Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest

For all of you out there that have unpublished or self-published novels hoping to attract the attention of a major publisher, here's your shot.  Amazon has partnered with Penguin Press to look for the "next big thing" in print.  For more information you can visit the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest page at the high lighted link.

If you're thinking about entering, get your pencils sharpened, the contest ends on 7 Feb 2010.  There are also a few hoops you'll have to jump through when submitting a book:

• Submissions are to be works of fiction and can be entered in the general or young adult categories.
• Novel lengths are to be 50,000 to 150,000 words
• Submissions must be made in specific Microsoft Word formats or a rich text format with other formatting requirements.
  
• Along with the full novel, aspirants must enter a 300 word "pitch" and the first  3,000 to 5,000 words of your book.

For more information about entry requirements, check out the How to Enter link.  If you're thinking about entering, there is a catch.  By entering, your work is basically locked up by a "first to publish" agreement with Penguin.  This means you cannot publish your work until after 30 June 2010 if you enter the contest.  The up side to all of this is that the Grand Prize is a publishing contract with Penguin and a $15,000 advance.

So what are you waiting for, get writing....