M. R. Bailey

First prize in the 3rd Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA) Contest for previously unpublished works is a publishing contract with Penguin and a $15,000 cash advance. 

Almost any opportunity to get your work before interested readers, share a good story, gather some feedback, and connect with other writing professionals is good. ABNA is such an opportunity, yet its modest profile ensures that many writers will miss this chance to break through.  The contest’s low profile is surprising – ABNA’s sponsors are three of publishing’s leaders: Amazon, Penguin Group (USA), and Publishers Weekly. 

Here’s how the contest works: 

During the submission time window, ABNA accepts up 5,000 submissions in each of two categories: General Fiction and Young Adult. They specify ‘up to 5,000′ because ABNA closes submissions upon receiving 5,000 or after two weeks, whichever comes first. 

Initial Round: Amazon editors read 300-word pitches and select 1,000 from each category. 

Quarter-Finals: Expert Amazon reviewers read 3,000-5,000 word excerpts from entries and select 250 from each category. 

Semi-Finals: Publishers Weekly reviewers read and rate complete manuscripts, and select 50 from each category. 

Finals: Penguin editors evaluate the final 50 manuscripts in General Fiction, the final 50 in Young Adult, and select three finalists in each category. 

Amazon customer voting: Amazon customers have seven days to vote for their favorites in each category. 

Grand Prize Winners will be announced in Seattle on June 14, 2010.  Each will receive a publishing contract with Penguin, which includes a $15,000 advance. 

For every writer but the winner, the benefit is feedback.  Novel writing can be a solitary enterprise and feedback about work-in-progress can become the difference between good and great writing. 

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UPDATES

25 Feb 2010:  Initial Round – Pitches  

• General Fiction (1,000)
• Young Adult Fiction (1,000)

23 Mar 2010:   Quarter-Finals 

• General Fiction (250)
• Young Adult Fiction (250)

27 Apr 2010: Semi-Finals 

• General Fiction (50)
• Young Adult Fiction (50)

• General Fiction (3)
  • Jennifer Handford:  FORTUNE COOKIES
  • Patricia McArdle:  FARISHTA 
  • Johnny Shaw:  DOVE SEASON
•  Young Adult Fiction (3) 
  • Amy Ackley: SIGN LANGUAGE
  • Alex Airdale:  SERVICE OF THE CROWN
  • Alison Stewart:  DAYS LIKE THIS

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2009 ABNA Winner: Bill Warrington's Last Chance by Jack King

2009 ABNA Winner:  Bill Warrington’s Last Chance by Jack King 

2008 ABNA Winner:  Fresh Kills by Bill Loehfelm 

An author-friend published in Glimmertrain.  She described it as a positive experience, the best she had had after years of publishing in newspapers and regionals.  She also credited publication of her story in Glimmertrain with helping her get a good NY agent and three years of promising work on a novel and anthology of short non-fiction.

A colleague who learned that I had published a novel just shared a short story she’d written about a catastrophe averted. Her writing engages with a voice that is confident, yet doesn’t take itself seriously. She set the tone in the first sentence, kept her contract with the reader, and revealed surprises along the way.  It was good getting to know this new dimension of someone I have come to know in layers, like a character in a novel.  I suggested that if she had not already done so she take a look at Glimmertrain and consider submitting her story there.

She just stopped by for coffee and said that she had visited www.glimmertrain.com and decided to submit to the sisters in Portland.  Here’s hoping.

UPDATE:  31 August 2009

My story, “Robert’s Rules of Order,” did not win, place, or show. Neither did my friend’s story. Eager to read the winning entries, discover some new writers, and learn what worked for the judges. Onward.