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Fourth Annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Competition announced 1 comment
Amazon and Penguin Group (USA) have announced the fourth annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition. This year again there will be two grand prizes: one for general fiction and one for best young adult novel. The two grand prize winners will be published by Penguin.
The competition will launch on Jan 24, 2011, and will be open to unpublished and self-published novels from writers around the world.
"The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is a great way for unpublished or self-published authors to reach an even wider audience for their work," said Jeff Belle, Amazon.com’s vice president, U.S. Books. "We are looking forward to working with Penguin again on the contest and seeing a new crop of books by talented authors."
"Penguin is delighted to be the publishing sponsor of this contest for the fourth year running," said Tim McCall, Penguin’s vice president of Online Sales and Marketing. "Our mission to discern, nurture and amplify exciting new voices is being served by the talented writers that have entered the competition."
Eligible writers with an English-language novel manuscript can submit their work between Jan. 24 and Feb. 6, 2011. Submission details can be found at www.amazon.com/abna.
Up to 10,000 total initial entries will be accepted, with up to 5,000 each in the general fiction and young adult fiction categories. Amazon.com editors will select 1,000 entries from each category to advance to the next round. In the subsequent round, Amazon.com editors and at least one top reviewer on Amazon.com will read excerpts of the 2,000 entries and narrow the pool to 500 quarter-finalists (250 in each category). Reviewers from Publishers Weekly will then read, rate and review the full manuscripts, and 50 semi-finalists for each category will be selected. Penguin editors will evaluate the manuscripts of the 50 general fiction and 50 young adult fiction semi-finalists, and choose three finalists for each award.
The top three manuscripts in each category will then be read and reviewed by two panels of esteemed publishing professionals. The 2011 panelists for the general fiction category are: Lev Grossman, author of the New York Times bestseller "The Magicians" and book critic for Time Magazine, literary agent Jennifer Joel of ICM and Marysue Rucci, Vice President, Editorial Director with G.P. Putnam’s Sons. The panelists for the young adult fiction contest are: Gayle Forman, journalist and author of the New York Times bestseller "If I Stay," literary agent Julie Just of Janklow & Nesbit and Jennifer Besser, Vice President and Publisher, G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers.
In the final stage of the competition, Amazon.com customers will have seven days to vote for a Grand Prize Winner in each category. The two Grand Prize Winners will be announced in New York on June 13, 2011. Each winner will receive a publishing contract with Penguin, which includes a $15,000 advance.
The 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition drew thousands of entrants, representing all 50 U.S. states and 23 countries around the world. The winning novel in the general fiction category, "Farishta" by Patricia McArdle, will be published in June 2011 by Riverhead. The winning novel in the young adult fiction category, "Sign Language" by Amy Ackley, will be published in August 2011 by Viking.
CreateSpace.com, part of the Amazon group of companies and a leader in self-publishing services, will again host the contest entry platform, which includes a community for authors that will keep them up to date on the contest and help them prepare their entries by soliciting feedback from the community and accessing online content through CreateSpace’s free Preview tool. CreateSpace will also offer all entrants one free printed proof copy of their novel and 10 percent off any one service for a limited time.
"For the fourth year, Publishers Weekly, the international magazine of book publishing and bookselling, will work with Amazon and Penguin for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award to select and review the best undiscovered fiction of the new year," said George Slowik Jr., President, Publishers Weekly. "Since 2008, we’ve been impressed by the quality and variety of the entries, and we look forward to getting to know the class of 2011."
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eReader News – 6/15/2010 no comments
Looking for a place to connect your Wi-Fi ereader or iPad while out on the road? Starting July 1, 2010 Starbucks will offer unlimited free Wi-Fi powered by AT&T that anyone can access with one click without a Starbucks card.
Starbucks has also partnered with Yahoo to create the Starbucks Digital Network which will offer digital content and a few business related tools such as a resume writing application. Free unrestricted access to various paid sites such as WSJ.com will also be available. Some of the content providers listed as participating in the launch of Starbucks Digital Network include iTunes, The New York Times, Patch, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! and Zagat. The Starbucks Digital Network will debut in the fall and will be available only at US company operated Starbucks stores.
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Leading textbook retailer www.ecampus.comhas announced
that they have expanded their textbook rental program to include all major titles for the fall semester. Almost half a million titles are available to rent now.
When renting textbooks, students pay a much lower price for the title and then return it at the end of the semester or school year. This makes eCampus.com a more economical solution than the college bookstore.
Besides renting textbooks, eCampus.com also offers digital etextbooks and buys and sells used textbooks. The promo code JOCK can be use for a five percent discount on textbook rentals at eCampus.com – the coupon expires on July 15,2010.
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Although Amazon and Penguin reportedly have trouble on agreeing on some things such as the prices of ebooks, they have apparently been able to reach agreement as to who the winners are for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.
The winner for the general fiction category is Patricia McArdle for her novel “Farishta,” which will be published by Riverhead books.
The winner for the young adult fiction category is Amy Ackley for her novel “Sign Language,” which will be published by Viking Children’s Books.
Both of these titles are available for pre-order at Amazon.
