ABNA starts January 23: is your pitch ready?

The 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award will open to entries next Monday (January 23). I spent part of my day preparing the submission of Sultana's Legacy, after weighing whether or not I should participate. Last year, the prequel Sultana made it to the quarterfinals and remains my best-selling title. Since the contest remains open to entries that have already been self-published (provided the author owns all the rights) I'm hoping to give this latest novel some much need exposure. Up to 5,000 entries each in the General Fiction or YA categories will be accepted.


Contest information is here, but I'll sum up. Between January 23 and February 5, all entrants must submit:

• A completed manuscript in either of the categories, between 50,000 and 150,000 words.
• Three to five thousand words in an excerpt.
• A pitch that must not exceed 300 words.   

All submissions must be submitted as a Word .doc, .docx, .rtf or .txt file. Only original works of fiction authored by one person in the English language will be considered. No clues to the author's identity can be included, such as a real or pen name. Be sure to remove your name from the headers, the copyright page, author's note, references to additional or related works, etc.

Based on the strength of the pitch, entrants will move on to the second round. Here's my first draft of the pitch for Sultana's Legacy - thoughts?

SULTANA’S LEGACY, a completed novel at 118630 words, is an epic historical set in thirteenth century Moorish Spain. The novel’s themes of loyalty and faith, and empowerment and sacrifice explore the fragile ties that bind and fray between families. The protagonists Fatima, the daughter of a Sultan, and her beloved husband Faraj offer differing perspectives on fast-changing events. The novel provides an adventurous escape into the past, with rich details about the period’s most unpredictable and dangerous historical figures.   

The matriarch of her family, Fatima’s love for her husband and children rivals an overwhelming devotion to her cherished father. When his death occurs unexpectedly, the kingdom faces a bleak future. Fatima’s brother, a corrupt maniac, seizes the throne. Cruelty abounds, as former rivals and trusted retainers alike fall victim to his machinations, including almost everyone whom Fatima once held dear. A choice awaits her: acceptance or defiance.

In the ensuing rivalry for the throne, Fatima risks her personal safety and even her marriage. The years of love and trust she has enjoyed with Faraj erode, as treachery and intrigues divide the couple. A thin line between justice and revenge blurs. As Fatima’s noble quest devolves into bitter violence, the cost of victory may prove higher than she anticipated. Even in her triumph, the root of a final heartbreaking betrayal takes hold, one that may destroy the legacy of the Sultans of Granada forever.   

Historical fiction audiences will find the Moorish period in SULTANA’S LEGACY fascinating and unusual. Complex characters run the gamut of genuine good to uncompromising evil. In particular, the heroine Fatima is multifaceted. Her greatest strength, her devotion to family, is also her fatal flaw. Her struggle against overwhelming odds and cunning adversaries will appeal to those who admire strong female personalities. 


I'm wishing everyone who decides to enter the best of luck, especially my #ABNA tweeps on Twitter!

UPDATE: Fall & Winter Writing Competitions

Here's an updated list of writing contests with fast approaching deadlines in 2011 or early  next year 2012:

2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards - Entry period January 23 - February 5, 2012.  Best benefits of ABNA? Free entry AND making lots of new friends! Prizes include $15,000 to the top winners in two categories.

Benjamin Franklin Awards - Second call deadline is December 31, 2011, for books published September 1 - December 31, 2011. Prizes include trophies, and gold and silver award certificates. Entry fees; $90 per title for Independent Book Publishers Association members or $190 if you're not in the IBPA, which will give you a one-year membership. 

Erma Bombeck Writing Competition sponsored by Washington-Centerville Public Library and established in 1997 to pay tribute to hometown writer Erma Bombeck, one of the greatest humorists of the 20^th Century. The contest, now held every two years, opens for online entries ($15 entry fee) at 8 am (EST) Tuesday, January 3, 2012, and closes at 7:30 am (EST) Tuesday, February 14, 2012. Entries should be 450 words or fewer and cannot be published more than once in the calendar year 2011 (blog posts are allowed).

A $500 cash prize and Registration Fee (value $350) to the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop at University of Dayton from April 18 through the 20^th will be awarded to four writers: Humor category (local entry and a global entry) and the Human Interest category (local entry and a global entry). Panel of judges include authors, syndicated columnists, and experienced writers and some entries will receive feedback. Winners will be announced in mid-March. No more than one entry per writer. For complete contest details, visit http://www.wclibrary.info/erma/index.asp.

Foreword Reviews - Deadline January 15, 2012. Varied categories with a grand prize of $1,500 for the best Fiction and Non-fiction books. Entries are $99. 


International Book Awards - Deadline December 31, 2012 for $20 off entry fee (regularly $69); final entry date of April 30, 2012. Over 150 categories. Affiliated with USA "Best Books 2012" Awards; includes full listing on USABookNews.com's webpage for six months.

IPPY AWARDS - Deadline March 15, 2012. Prizes include medals. Tiered entries; $85 per title October 16, 2011 - January 7, 2012; $95 per title January 8 2012 - March 15, 2012. So, the earlier, the better. Includes ebook awards. See entry form for eligibility details.

Next Generation Indie Book Awards - Deadline February 24, 2012. Grand prize of $1,500 for the best Fiction and Non-fiction books. Initial entry fee is $75, additional fee of $50 for other categories. Seriously debating this one, as I know some previous winners who've spoken well of the contest.

2012 San Francisco Writers Indie Publishing Contest - Deadline January 4, 2012. Grand prizes include an hour-long consultation with a literary agent OR free publishing package from Author Solutions. Stated aim to compete with the ABNA, which offers free entry, doesn't quite match the $35 entry fee for this contest. Click here for the form. 


