It’s that time of year.
Lots of people have been asking me about my thoughts on this contest, but for reasons of professional discretion I’d rather not weigh in.
However!
There are lots of knowledgeable people around these parts who would be able to tell you a thing or two about the contest and their experiences entering last year.
What do the real experts have to say? Anyone have any questions for them? Is this contest either a breakthrough or novel?
Anonymous says
I wish it had been me SK threw under the bus with my four best sellers.
jimnduncan says
I entered, though honestly, it seems like winning the grand reviewer contest. If anyone pays attention to reviews on books, you can and usually do get the same book with A+ and F reviews. So, while decent stuff will likely make its way to the top when all is said and done, odds are there will be far more material that is likely better which gets put in the reject pile because they got the wrong reviewer at the wrong time. So, lots of luck to all who enter. If you have a decent story, your odds are just as good as anyone elses.
raballard says
Anon. I don’t mind being more of a visit then a read. You are welcome anytime.
Deniz Bevan says
I don’t have to worry about this, thank God, because I live in Quebec, which is always annoyingly exempt from fun contests. But I agree with Nixy that “In the end, I decided that if my book is good enough to win that contest, it’s good enough to get a good agent who will help me find the right publisher.”
Anonymous says
Stephen King rocks, and I 100% agree with his thoughts on good and bad writers. Thanks for the article.
https://tinyurl.com/azbm25
Mira says
jmd –
Regarding Gone with the Wind.
Well, that’s confusing. I admit that a author’s letter in her own handwriting, saying that she never showed the novel to anyone is pretty compelling evidence.
But I did find the information on the internet that she had been rejected 38 times, and we all know that the internet is always accurate.
It’s unfortunate that Margaret Mitchell is not with us today, so I could clear up for her how many times she was rejected. Clearly she was confused.
I don’t think they had calculators in her time, so maybe that was the reason she got confused about whether she had been rejected 38 times, or never.
Anyway, I’m glad we had this discussion, so I could clear this up for you.
🙂
Arron Ferguson says
This is a great example of innovative thinking on behalf of Amazon. Companies, organizations, and individuals who are embracing technology and using it to bring them potential business are the ones who are going to have a better chance of survival during this global recession.
Take for example the owner of this blog.
🙂
Anonymous says
to Anon 5:39
Stephen King rocked the boat, and he rocks in his writing, but as was said in yesterday’s blog this morning;
Every author that has fans and sells books is a good writer. Anyone who bad mouthes them in the public eye is only opening themselves for criticsm and they sound like they are being catty. There are so many types of personalities in this world, it is impossible to please all of them. I don’t care for Stephen Kings writing, but I would never say he was bad at it. He said something to the effect about SM only appealing to teen girl hormones, but she also grabbed a lot of women fans and some teen boys; so she is obviously doing something right. It is not smart for anyine in the public eye to criticize something publicly, unless you are ready for the backlash; just ask the Dixie Chicks.
If you ever get famous you might remember that you once were a new author, and degrading people will do nothing but hurt feelings: Stephanie Meyers, James Patterson’s, their fans, and some of their fans might possibly have been some of SK fans. SK, what was the point? To me it was stupid. You don’t have bestsellers by being a bad writer. SK may have rocks for a brain when it comes to publicly speaking.
Anonymous says
Am I missing something? I can’t find where it says “no sex scenes.” It says no hard-core porn. Help?
This is what I read was off-limits:
* Pornography. Pornography; X-rated movies; home porn; hard-core material, including magazines, that depict graphic sexual acts; amateur porn; soiled undergarments; sexual aid devices; and “adult-only” novelty items that are primarily sold through adult-only novelty stores and erotic boutiques are not permitted. Unrated erotic videos and DVDs and properly censored erotic artwork and magazines of the type you’d find at a typical bookstore are permitted. Nudity, graphic titles, and descriptions must be sufficiently concealed with censor strips on all items containing such content.
Tamara
Anonymous says
Plus this:
Sponsors reserve the right in their sole and unfettered discretion to disqualify at any time any Entry containing obscene, offensive, pornographic or sexually explicit material, or libelous, disparaging or other inappropriate content or subject matter or that are otherwise not in compliance with these Official Rules (as determined by Sponsors in their sole discretion).
Tamara
J. Rupe-Boyd says
After reading some of the posts I’m not sure I did the right thing by entering. I doubt that my middle fantasy will catch their eye but it’s just as good as sending it off to some agent who could care less.
Michele Lee says
I’m not sure where it says No Sex in the guidelines. There’s a link to Amazon’s content guidelines that say no pornography, but I see a lot of erotica or books with sex scenes being sold on Amazon every day. I sent in my book, sex scenes and all, because it’s not nearly as explicit as many of the books Amazon already sells.
