Thread: 2011 amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

Get ready to submit your best work. They will take 2,500 entries into Adult Fiction and 2,500 in the Young Adult Fiction categories. The winners get an advance and a publishing deal. I made the 50 semi finalists last year and have a question. I'm still very confident about my first novel but it didn't win last year. I have another but don't feel as strongly as I do about the first. They have a new panel of judges, should I resubmit "Vengeance is Mine"?

Here's a link to enter..Amazon.com: Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

Not one reply? Will nobody rise to this challenge? Here we are, all aspiring writers and here is a chance to get your book published with a nice cash advance. Someone is going to win and if you make the semi finalists, Publishers Weekly gives you a review which means that they read the whole book.

I have mixed feelings about my review, it was positive overall but the related me to Disney which could be bad or good, Disney has a wide appeal. Here's what they had to say...

In this rollicking romantic historical, the author delivers an action -laced story of gold-hearted pirates, lush locales and high seas intrigue. Felipe Montoya, a fisherman’s son, goes rogue after being arrested for piracy, and his father is soon murdered by soldiers eager for pirate bounty. Felipe and his uncle, Andreas, vow revenge and after stealing a ship (and re-christening it “Vengeance”) Felipe captures King Phillip’s daughter, Victoria, and her companion Angelica. Not so unexpectedly, he falls for Victoria, and they have a son, Juan Carlos, who happens to be the vengeful king’s only heir. Nevertheless, Phillip dispatches an assassin to kill Felipe and kidnap his grandson. This fun adventure, while often quite Disney in style and tone, benefits from sturdy plotting, vivid characters and a few unexpected twists.

It's an interesting option. But the terms and conditions of these things always bother me.

"By submitting an Entry, you grant us and our respective affiliates and agents permission to use, without charge, portions of your Manuscript, Pitch, or Excerpt, along with your name and stated reason for writing the submitted Entry (if provided) for any purpose in connection with this Contest until June 30, 2011. You also grant us the right to edit the formatting and display of your Entry, and to create literary or any other types of effects in respect to your Entry without compensation or approval. In addition, to the extent that any moral rights (for example, the right to attribution and the right to integrity) apply, you waive (and to the extent that these rights may not be waived, agree irrevocably not to assert) your moral rights in your Entry for purposes of this Contest, including, without limitation, our use of excerpts from your Entry in connection with this Contest."

"Excerpts, along with the your name, city, and state of residence, and portions of your Entry which relate to the submitted Manuscript, may be posted on any website owned or operated by us or any of their affiliates ("Our Site"), any other website or other online point of presence on any platform through which any products or services available on or through Our Site are described, syndicated, offered, merchandised, or advertised."

"Penguin will pay each Winner $15,000.00 USD. The $15,000.00 payment is an advance against the royalties to be earned by the Winner under the publishing contract."

"You may not negotiate the publishing contract with Penguin, and you must sign it “as is” upon receipt of the executable contract (as described in Section 9 below) if you wish to enter into the publishing contract being awarded."

So if you don't like the contract they present you with, you end up with nothing.

They also go on to say that they have exclusive first publisher rights to submissions, and if you cannot come to an agreement with them (if they want to publish), then when you seek another publisher, you need to keep bouncing their offers off of Penguin to determine if they want to match the offer.


I'm sure it'll all work out, but when they take away your rights like this (for little reason other than to promote themselves), it makes me reluctant to trust them. Mind.. most competitions are like this, and most competitions are run because they perform some service for the company.

It's a business strategy to generate income for them.

What I and the other contestants got out of the rules was that Penguin got the final rights to your book if you win. It does say that you can take competing bids from other agents, but Penguin had the right to meet or beat that offer.

Excerpt being posted along with your name on other websites can't hurt either.

$15,00 cash advance toward the royalties isn't a bad thing.

the contract is what it is and is not negotiable, but as I said, you can take competing bids.

As hard as it is for a new name to break into this game, it sounds like a good offer. I'll enter again.

You're likely right. But I'm not sure if I'll enter. My reasoning is as follows:

I got the impression that the $15,000 cash advance was only awarded if you agreed to the contract. By this logic, you could pretend that submitting your work to the thousands of agents/publishers out there was also a competition. You'd have a similar chance (based on the quality of your work) to 'win' a cash advance on the royalties your book earns. Ta-dah

All without giving away some of your rights, or your ability to utilise the rights you cannot give away.