Get ready authors for the 14th of January, 2013 at 12:00:01 a.m. (U.S. Eastern Standard Time). This is the moment when Amazon opens their portal for their annual Breakthrough Book Award.
Prepare for it now and be quick on the day, as soon as 10,000 applications have been received, they will shut it down! Submssions close on 27th of January, 2013 at 11:59:59 p.m. (U.S. Eastern Standard Time).
There is a great cash prize of $50,000 for the overall winner and a publishing contract. Interestingly, in the past, the publishing contract prize has been with Penguin. This year for the first time, the prize will be awarded by Amazon Publishing! There are some great runner up prizes as well of $15,000 and a publishing contract for the winner of each genre.
The Breakthrough Award is open to books that have been self published as long as the author retains world wide copyright. Read the official rules here.
As a quick overview, to qualify to enter, you must meet the following criteria:
- your book must be between 50,000 and 150,000 words
- submit a pitch of your manuscript consisting of up to 300 words
- you must be 13 years or older at the time of entry
- you must be the only author
- the work must be entirely original
The following genres are being accepted:
- General Fiction
- Mystery-Thriller
- Science Fiction-Fantasy-Horror
- Romance
- Young Adult Fiction
If you are an author, the most obvious thing to work on will be your pitch. This should consist of an overview of your manuscript up to 300 words only. I would advise putting alot of effort and thought into this and having several friends and family look over it. Make sure they are competent and have some understanding of what’s at stake and they have a good command of the english language! Make sure you do your spell check!
Good luck!
You can submit your manuscript to Amazon Breakthrough Award here.
For more publishing tips, click here.
Article written by Aishah Macgill