I guess we’ll see.
Audrianna says
Ha! Thanks for the link, Scott! I couldn’t help but cover my mouth to hold in the laughter, then thought, “Eh, what the heck?” and burst out laughing.
And yes, people give me strange looks in my house.
VisionScript says
And Jarucia: I’ll never forget that foggy morning those horses coming round the house, the reason those two old guys were out there healing over that gorge.
Uh, Nathan, I almost called you a name over at abna. In fact, I believe I did. So sorry old chap. You’ll forgive me, won’t you? I haven’t read this whole thread, but abna has made so many changes, you should wait and see what it accomplishes this year.
You know, people believe we write to tell ourselves how to behave.
I’m still in love with the movie, The Mystery of Rampo. Just occurred to me it must be a book I need to read if I could take it.
He would write something in a book and turn around and watch it play itself out before him in real life. I think writers don’t pay close enough attention to what they help others to manifest.
I wanted to back Jarucia up on the fact there were some incredibly decent novels entered into abna last year. I only read the ones that I would actually take off the shelf, though, and boy does that narrow the field. Not because of writing, because of subject matter. There were some great fantasies, though, that I came across and fantasies aren’t what I read either.
Wanda B. Ontheshelves says
Re: “It is not smart for anyine in the public eye to criticize something publicly, unless you are ready for the backlash; just ask the Dixie Chicks.”
I totally support the freedom of an artist to express their opinions on stage, in print, anywhere on just about any subject. It may be you are simply “ahead of your time” speaking out, and give someone else the courage to speak out as well. You may get backlash; you may also get a groundswell of support; or a mix of both.
I read Stephen King’s comments – I didn’t have a problem with them, because “that’s his opinion.” There are those who think King isn’t much of a writer, and express that viewpoint as well.
Maybe when you start out as a public figure, you want to watch what you say – ?? – but I think people get to a point in their career, why not just say what you think? Paul McCartney admitted to taking LSD in an interview; afterwards he said, “I told the truth, and sometimes the truth hurts.”
Vancouver Dame says
Thanks to Scott for the links to the Stephen King article. I read it and agree with most of what he says. Subjectivity again. We are all entitled to our opinions. At his level of popularity I don’t think he will suffer too much from any backlash. After reading his book ‘On Writing. .’, I had more respect for the guy, regardless of the genre he writes in. Amazon is a good place to order books, but their basis is marketing. That sums it up, IMO.
Anonymous says
As someone who once interned at a boutique literary agency (where, granted, our predominant focus was screenplays), I am incredibly wary about these sorts of contests. My boss participated in a handful of contests and competitions as a judge, and he was a complete and utter idiot with no eye for talent. After that experience and talking with others, I realized that many of those who judge do so because they do not have a sufficient amount of work as an agent. For my boss, it was just a way to boost his own ego and get his name out there. He had no interest whatsoever in the contestants, even seemed to look down on them for not doing things the traditional way.
Polenth says
Non-negotiable contracts are one of those ‘Run away! Run away!’ things for me. I don’t want to get stuck signing away something stupid.
I also realise I’m too introverted to win that sort of public voting. Rallying votes isn’t one of my skills. Not unless cloning an army of sentient fungi to vote would count.
Marilyn Peake says
Interesting comments by Stephen King, especially since he’s been called a hack writer by others in the past and his winning the National Book Award stirred up so much controversy. I remember reading another quote from Stephen King a while back about his own writing, in which he basically said that he writes with varying levels of skill, depending upon what he’s able to come up with at a particular time. Personally, I think the writing in his Dark Tower series is brilliant. Here’s an interesting excerpt from a New York Times article about King winning the National Book Award:
———————
Told of Mr. King's selection, some in the literary world responded with laughter and dismay. "He is a man who writes what used to be called penny dreadfuls," said Harold Bloom, the Yale professor, critic and self-appointed custodian of the literary canon. "That they could believe that there is any literary value there or any aesthetic accomplishment or signs of an inventive human intelligence is simply a testimony to their own idiocy."
Richard Snyder, the former chief executive of Simon & Schuster, which is now Mr. King's publisher, and a co-founder of the awards organization, said, "I am startled every time you say it." He added: "You put him in the company of a lot of great writers, and the one has nothing to do with the other. He sells a lot of books. But is it literature? No."