The winners were selected by tapping the wisdom of the crowd:
“Thousands of Amazon.com customers participated in the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award by posting reviews and casting votes for the winners,” said Jeff Belle, vice president, U.S. books, Amazon. “The results of this year’s vote were the closest we’ve ever had, which is indicative of both the competitiveness of the entries and the exceptional work from our finalists.”
Both winners will receive a publishing contract from Penguin Group USA, which includes a $15,000 advance.
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One Free Kindle Book; Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Finalists Announced no comments
There is one new free book available for pre-order at the Kindle Store:
Vicious
Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Finalists
When I first saw the words Amazon and Penguin Group in the title of a press release I was hoping that the two had resolved their pricing dispute which has kept new Penguin titles out of the Kindle Store since the Agency Model pricing plan took effect on April 1, 2010. That would have been very welcome news indeed.
No such luck, although this announcement does impart some very good news for the six finalists for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award which is cosponsored by Amazon, Penguin Group (USA) and CreateSpace. From the press release:
From now through June 2, Amazon customers can vote for their favorite work at www.amazon.com/abna after reading excerpts from the finalists’ respective novels in the general fiction and young adult fiction categories. The two grand prize winners of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, who will each receive a publishing contract from Penguin Group (USA) which includes a $15,000 advance, will be revealed in Seattle on Monday, June 14, 2010.
A panel of noted publishing professionals have read the top six finalists’ novels and written critiques of each, posted at www.amazon.com/abna. These industry figures include bestselling authors Tana French, Sarah Dessen and Nancy Werlin; Amy Berkower, president of Writers House, LLC; Julie Barer, of Barer Literary, LLC; Molly Stern, editorial director and executive editor of Viking Books; Ben Schrank, president and publisher of Razorbill.
The top three finalists in the general fiction category, listed in alphabetical order by author’s last name, are:
Jennifer Handford, Warrenton, Va., for "Fortune Cookies"
When Handford, a financial advisor, adopted a daughter from China in 2003, the process went remarkably smoothly, but the aspiring writer in her wondered what might have been. Several years of late-night writing sessions later, Handford had the novel, "Fortune Cookies," which asks the question: what if a family adopted a child and only later learned that the child suffered extreme emotional or developmental problems from her time in the orphanage? In "Fortune Cookies," a Washington, D.C.-based power couple find themselves in just that predicament, along the way exploring the world of adoption and the nature of the bond between parents and children.
Patricia McArdle, Arlington, Va., for "Farishta"
McArdle is a retired American diplomat whose postings have taken her around the world, including northern Afghanistan. In "Farishta"(the Dari word for "angel") American diplomat Angela Morgan, whose career is in free-fall, is ordered against her will to a British Army outpost in Mazar-e-Sharif, where the soldiers and interpreters are not pleased to have a female in their midst. Frustrated at her inability to contribute to Afghanistan’s reconstruction, she leaves camp without permission wearing a burka to work with refugee women. Her well-intentioned actions incur the wrath of warlords and further complicate her relations with her military colleagues. "Farishta" brings to life the soldiers and civilians who are fighting for survival in this ancient and troubled land.
Johnny Shaw,Portland, Ore., for "Dove Season"
Shaw was born and raised on the Calexico/Mexicali border, the setting of his novel, "Dove Season." Shaw owned a bookstore in Los Angeles, which is now entirely online, and he works as both a screenwriter and a university lecturer teaching screenwriting. Only recently did Shaw feel that he had the distance he needed to write a novel about the people and places of his childhood home, the Imperial Valley. In "Dove Season," Jimmy Veeder returns to his hometown on the California/Mexico border, where his attempt to satisfy his father’s highly unusual dying wish–for a Mexican prostitute named Yolanda–leads him into a world of murder and corruption.
The top three finalists in the young adult fiction category, listed in alphabetical order by author’s last name, are:
Amy Ackley, Brighton, Mich., for "Sign Language"
Ackley is a mother of three whose career has run the gamut from public administration to labor relations for top automakers. At the age of 16, Ackley left home and began supporting herself. She began writing "Sign Language" seven years ago. Drawn from her personal experiences of losing a father and two friends to cancer, "Sign Language" is the story of a 13-year-old girl whose father’s battle with cancer sends her into an emotional tailspin from which she is determined to recover.
Alex Airdale, Nutley, N.J., for "Service of the Crown"
A native of Russia, Airdale moved to the United States at the age of nine. Throughout her teens, she rode horses, fenced, and read Tamora Pierce fantasies about strong female warriors. Airdale –a pseudonym–combines these three pastimes in her young adult fantasy novel, "Service of the Crown," a coming-of-age story about 16-year-old Renee, a student at the Realm’s top military academy who battles her male classmates by day and an underground crime group by night.
Alison Stewart, Sydney, Australia, for "Days Like This"
Stewart, a journalist and writer who loves to travel, was born in South Africa. Over the years, her travels took her to Australia, where she met her husband and had two children. Many years ago, a fortune teller predicted that Stewart would write a book set in the future that would take her "all the way to America!" Her dystopian novel, "Days Like This," is a cautionary tale set in a walled, futuristic Sydney, where young people, confined to their homes under a nameless dictatorship and in danger from their parents, must escape to survive.
