When I finished my first novel ten years ago, I was so proud of my accomplishment that I immediately entered the prestigious William Faulkner Novel Competition. It’s one of America’s leading literary writing contests and offers a hefty first prize of $7,500, plus assistance in finding a literary agent and publisher.
Oh the innocence of the budding writer! Between the entry fee (somewhere around $20, I believe) and the postage (no electronic transmissions back then), I was a bit poorer for the experience. But I learned an important lesson: There are plenty of writers out there who have not only written novels, but have put in many more hours than I have at perfecting and polishing their craft.
I heard recently that it takes approximately 10,000 hours of deep practice to get really good at something, which translates into approximately ten years, where I stand today.
Wiser now, I realize I couldn’t have won the William Faulkner competition regardless of how brilliant my novel had been, because my work is not literary. And it will never be literary. I write commercial fiction.
Desperate for feedback, I began searching for other contests to enter. And then came another surprise: Many contests are genre specific. I tried on genres like outfits in a dressing room, looking for the perfect fit: suspense, visionary, magical realism, contemporary fantasy, mainstream/contemporary, psychic/supernatural. Finally, during a pitch session with agent, Elaine English, I narrowed it down to women’s fiction with paranormal elements. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a contest that targeted this category.
Until now.
Welcome to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards, a contest with no genre restrictions other than a division into two categories: General Fiction and Young Adult Fiction. The grand prize for each category is a publishing contract with Penguin USA and a $15,000 advance on royalties. In addition, there are thousands of other prizes with a total value of over $100,000. And there is no entry fee!
What excites me even more than the grand prize (which will be difficult to win with 5,000 entries), is that this contest mimics the steps you take when submitting a manuscript to an agent. In other words, during the competition, depending on how many rounds you advance, you can test the strengths of weaknesses of your pitch/query, your excerpt/partial, and your complete manuscript.
First round: Amazon editors review your 300 word pitch. The top 1000 out of 5000 entries in each category will move on to the second round. This stage of the competition parallels sending a query letter to an agent. Maybe, on a good day, one out of five queries leads to a request for a partial.
Second round: The field is narrowed to 250 entries in each category by Amazon top customer reviewers from the ratings of a 3,000 to 5,000 word excerpt. This round parallels the agent’s review of your partial, followed by either a rejection or a request for the full manuscript.
Quarter finals: Publisher Weekly reviewers read the full manuscript of each quarter finalist, and the top 50 in each category will move on to the Semifinals. Compare this to an agent liking your work. You’re almost there.
Semifinals: Penguin USA editors will read the full manuscript and review all accompanying data for each semifinalist and will select three finalists in each category.
You have an agent!
Finals: Amazon customers will vote on the three finalists in each category resulting in two grand prize winners. PUBLICATION!
If you’re interested in more information about this contest, go to:
http://www.amazon.com/abna. There you will find contest FAQ, Contest rules, How to enter facts, Key dates, Prizes, etc. There is also a great discussion board for announcements and fun and informative chats by the contest participants.
The submission period for this year was Jan. 25 to February 7, but there’s no time like now to get your pitch and manuscript polished for next year.
On February 25, I made it to round two with my novel, BETWEEN NOW AND FOREVER, and yesterday I made it to the quarterfinalists (250 out of 1,000 entries). I’ll have to wait until April 27 to see if I progress to the semifinalists. But as far as I’m concerned, I’ve already won. I know my pitch and first two chapters are ready for the submission process, and soon my entire manuscript will be reviewed and rated by professional reviewers from Publishers Weekly. How good is that?
What do you think of contests? Do they help you at all?