Ten years ago Mr. King and another blockbuster author, John Grisham, bought tickets to the annual awards presentation on the premise that "that was the only way we were going to get in the door," Mr. King recalled in an interview. At the time, he said, he was pleasantly surprised then that "nobody treated us like poseurs and hacks, which I think was what in our hearts we really expected."
Anonymous says
Upthread, someone called Amy said:
“The finalist received zero interest from anyone. Plus, she actually was a previously published author and really shouldn’t have been competing.”
Now, why shouldn’t she be competing? There is no rule against it, so why not? I am a previously published author, but I am competing. My previous book(s) were not succesfull, the novel I have now submitted was roundly rejected by agents/publishers (one agent did take it on, but failed to find a pubisher) and as far as I am concerned I have as much right as anyone else to enter and try my luck.
Does anyone else see this as an ethical issue? Nathan?
Amy says
Anon 11:03 – i just came back to read some comments and saw that you referenced my name in your post. I did NOT make that statement you are referring to, I don’t care if published authors enter the competition. There’s not rule against it.
Anonymous says
Ah, me again, published Anonymous from the post above!
I just read Richard’s post, another published author; he gives his reason for entering, and I’ll give mine.
When this novel was submitted to editors, the feedback was invariably, “loved the book, wouldn’t know how to market it”. And my experience with publishing is that my downfall was the marketing; I am an unknown, and even having a book out there, the competition from other, better publicized books is so huge it really is sink or swim… I sunk, even though I tried hard to swim.
I believe that if I should be one of the winners (any one of them) there’d be a lot of buzz, and buzz was exactly what was missing the last time around. It’s what I want. I don’t care about the restricted contract. I’ve done the agent/publisher rounds with this one, been soundly rejected, and this is chance to be seriously read by industry people AND readers. A second chance. And it’s free I have nothing to lose, nothing at all.
Bill Loehfelm says
I entered the ABNA contest last year, and I won. What’s happened since then?
After he read the full manuscript, I signed with a NY agent whose clients appear on the NYT Best Seller list as well as the Booker Prize short list. FRESH KILLS was published in August by Putnam, to favorable reviews from the Baltimore Sun, the Associated Press, and Entertainment Weekly, among others. Sales have been solid, if not spectacular, and the novel will appear in trade paperback this July. I’ve signed a second contract w/Putnam and that novel, BLOODROOT, will be published in early September.
After the initial publication of FRESH KILLS, Penguin’s contest obligations were fulfilled. Everything that followed was done on the strength of my work.
What does all this mean? Probably not much to anyone outside of me, my wife, and my family. But the contest gave me a shot at making a living writing books, which is what I now do. Some people in the “real” publishing world think I’m pretty good and I hope to reward their faith. Isn’t that what every writer wants? To get their work in front of someone who will show a little faith in it?
Who knows? A year from now I may be back behind the bar. But tonight I’m a novelist and it feels pretty good.
Emily Cross says
i think everyones made good points for both pro/con camps. I think that apart from previous years vetting system – its a good way of honing your skills. . .
but similar to what Nixy said,
if you don’t query penguin directly normally why would you for a competition?
The idea of ‘accepting’ a legal contract which binds me so completely is frightening.
In the real world, at least you could go looking for representation before signing the dotted line to get a better deal – with this you don’t have that option.
Theres a reason why people seek representation by agents over going straight to publisher
anyhoo, Good luck to those who entered – i’m with Mira, going to write that complaint. . well as soon as i get this pesky prologue done. . . .
Anonymous says
Emily, I suppose it all depends on where you stand in the publisheing process.
For someone just starting out, who has not done the rounds of submission and rejection, it’s probably better to go the regular path and hope for a better deal.
For those of us who have been submitting for years without success, it’s a new option; let’s just say that I’d rather have the Penguin contract than no contract, which is what I’ve had for the last few years. Besides the one I submitted I have two more finished manuscripts. Should a miracle take place and I end up in the short-short-list I am sure that selling them with a better contract will be a LOT easier!
Like I said above, I have nothing to lose and everything to win.
Good luck to all entrants! I’m not particularly excited or optimistic, but it wouldd be great to make it through a round or two.
Anonymous says
Bill, I’m curious… does you agent get a commission for your winning book? Or only for the ones that follow?
I’m thinking that since the contract is not negotiable I would not need or want an agent if I should win the main prize.
Rick Daley says
I see this thread has taken a turn…
I read the Stephen King interview too, although the version I read on Yahoo was abbreviated from the link Scott posted.
I haven’t read Twilight yet, but I plan to. My wife just finished the series. It will be nice to have her back. After she started, she was completely absorbed. She finished a book, and the next day she came home with the next one. Did that for all four books in the series. It’s funny how “bad writing” can be a good read.
