Amazon and Penguin Group: Second Annual Breakthrough Novel Competition

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Amazon.com and the Penguin Group have announced their second annual Breakthrough Novel Competition searching for new voices in fiction. Polish your manuscript for the February 2, 2009 start date.

From the article:
"Between Feb. 2 and Feb. 8, 2009, writers with an unpublished English-language novel manuscript can submit their work at www.amazon.com/abna. Up to 10,000 initial entries will be accepted, from which Amazon editors will select 2,000 to advance to the next round. Expert reviewers from Amazon will then review excerpts of these 2,000 entries and narrow the pool to 500 quarter-finalists. Reviewers from Publishers Weekly will then read, rate and review the full manuscripts, and 100 semi-finalists will be selected. Penguin editors will evaluate the manuscripts from this group of 100 and choose three finalists. A panel of esteemed publishing professionals -- including mega-bestselling authors Sue Grafton and Sue Monk Kidd, literary agent Barney Karpfinger and Penguin Press Editor-in-Chief Eamon Dolan -- will read and post their critiques of the top three manuscripts on www.amazon.com. Amazon customers will then have seven days to vote for the Grand Prize Winner.The winner will be announced on May 22, 2009, and will receive a publishing contract with Penguin, which includes a $25,000 advance."

Many of the Top Ten Finalists also received writing contracts, so it's worth checking out.