Why Should You Participate in Book Contests?

Hellooooo everybody and thank you for visiting my page and supporting OUR GROUP by your continued presence. just in case you don't know what I'm talking about I mean the Group called Books and Bookmen on NewYorker Times. And because it is OUR GROUP please feel free to post anything movie/book/writer related stuff on this page. I deliberately include ’movie’ because, first, movies are written by some writer somewhere, second, many writers(myself included) dream about their books being made into movies someday,third, I’m also writing a screenplay and fourth… everyone loves movies right?

So much about that…

Now, as usual one of my many internet research obsessions is discovering ways to promote new books by new authors (soon to be myself). I guess by now most of you have heard of (ABNAC)Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award Contest right?

Many agree that for one to succeed in selling a lot of their books they need to employ a host of different book marketing avenues and that there’s no single way or magic formula to succeed, and book contest is just one of those avenues. Intriguingly, Amazon – one of the leading online book market place, sponsors such a contest!

Now there are three reasons why every indie/ self published author needs to seriously consider ABNAC.

1. The publicity. As the saying goes – Any publicity is good publicity and this kind of publicity is not only good for you but its good for your book as well.
2. The Publishing contract from Penguin. Again, many will agree that Penguin is one of the world’s largest book publisher, seller and distributor so striking a publishing contract is something one might want to consider. But take note of my statement. I said; ”SOMETHING ONE MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER,” and not ”SOMETHING ONE SHOULD CONSIDER.” This is so because firstly I respect all writers even those who are still writing their drafts and in addition many self published authors have rejected publishing contracts from big publishing houses simply because self publishing was doing wonder for them. If you doubt me read about John Locke here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke_(author). This dude is the first man to sell over ONE MILLION eBooks AS A SELF PUBLISHED AUTHOR and turned down all the big names(the likes of Penguin)…I mean why shouldn’t he?
3. The prize money. One Grand Prize winner receives 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.

Just so you know the 2013 ABNAC is already underway, so if you’re interested you have to wait till next year around early January 2014. I can’t wait get my IONSHAKER THRILLER edited!!!

Below is a breakdown of the contest details.

CONTEST DETAILS

Round 1 (Pitch) Amazon-selected editors read and rate an up to 300-word pitch from each entrant. The top 400 entries in each of the five categories advance to the second round.

Round 2 (Excerpt) Amazon Expert Reviewers read and rate the 3,000- to 5,000-word excerpts and provide feedback to the entrants. The top 100 entries in each of the five categories advance to the Quarter-Finals.

Quarter-Finals (Full Manuscript) Reviewers from Publishers Weekly read and rate the full manuscripts and provide feedback to the entrants. The top five entries in each of the five categories advance to the Semi-Finals.

Semi-Finals Editors with Amazon Publishing read the full manuscripts of the 25 Semi-Finalists and select five Finalists, one in each of the five categories.

Finals Amazon customers read the Finalists’ excerpts and vote for their favorite. The novel with the most votes wins the Grand Prize. All remaining Finalists receive a First Prize.

Hope this gets you interested.