I don’t know all the criteria for classifying writing as good or bad. I am in a couple online critique groups, and I have encountered writing that I would rate very low based on syntax (the mechanics of how a sentence is structured) and rhetoric (the ability to use language effectively to convey a thought), but those examples are so bad you would never expect to see them in publication. If they were published in the condition in which I read them, I would place the blame equally on the editors.
I think, good or bad, Stephanie Meyers’ writing can be classified as “successful,” along with Stephen King, John Grisham, Dan Brown, and anyone else who has taken a pounding for entertaining millions of readers.
And Mr. Harold Bloom, in stating “That they could believe that there is any literary value there or any aesthetic accomplishment or signs of an inventive human intelligence is simply a testimony to their own idiocy” may be a good writer, but he is dead wrong. A well-written fallacy is still a fallacy.
Anonymous says
Bill,
All I can say is a hearty congratulations! A job well done.
Tamara
BarbS. says
Bill Loehfelm,
You make the process sound sane.
Thanks so much for stopping in and stopping the madness.
Congrats, too! I’m looking forward to that second book.
Scott says
I’d like to add my congratulations to Bill, as well. Any comments about the contest I’m sure do not mean to criticize your entering, your winning, or your accomplishments after.
You really don’t want a list of what I would do to write for a living. Entering the ABNA contest would seem the essence of nobility in comparison to any one of them. ;^)
Word Ver: gothead n. 1. from goth’ead, which refers to any enthusiast participating in the “gothic” lifestyle. Often purposely mispronounced to reflect a derogatory view.
KareFree Kennels says
I entered to learn how to pitch my novel…writing it is one thing (well, a million zillion things); pitching it is another.
Now I have a virtually impossible deadline (due to other commitments), but, Gee!, I wrote a novel, didn’t I? Surely I can write a pitch.
As for Someone stealing your concept, that Someone still has to write the actual novel, while mine is finished, at least until an agent or editor advises me to improve it here and there…and there and there and there.
Anna says
late late… but I did enter, more on a whim than anything…
now to other things until the middle of March…
Kat says
I don’t think I like the stipulations that go along with the grand prize- a non-negotiable ‘as-is’ boilerplate contract? Doesn’t really sound like a prize to me.
I’ve heard that a lot of boilerplate contracts screw the writer. (That’s why you need an agent!)
As for the contest, I’m sure the winning book will be good, but I do believe that generally a writer with a book good enough to be published shouldn’t have to resort to self-pub.
Occasionally, you will find that rare book that never appealed to the agents, the editors or the publishers, but for some reason the public just devours it. It’s an anomaly.
I think that’s the goal of this contest: to find that rare gem hidden in the slush pile.
MzMannerz says
Are the odds of winning a contest really that much greater than landing an agent for the same work? Seems six of one to me. Shrug.
Anonymous says
Karefree
They may not steal an entire concept, but there is the possibility of stealing an awesome line or interchanging a sub-plot with their own novel. We hear so much about having great openers, if you have one; do you put it out there for everyone to see before it’s published?
Anonymous says
Oh! I remember something. A friend of mine in the UK made the semi-finals and (naturally) asked a few people she knew whether they might read her entry and comment on it. Except that in order to review a contest entry, *you had to have purchased something from Amazon.com*. Which struck me as annoying (though I kind of see the point – it means someone can’t make up 100 troll e-mail addresses and review the same book 100 times).
BarbS. says
Anon 6:51 and Karefree,
If the work is out there, “there” has a date stamp which can help place the date of the original concept. So says my friend
the-screenwriting-entertainment-lawyer.
I have reason to hope he’s not blowing hot air!
And yes, I came here to read only, but I thought I’d snatch the wordver before somebody else seized it for its face value: MALLIGN, which I hoped not to do in my post… 😉
Anonymous says
Barb S
Thanks, I am so leery. I had always heard that was the case, but an idea can be copied still and changed enough to look familiar to an agent and mess with your chances of being published w/o you ever knowing the reason.My worry, even with the law is by the time you figure it out, the damage will be done.
Captain Monkeypants says
My two cents: I entered last year and was not happy at the process. However after a year of querying for no less then three different novels, receiving two requests for partials that were rejected within three days of submission (one can’t help but believe they weren’t even read) and emailed query rejections that happened 11 minutes after submission, I have to enter ABNA again. I’m entering ABNA again because I can’t sit around bashing my head on the keyboard because this whole process is so hard, that it wears me down every time I get a rejection. I know it’s an American Idol for books in a way but it gives us humble unpublished a chance to hope just a little. When we send out queries to agents who only want a letter and then instantly reject us, it’s a little like auditioning for American Idol and being told you’re not pretty enough even to sing for the judges and be given a fair shot. With Amazon’s contest, we at least get our chance to sing, even for a short while. To me, that’s something.
