tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11757978.post-75399332319990648572008-01-16T10:48:00.000-05:002008-01-16T10:52:26.844-05:00A couple of months back, I learned about a novel contest co-sponsored by <strong>Amazon.com </strong>and <strong>Penguin Books</strong>. It's called the <strong>Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest</strong>, where they would allow up to 5,000 entries consisting of completed, but unpublished novels (plus an excerpt with only the opening chapters). Of these 5,000 entries, up to 1,000 Semi-Finalists would be chosen. The excerpts for these 1,000 entries would then be posted on Amazon.com. They will also each receive a full <strong>Publisher's Weekly</strong> review of the entire manuscript. Base on these PW reviews, and customer reviews of the posted excerpts, the top 100 Semi-Finalists will be chosen by Penguin editors. Of these, 10 Finalists will be chosen. The final prize: <strong>a $25,000 book deal with Penguin </strong>for the winning entry.<br /><br />After discussing this with my agent, we decided it was worth a shot. The timeline for judging is relatively short, and the prize: a contract with Penguin, one of the largest publishers in the world, bar none, was worth it.<br /><br />So last Fall I submitted <strong><em>Margaret's Ark</em></strong>.<br /><br />I've just been informed it has made the first cut, and is <strong>now a Semi-Finalist </strong>along with 836 other entries. The excerpt is currently posted online, and <strong>here's where you can help</strong>: the purpose of posting these excerpts is to garner as many <strong>customer reviews </strong>of the entries as possible. These will have some bearing on which is selected for the top 100 entries (perhaps how well the author can pimp... I mean promote him/herself, more than anything most likely, but they definitely can’t hurt). The excerpts can be read online, downloaded, all FREE.<br /><br />My entry for <em>Margaret's Ark </em>can be found at:<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00121WE32" target=_blank>http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00121WE32</a><br /><br />If you like what you've read and are so inclined, you can post a short review blurb for it. The more the merrier!<br /><br />The General ABNA (the abbreviation for the contest) site is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/abna" target=_blank>http://www.amazon.com/abna</a> - from here you can click on the various genre categories, read and rate all of the other Semi-Finalists. Note that Amazon is running a <strong>side-contest for reviewers</strong>, customers who give the most reviews are eligible for some cool prizes (listed on the main page).<br /><br />Speaking of <em>Margaret's Ark</em>: the original short story on which the novel was based, "Lavish", is soon going to be appearing in a <strong>Hungarian anthology </strong>of stories (translated into Hungarian and published overseas). I'll let you know when I learn more on this one.<br /><br />In other news, I hear that Apex #11 (containing my short story "Ray Gun") is being reviewed in the most recent <strong>Locus Magazine</strong>. I can't find Locus in any of my local stores: if anyone subscribes and finds the review, I'd love to hear how it went.<br /><br />Thanks<br />DanDan Keohanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03384842120569729261noreply@blogger.com0