The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards, which opened to the maximum 10,000 entries in late January, has gone through two rounds of judging to announce today’s Quarter-Finalists. The awards, open to authors of any ilk, incorporated several more categories this year as the contest grew in participation.
In previous years, authors were invited to submit manuscripts in either the General Fiction or the Young Adult category. This year, authors assigned their entries to General Fiction, Young Adult, Mystery & Thriller, Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror, or Romance. The genres, of course, are not the only changes, as this year’s winners will earn publishing contracts from Amazon Publishing’s imprints, rather than with Penguin, as in previous years.
As of today, the judges have narrowed down the field of entries to the quarter finalists, leaving a pool of one hundred titles in each category; the semi-finalists, which will be announced on April 16, will bring that group of books down to a mere twenty-five entrants. During both this the quarter final stage and the upcoming semi-final stage, Amazon readers will be able to download and rate the titles, and between May 21st and May 29th those readers will help determine the winners.
The complete list of current finalists within each category is available at amazon.com/abna. The final contest results an the awarding of the $50,000 advance to the grand prize winner will be announced on June 15th.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.