Anonymous says
Art criticism is a worthless pursuit. Most critics aren’t artists and, if their opinions differ from those of the larger audience, who cares what they think?
If your novel doesn’t sell, no one’s going to keep it in print because the Times book critic thought it was a breath of fresh air. If your book does sell no one’s going to stop buying it because some guy at the Guardian found it to be derivative and unoriginal.
It’s disgusting that they seem to have so much power in spite of the fact that all they’re doing is writing down one person’s opinion bout a book. I’ll form my own, thanks.
ryan field says
Captain Monkeypants said: “it’s a little like auditioning for American Idol”
I always thought the query process was like that, too. You get a few minutes to sing, and if it’s not perfect in every way…ah well.
Anonymous says
Wanda,
I believe in freedom of speech also, but I fail to see the point in criticizing someone else’s work and possibly damaging their career (not that it is likely to happen in this case). Let’s hope that no-one does that to you. It is just mean. Last time I checked Stephen King wasn’t a young adult.
raballard says
It seems to me the King-Myers drudge match would be better sevred on pay-per-view.
My wife swears by King, my teenage daughter sweard by Myers. I am too much a gentleman to swear.
The subject is the Amazon Breaktrhough Novel Contest. I am affraid if either King or Myers entered we would all be toast.
Anonymous says
For those who are wary of the “non-negotible” contrct, here’s the fine print:
If Penguin notifies an entrant (excluding the Grand Prize winner) that it wishes to publish such entrant’s work, entrant will negotiate exclusively with Penguin for a period of thirty (30) days on the terms and conditions of a publishing agreement. If at the end of that 30-day period, entrant and Penguin have not reached agreement, entrant will be free to offer the work to other publishers, provided that before entrant enters into an agreement with another publisher, entrant will afford Penguin the last right to publish the work on the same terms and conditions offered by any other publisher plus an advance against royalties ten percent (10%) greater. Penguin must communicate its decision to entrant within five (5) business days after written notice from entrant of the other publisher’s terms and conditions, and if Penguin declines or fails to act within that period, entrant will not have any further obligation to Penguin and may publish the work with another publisher.
So, it might be better not to be the Grand Winner, but a runner-up!
jef says
…all our dreams don’t come true.
Anonymous says
I’m completely new to the world of book publishing. I’ve yet to start the query process, but I have an agent who has asked for an exclusive read of my manuscript starting the first week of March. Even though I’m crazy excited about this opporuntiy, Wendy has never read a partial or even a single page of anything I’ve written. Basically, she has asked to read my MS based on a recommendation. So I sort of expect her to reject me. To be honest, I’d love to put off the query process as long as possible and a contest sounds like the perfect opportunity to avoid queries while still being somewhat productive.
My question is this: Is it unethical to enter a contest when you’ve agreed to a two-week exclusive that falls during the contest time frame?
Mira says
Anon – yes, I think it would be.
Just my opinion, and I could be wrong, but I think you have to give the exclusive. Or you could hold off on giving it to the agent after the contest.
Sorry.
In other news, they still haven’t opened the contest to people who haven’t written a book.
You know, this exclusivity of the industry – where they only want to publish books that are actually written is a total travesty.
If I ever do write a book, I might write it about that.
raballard says
Why don’t you write a book Mira?
Bill Loehfelm says
Anon 3:44 –
When we agreed to work together, my agent was not entitled to any proceeds from FRESH KILLS, neither the prize money nor any subsequent earnings. I did later bring the agency into that contract, to handle film rights, royalties, etc., but entirely of my own accord. We worked together for eight months before he made Dollar One from our relationship.
He asked me the same question when I interviewed him: “You’ve already got a contract, why do you want an agent?” My response was that I wanted to parlay winning the contest into a career and I thought getting an agent was a key step in making that happen. It has proved to be a wise move.
Mira says
Bill – I’d to add my congratulations. That’s an incredible accomplishment – to win a contest like that. Major kudos and congrats!
RayBallad, that’s an idea. I could write a book. But then I’d have to give up this joke about how I’m not writing a book.
I’m not sure which would be better: to write a book, or keep pounding this joke into the ground until it screams for mercy. They both seem like such a valuable use of my time….I just don’t know….
🙂
sorry, I’ve been in such a silly mood lately. The truth – I’m working on some writing projects, but I’m a new writer, so nothing’s finished.
Thanks for asking, Ray.