Alan Zendell's Blog: It's About Time - Posts Tagged "create-space"
ABNA - Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Contest
I have so many mixed feelings about this, I hardly know where to start. On its face, the contest sounds like an attempt to help new and self-published authors get exposure for their books. The first prize is nice - a publishing contract with Penguin Press and a $15,000 advance. So, why the mixed feelings?
Well, maybe it's because only one novel in each category of 5,000 entries can win anything except being an also-ran. Does that sound like they're trying to help authors? So it feels about the same to me as buying a lottery ticket. You see, I put a lot of myself into writing, and there's something offensive about feeling like a ball in a bingo machine. I guess my recent experience with Create Space, the Amazon subsidiary sponsoring the contest, has left me suspicious about whether Amazon is interested in anyone's success but its own. It makes me think the contest is nothing but a marketing ploy for Create Space. Duh!
Why then, did I just enter "The Portal" in the contest? It didn't cost anything to enter and it didn't take very long, so why not?
And it forced me to read through the manuscript again and catch the few remaining errors. And to remind myself how much I really like this book. It still makes me cry. Maybe I'll make the first cut to the top 1,000. I should know by February 24th.
Well, maybe it's because only one novel in each category of 5,000 entries can win anything except being an also-ran. Does that sound like they're trying to help authors? So it feels about the same to me as buying a lottery ticket. You see, I put a lot of myself into writing, and there's something offensive about feeling like a ball in a bingo machine. I guess my recent experience with Create Space, the Amazon subsidiary sponsoring the contest, has left me suspicious about whether Amazon is interested in anyone's success but its own. It makes me think the contest is nothing but a marketing ploy for Create Space. Duh!
Why then, did I just enter "The Portal" in the contest? It didn't cost anything to enter and it didn't take very long, so why not?
And it forced me to read through the manuscript again and catch the few remaining errors. And to remind myself how much I really like this book. It still makes me cry. Maybe I'll make the first cut to the top 1,000. I should know by February 24th.
March Will Present a Couple of Milestones for My Books
Making the first cut in the Amazon Create Space Breakthrough Novel contest (http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images...) with "The Portal" has improved my outlook somewhat. Logically I know that one in a thousand is a lot better than one in five-thousand, but emotionally it still seems like a big mountain to climb. The next milestone is March 20th, when they publish the list of 500 quarter finalists. One in five-hundred still feels like a long shot, but if I get there I'll be quite pleased.
The other milestone is the 2011 Compton-Crook competition. The winners won't be announced until Balticon on Memorial Day weekend, but by mid-March I ought to be able to get a reading on how well "Wednesday's Child" is doing in the preliminary scoring.
I'm not ready to be heavily invested in either, but it's exciting to contemplate.
The other milestone is the 2011 Compton-Crook competition. The winners won't be announced until Balticon on Memorial Day weekend, but by mid-March I ought to be able to get a reading on how well "Wednesday's Child" is doing in the preliminary scoring.
I'm not ready to be heavily invested in either, but it's exciting to contemplate.
It's About Time
My books, my thoughts, my soapbox -- let's see how this goes.
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