Amazon and Penguin Announce Fifth Annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest

Posted on December 8, 2011

Amazon.com, Inc. and Penguin Group (USA) announced the fifth annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. Each grand prize winner will be published by Penguin Group. There are two grand prizes: one for general fiction and one for young adult fiction. Novels that are unpublished or self-published are eligible for the competition. The competition opens on January 23, 2012.

Tim McCall, Penguin Group (USA) Vice President of Online Sales and Marketing, said, "Penguin is proud to cooperate with Amazon on the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for the fifth consecutive year. We are committed to encouraging and cultivating talented new writers, and bringing these writers to readers everywhere."

The submission period runs from January 23, 2012 to February 5, 2012. 10,000 entries will be accepted: 5,000 in each category. Editors at Amazon.com will narrow the field to 1,000 in each category, which will advance to the next round. When the field has been narrowed to 50 semi-finalists for each category, the manuscripts go to Penguin where its editors will choose the finalists.

Those manuscripts will be judged by this year's panel. The fiction judges are Linda Fairstein, New York Times bestselling author (Silent Mercy, Night Watch), literary agent Donald Maass; and Anne Sowards, executive editor at Berkley. The young adult fiction judges are Andrea Cremer, New York Times bestselling author of the Nightshade trilogy; literary agent Charlie Olsen of InkWell Management; and Regina Hayes, president and publisher of Viking Children's Books.

Amazon.com customers will vote for a Grand Prize Winner in each category. The two Grand Prize Winners will be announced in Seattle on June 16, 2012. Each winner will receive a publishing contract with Penguin, which includes a $15,000 advance. You can get all the details for entry here.