Breakthrough Novel Contest - for aspiring writers.

Okay, here's a question put to me today. I'll answer based on what I've learned about this contest from exploring it myself. THEREFORE, if you're interested please do go on to explore more yourself because I DON'T KNOW EVERY DANG THING!

". . . what is your opinion of Amazon's Breakout Writer Contest? The deadline to enter is the 6th of Feb, and with some work, I think I could get my MS ready. But maybe the only ones that have a chance are authors prof edited? And maybe my concept isn't "breakout" enough.

Below is what I've come to learn about Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Contest and what I've learned through "googling" (my search engine of choice) and reading about the contest myself.

1. Create Space is Amazon's POD. Therefore once your book wins (should it win,) you'll be tied in to Create Space. Seems a bit silly when you can go through Lightning Source, Ingram's POD yourself which offers you a better opportunity at being seen and doesn't lock you in.

2.Amazon's motive is to take over the world. Though this is not a motive they have exclusive rights to it is worth considering as they staged a "coo" not that long ago to force all self-pubbed authors to use their Create Space to POD publish or not be listed on their site. Of course Lightning Source jumped all over that and rightly so as it was the one time they could really make their competition look very bad. For whatever reason, but probably for the same reason Amazon pulled "A Pedophiles Guide to Love and whatever" after stating they approved it, Amazon seemed to have dumped the whole "POD coo plan."

3. Worried about competing with writers who get professional edits and submit? Don't. I' know one particular author who has sold millions of books, literally, as a ghostwriter. Their first attempt at POD publishing resulted in an absolutely amazing read . . . and they didn't even make the first cut. Draw your own conclusions here. I wouldn't worry about editing myself nor would I be concerned about competing with those who had professional ones done. It's a POD folks. They don't care what your work looks like. They're just trying to get you to use their services.

4. Afraid of your work being "breakthrough" enough? Since no one can possibly know what Amazon means my "breakthrough" and because each person has their own interpretation, (after all it is a very broad term) I wouldn't worry about that either.

Conclusion: This is simply Amazon's attempt to get all self-pubbed authors to use their POD services as opposed to LSI or Iuniverse or so many others. Do your homework. What does Amazon's POD offer you and what do the others offer? I personally like LSI as it's tied to Ingram and ones books are automatically listed on Amazon and Barnes & Noble (on-line anyway) and so many other sites. Why lock yourself into a POD whose antics rival those of Pinky and the Brain.

Now off you go. Go do your own homework. Shoo!

I did dig a little further to find out about "what you stand to win!" A $15,000 dollar publishing contract with Penguin! Now this does sound to good to pass up if taken at face value but let's go ahead and read everything about the prize found at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000633821

Grand Prize Winner: If you are selected as the Winner in a category, you will receive one of two Grand Prizes each consisting of a full publishing contract with Penguin to market and distribute your Manuscript as a published book.

And you'll see why having a large publisher isn't all it's cracked up to be.


One Grand Prize will be awarded in the young adult fiction category, and one Grand Prize will be awarded in the general fiction category. Upon the full execution of the publishing contract, Penguin will pay each Winner $15,000.00 USD.

Wait for it . . .

The $15,000.00 payment is

Wait for it . . .

. . . an advance against the royalties to be earned by the Winner under the publishing contract.

BAM! You don't get any royalty until you've earned $15,000 from the sales of your book. Let's see how gray your hair is before this happens if it isn't gray already. But hey, $15,000 is $15,000, right? Who cares what the ramifications are as far as your publishing career are concerned. Better have a literary lawyer check out that contract is all I'm saying. See, you don't get the $15,000 unless you sign a contract which sounds more like a deal with devil if you read the next paragraph.

The approximate retail value ("ARV") of the publishing contract is $15,000.00 USD for the advance. Penguin will determine the royalty rates to be paid under the publishing contract, which will depend on the format in which the book is published and the projected print run.

Translation as far as I'm concerned is that should you actually sell enough books to pay out your $15,000 advance, Penguin doesn't even have to pay you standard royalties. The choice is theirs AND they get to choose the format and the projected print run. AND you don't have ANY of this information up front. Sort of like waving that carrot in front your face and then lickety split, pulling it away.

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. The publishing contract will be governed by the laws of the State of New York.

EGADS! That's a PRIZE? Sounds more like a threat. Someone wins a publishing contract and they're not told everything about it up front so they can decide whether they want to win it or not? What's that about? And how about this wording: "if you wish to enter into the publishing contract being awarded." Last time I checked, when folks sign up for a contest, they know what the prize is going to be in advance and have ALL the details going into it. That way they don't find themselves winning and saying, "oh, golly gee-wiliakers that's a horrible prize. I don't want that." LOLROFL Oh please sign me up for that! But do read through the link yourself. You may interpret it completely different. I'm sure Amazon hopes so anyway.