Breakthrough Novel Contest

If you haven't heard...

Last year's Breakthrough Novel Award contest hosted by Amazon, Penguin Group (USA) and CreateSpace (Amazon's self-publishing and distribution company) was so successful the trio has decided to offer the contest again.

Here are some details:

• Feb. 2-8 submit your manuscript, with semi-finalists announced April 15. Only 10,000 entries will be allowed. From those, 2,000 submissions are chosen by Amazon expert reviewers based on the novels' pitches. From those, 500 are chosen and displayed on Amazon.com

• Experts Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees, and Sue Grafton, author of the Kinsey Millhone Mysteries, will review the three top manuscripts, which will be posted May 15-21, then customers vote for the first place winner, who will be announced May 22.

The Amazon info states that Publisher's Weekly and Penguin read and rank the top entries (the top 500 and 100, respectively). Last year's debut novel, Fresh Kills by Bill Loehfelm was published in August by Putnam.

If you're interested, you can sign up for updates.

Happy writing!

Buy Books This Season!

Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Flying Spaghetti Monster Day... Whatever holiday you celebrate that requires an exchange of gifts with others, remember that you're a writer who loves books, so help the market flourish by buying books for loved ones this season.

There are Only Pros to This Choice

• Books are easy to buy and send, both tasks often accomplished via online bookstores that assure no traffic or crowds. Even if you want to stay away from the big online chains, you can often purchase books from your favorite local bookstores through Booksense, a portal for indy booksellers. BookSpot.comoffers a list of other lesser-known online bookstores like Books-A-Million (a book club site) and AllBooks4Less.com (a discount outlet).

• Book prices vary enough to suit anyone's wallet.

• There's a book for everyone on your list, even those who don't particularly like to read, or at least who don't think they do until you present them with the perfect choice. Check out some of these titles:

Killer Gators and Crocs: Gruesome Encounters From Across the Globe

Perfect I'm Not: Boomer on Beer, Brawls, Backaches, and Baseball

The Curse of the Pharaohs

The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker

Bartending for Dummies

Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse

Better yet, if you've got friends with published books, make a list and send it to me, friends, family and everyone else you know, since people love supporting their loved ones' creative endeavors.

Happy writing!

A Dog's Dream Owner

Dog Years: A Memoir by Mark Doty

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
By the end of this memoir about the life of a guy with his two dogs, National Book Award-winning poet Mark Doty will have even those most ardently opposed to dog ownership craving a canine.


View all my reviews.