Hello, writers. Traditionally the publishing industry is closed between Christmas and New Year’s. Less traditionally, it wanders away a week or so before Christmas. So the first week of January tends to be a frenzy of manuscript-submitting, usually with the hope of getting some attention before the publishing industry goes off to attend the ALA Winter Conference.
Anyway, the writers’ year has more or less ended. I started writing again in November after a year of not writing, working on book 2 of the fantasy trilogy under contract with HarperCollins Children’s.
How did your writing year go? Did you get much done?
As Melanie in IA mentioned last week, it’s almost time again for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. A few people here have entered it before. Any thoughts on the experience? Do you recommend it or not?
My opinion: first and foremost, I do think free contests are one of the best ways to break in. Writing a novel specifically tailored to a contest where the prize carries some prestige and/or publication is really not a bad idea, considering how competitive the ordinary slush-pile is.
Now I’ve often said I got my foot in the door by winning a novel contest, but I don’t usually like to mention that that contest had nine (9) other entrants. Hold that thought while we look at the Amazon contest.
From amazon.com:
The 2012 international contest will award two grand prizes: one for General Fiction and one for Young Adult Fiction. Each winner will receive a publishing contract with Penguin, which includes a $15,000 advance.\
Open submissions for manuscripts will begin on January 23, 2012 and run through February 5, 2012.
I don’t see any mention of last year’s rule limiting the field to 10,000 entries, but there’s this:
First Round: Amazon editors will review a 300-word pitch of each entry. The top 1,000 entries in each category (2,000 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 5,000 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).
Finals: Amazon customers will vote on the three finalists in each category resulting in two grand prize winners.
So, a few things have got my attention here:
1. If you make the first cut, then you’re up against 1,000 other entrants—possibly a bit more than what you’d be up against from the git-go in an agent’s slushpile. Compared to most other novel contests, I suspect, this entry field is humongous.
2. It looks like you have to get through three cuts before a Penguin editor sees your book.
3. If your book is good enough to run this gauntlet, it’s probably good enough to get the attention of a publisher or agent the old-fashioned way. Of course, that’s still very difficult to do, so the Amazon contest may be worth trying for that reason.
4. $15k is a pretty decent advance for a first-time novelist these days. It’s not, however, a great advance for a “breakthrough” novel, assuming that’s a novel that’s expected to get media attention and have award-winning or bestseller potential.
5. There’s no genre breakdown here. If you’re writing genre fiction, you may be better off looking for a genre contest.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on it. I've never entered it myself, but perhaps those who have will chime in.
Tonight’s challenge: write the opening line for The Jewel of Togwogmagog. You remember the tale:
A callow youth (male or female) is the Chosen One who must obtain the sacred jewel of Togwogmagog in order to save the kingdom.
The opening line can be a line of dialogue if you want. It should not be an info-dump. (Don’t, for example, tell us the character’s full name, age, physical attributes, or employment history.) It should make us want to read further to find out what happens. Ideally, it should place us in the middle of an interesting (perhaps life-threatening) situation, though we don’t need to know all the details in this one line.
And it should be under 20 words.
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