Amazon-Penguin Novel Writing Contest is Back

Press Release: Amazon.com and Penguin Group (USA) have announced the fifth annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, the international search for the next great voices in fiction. The competition will award two grand prizes: one for general fiction and one for young adult fiction. Each grand prize winner will be published by Penguin Group (USA), and the competition will be open to both unpublished and self-published novels. After a record-setting number of submissions for the 2011 competition, writers around the world are encouraged to begin preparing their manuscripts for entry into the 2012 competition, which will open on Jan. 23, 2012.

“The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award brings writers, readers and publishing professionals together with Amazon customers to help find exciting new voices in fiction,” said Nader Kabbani, Director of Independent Publishing at Amazon. “We’re excited to facilitate this contest for aspiring authors for the fifth year and look forward to reading some great manuscripts.”

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.”

Eligible writers with an English-language novel can submit their manuscript between Jan. 23 and Feb. 5, 2012. Submission details can be found at www.amazon.com/abna. Up to 10,000 total eligible entries will be accepted, consisting of up to 5,000 each in the general fiction and young adult fiction categories. Amazon.com editors will select 1,000 entries from each category to advance to the second round. In the subsequent round, Amazon.com editors and at least one top reviewer on Amazon.com will read excerpts of the entries and narrow the pool to 500 quarter-finalists (250 in each category). Reviewers from Publishers Weekly will then read, review and rate the full manuscripts, and 50 semi-finalists for each category will be selected. Penguin editors will evaluate the manuscripts of the 50 general fiction and 50 young adult fiction semi-finalists, and choose three finalists for each award.