This is a PSA for all of the aspiring YA and adult writers out their on the interwebs. Mark your calendars, the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA) begins next Monday, January 14th.
If you’ve got a 50k-150k word novel on your hard drive (perhaps from NaNoWriMo?) this might be your ticket. You’d be a fool not to try because the prizes are AMAZEBALLS. One Grand Prize winner will receive a publishing contract with an advance of $50,000, and four First Prize winners will each receive a publishing contract with an advance of $15,000. All of this is through Amazon’s publishing portal CreateSpace.
Did I mention that there are five categories this year? General Fiction, Romance, Mystery/Thriller, Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror and Young Adult Fiction.
Now is the time to prep. Amazon gives you a great list, including these tidbits:
1) Prepare a strong pitch. More than a summary, your pitch should highlight your concept, protagonist, setting and writing style—all the elements that make your story unique.
2) Stay within the word-count limits — pitch, up to 300 words; excerpt, 3,000 to 5,000 words; manuscript, 50,000 to 150,000 words.
3) View the official contest rules.
This could be your big ticket. Just don’t forget the little people in your life when you’re rolling around in 50k cash money.
danielle dreger 