Friday 5 October 2007

New Fiction Writing Competition


Amazon teams up with Penguin Group USA and HP in this competition for new writers. (Link in the title) They are looking for the next great novelist. All entrants are eligible to self-publish their novel with CreateSpace and sell it on Amazon.com. So perhaps this is mainly a promotion for this service.
Registration deadline is November 5th 2007 bit only the first 5,000 entries will be accepted so get in early. Submit the first 5,000 words of your book.
Amazon editors and top reviewers will read the 5,000 scripts and select semi-finalists. They don't say how many. Excerpts from the semi finalists will be posted on amazon.com for review. They will also receive a review of their work from Publishers Weekly.
The top ten finalists will be announced on Aptil 7th 2008 based on customer feedback and reviews.
Residents of the following countries are eligible to enter the Contest: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada (excluding the Province of Qu?bec), China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States (the 50 states and D.C.), and the United Kingdom.
Prize is a contract from Penguin amongst other things.
Note you are granting Penguin Group USA first refusal on your manuscript so it can't be sent elsewhere until you have won or been eliminated.

See the NY Times article and this one from Seattle pi. The second article also mentions another competition for crime writing from Borders/Court TV and gather.com.

Deadline 11 November 2007.

No comments: