

Yeah - poor non-US citizens are not really eligible...
So typically USonian.

Ketutar said...

Now, that's not true and therefore not fair, Henric. Why would you say that?

Ketutar said...

Thanks, Hart :-)

Henric C. Jensen said...

Why would I say something like that?
Because in all reality only USonians can participate.

Doesn't matter that Amazon.com SELLS internationally, they are just as isolationist as the rest of the US, and just as "we are superior to everyone."

Let's not forget that if you are homosexual, transsexual, communist or even social democrat, look Arab have Arabs somewhere in your family tree or are from a country that does not agree with the US on the matter of 'the war on terror', you can't enter the US no matter how many visas you have. That pretty much excludes anyone except USonians and possibly a few Canadians :) - the rest of us don't have the money :)

Ketutar said...

They are paying the trip and stay for a week for the winner + one guest...

I think we Scandinavians can be pretty safe in getting our visas. :-)

I get your point, but on the other hand, they could have organized it only for USonians. After all, Amazon.com IS USonian. We have our own literary prizes that are not open for everyone. I think that's just normal nationalism.

Henric C. Jensen said...

Ok, so they pay the trip and the stay - I got the impression from your post that ppl would have to pay that themselves if they win...thus my tirade.

<3
H