November 2008
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Penguin Group (USA) (NYSE: PSO) announced the second annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, the international competition seeking the next popular novel.
Writers around the world are encouraged to begin preparing their manuscripts for entry into the competition.
Last year's inaugural Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition was enormously successful.
Bill Loehfelm emerged as the 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Grand Prize Winner from a pool of 5,000 entrants.
G. P. Putnam's Sons (a division of Penguin Group (USA)) published his novel, Fresh Kills, in August 2008 to critical acclaim.
The Associated Press hailed the novel as "the finest crime fiction debut since Dennis Lehane burst on the scene, not just a crime novel but a psychological novel of impressive subtlety and complexity."
Loehfelm said, "The opportunity to enter this contest and share my manuscript with two publishing industry innovators like Penguin Group and Amazon was thrilling enough, but to go from longtime struggling writer to nationally published author in nine months is an aspiring writer's dream."
Writers with an unpublished English-language novel manuscript can submit their work.
Up to 10,000 initial entries will be accepted, from which Amazon editors will select 2,000 to advance to the next round.
Expert reviewers from Amazon will then review excerpts of these 2,000 entries and narrow the pool to 500 quarter-finalists. Reviewers from Publishers Weekly will then read, rate and review the full manuscripts, and 100 semi-finalists will be selected.
Penguin editors will evaluate the manuscripts from this group of 100 and choose three finalists. A panel of esteemed publishing professionals, including mega-bestselling authors Sue Grafton and Sue Monk Kidd, literary agent Barney Karpfinger and Penguin Press Editor-in-Chief Eamon Dolan will read and post their critiques of the top three manuscripts.
Amazon customers will then have seven days to vote for the Grand Prize Winner. The winner will receive a publishing contract with Penguin, which includes a $25,000 advance.
"We are excited to once again team up with Penguin to help authors break through and to introduce millions of Amazon customers to great new books," said Jeff Belle, Amazon's vice president, U.S. Books.
"Authors last year quickly formed one of the largest communities on Amazon.com around the contest and exchanged views on writing and publishing."
Message boards will again be available online for Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award author participants to connect with one another and discuss the contest.
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 help them get their entries ready by staying up to date on the contest, soliciting feedback from the community and accessing online content that may be helpful in preparing their entries.
Tim McCall, vice president, director of online sales and marketing, Penguin Group (USA), commented, "We're very happy to again team with Amazon for the second Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition, and are eager to seek out the fresh new literary talent we know exists."
"We were energized by the tremendous enthusiasm that grew out of the 2008 contest, and are honored to be involved with a growing community of talented writers. We are looking forward to expanding on the huge success and popularity of this contest in 2009."
More than 5,000 registrations were received for the 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, representing approximately 2,000 cities around the world and every state in the United States.
Due to the tremendous response in 2008, up to 10,000 entries will be accepted for the 2009 contest. The contest will also take place over a shorter period of three and a half months, as opposed to six months last year.
"We're excited to be working with both Amazon and Penguin on the second annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award," said Sara Nelson, editor-in-chief, Publishers Weekly.
"As the foremost book review publication for the publishing industry, Publishers Weekly sets the standard in offering early insight on the work of new authors. We are very happy to be able to bring our experience and perspective to bear on the fresh talent that will emerge during the 2009 competition."
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