Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award

I entered my novel, This Is Where I Came In, in Amazon's annual Breakthrough Novel Award competition several weeks ago. They accepted five thousand entries and then started the winnowing process. Today (Feb. 24) they picked the top one thousand, eliminating 4,000 hopefuls. I'm happy to say that I made the cut! The next step will further narrow the field to 500; that result will be announced on March 22nd. While I don't hold much hope for winning the contest, I've found that entering such competitions does some beneficial things for a writer. It forces you to come up with a brief summary of your book, something that is much harder than it seems. If you only have 300 words to hook someone's attention and make them want to read your story, what do you say? How much plot do you give away? You begin to realize how difficult it is to write the blurb for a book cover, those few words which often make the difference between a sale and a rejection. Honing a pitch is crucial if you ever intend to try to get a literary agent or get an editor to read your stuff. You must learn to briefly tell what your book is about, why it's worth reading, why it's different from other books, who the audience is, etc. It's a lot to sum up in 300 words. Try it.
Meanwhile, I'll be trying not to think about March 22nd.

YOU could be published...in the SCRIBE anthology

Sometimes we all need a little push to get us going in the right direction. This is particularly true for writers; it's way too easy to put off writing until "tomorrow" which likely never comes. So here's your push: Later this year, SCRIBE will publish There Is No End, an anthology of writings by the members of Scribe, the Riverbend Writers Group. We are now accepting submissions for this project; in fact I've already received a couple. If you submit a piece which is accepted, it will be printed in the anthology and you will be part of the book launch party where selected authors will read from their work and all included authors will be invited to sign copies of the book.
Submissions for the anthology may be short stories, memoirs, poems, short plays, anecdotes, essays, etc. Your submission should relate in some way to one of the following themes: Grace. Hope. Faith. Love. Don’t think of this as a “devotional” book; themes should be subtle and need not be “religious” in nature. Not all submissions will be printed. Submissions will be edited and in some cases, given back to authors for further fine-tuning. Do your very best work!
Proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to Riverbend’s building fund.

Submission guidelines:
• Submissions must be in electronic format, in a Microsoft Word document or compatible format.
• Submissions must be no longer than 2,500 words. No exceptions.
• Submissions should relate in some way to the subject of grace, faith, hope or love.
• Deadline for submissions is midnight Saturday, April 30, 2011.
• Email submissions to Mike Robertson, or submit your work on a CD or flash drive.

If you have any questions, please email me. You now have a reason to write. I can't wait to read what you come up with.