USA "Best Books 2012" Awards - Deadline December 31, 2012 for USABookNews.com coverage leading up to final entry date of September 30, 2012. A $69 entry fee and multiple categories including several specific to e-books.

For more on why you might want to consider entering a writing contest,  author Jody Hedlund wrote a great article earlier this year on the benefits of such activities for published and unpublished writers.  If you decide to enter any of these contests, good luck!

Can I Pick Em or What? - ABNA Announces Finalists

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award finalists have been announced. I was so thrilled to see that among the six finalists picked in the contest, they included Phyllis T. Smith's I am Livia. It was one of the entries in the historical fiction category. In my last ABNA-related post, I pegged it as one of the best entries overall, as the writing was strong and engaging from the first page. The story is set during the Roman period, a tale about the beginnings of Livia, the future wife of Augustus Caesar. Check it out if you have the chance. Congratulations to Phyllis Smith and all the other finalists.

#ABNA Quarterfinals Are Out and I...

Christ! He looks depressed. Another ABNA entrant?

didn't make it - Waaaah! This contest was rigged right from the start! The judges were paid off / on crack / crazy / unprofessional / mad to reject my masterpiece! I didn't have a chance. I coulda been a contender. I want my money back, even though the contest was free! They MADE me enter only to see me fail!

LOL.

Now that I've gotten out everything I'm supposed to say as a semifinalist who didn't make it to the quarterfinals, congrats to everyone who is moving on. I have two particular favorites that I'm keeping an eye on in the next round, Bob Simms' The Young Demon Keeper (Fantasy - General) and Phyllis Smith's I am Livia (Historical Fiction - General). Both are as different as day and night, but told with an amazing, memorable voice. Read them if you get a chance. There are now 100 quarterfinalists, 50 from each category. On May 24, they will be weeded down to just six. Geez. Just six from 10,000. All of us who made it this far are awaiting the dreaded Publishers Weekly review. I'm not sure, but I think only the quarterfinalists will have theirs automatically posted. If mine is anything I want to see the light of day, I'll use it for Sultana's description on Amazon. But being cut at this point sort of implies that the PW reviewer didn't like my book. Can't think he or she has too much good to say. So unfair. I'm just gonna sit here and pout about that for a bit.

On the other hand, I could just go on with my life as I have been doing throughout this contest. There's all that blogging and tweeting. There's always those posts to organize on four other blogs. I've got two books that need constant promoting and selling. Lest, I forget there is also that book that's coming out this fall that I should continue editing and revising. And yeah, there's that 9 am - 5pm thing called my job (more like 7pm these days), and a life beyond work and books, etc. So I'll probably be a little too busy to bitch and moan about being eliminated. But I can promise two things: I will be rooting for my two remaining favorites in ABNA 2011 and I will be entering ABNA 2012. Because they're making me, of course!

Post script: Remember I mentioned that PW review?  To say that it's harsh would be the under-fucking-statement of this or any century. I take consolation that this is the same PW that I don't have a  high opinion of in the first place for this reason (maybe if I'd paid for a review it would have gone better?) I also keep in mind that this is the opinion of one asshole PW reviewer, to which he / she / IT is entitled. As long as those Amazon royalties keep coming in, I'll continue to be a happy writer.

Not many readers of this uninspired historical novel will welcome the news at the very end that a sequel is in the works. While the author’s chosen time period, 13th-century Moorish Spain, is not an over-tapped one, the narrative reads more like a warmed-over romance novel populated by tissue-thin characters than a probing look at the personalities and events of the time. The focal figure is Fatima bint Muhammad, daughter of the second Sultan of Gharnatah (Granada), who is first encountered as a child and new bride in a politically-expedient marriage. She is abducted from her bed by retainers of her mother, Aisha bint Ibrahim, from whom she was separated. But, her reunion with her mother is short-lived when violence claims Aisha’s life. The remainder of the book interweaves Fatima’s coming-of-age and her evolving relationship with her husband (and cousin) Abu Said Faraj ibn Ismail with the military and political developments of the region between 1265 and 1279. Lackluster and ungrammatical prose (“A feeling of dread suddenly implanted itself in her mind. At first, she did not understand what it meant, but it squeezed at her heart like a mist of dread that enshrouding her.”) doesn’t help. 

Quarterfinal results of ABNA are in...

...and Sultana made it, based on a 5,000-word excerpt, which can now be found here. It amounted to the first chapter and half of chapter two. Yeah! The contest is down to 500 entrants; 250 each in General and Young Adult Fiction. ABNA started with 5,000 entries in each category. After I got over my initial surprise about the results, I read the feedback from reviewers. They were good and fair, except I'm writing about the 13th, not 11th century. Meh. Both reviewers also made me think of how I should categorize my work - as historical romance or historical with strong romance elements. Here's what they said:

ABNA Expert Reviewer

What is the strongest aspect of this excerpt?
I think the characters are the strongest aspects of this excerpt. Specifically the characters of Fatima and her mother. In Fatima you have an angry, young girl forced to marry for reasons she can not understand-but even at eight the author paints her with an intelligence, which I think is the author's way of giving us an idea of what is to come. Fatima's mother on the other hand, is a woman that is loved obsessively by her husband, and yet he has poisoned the mind's of the children-the product of that obsessive love. Prince Faraj is another interesting character. He knows that his forced marriage to an eight year old could very well bring about violence, and yet at the same time his youth is shown in his inability to have done the right thing. I think this is a very interesting set up.

What aspect needs the most work?
I think the direction was a tad unclear. If this is an historical romance, I can see this being very similar to something Johanna Lindsey or Jude Devereux might write. If that is the case, this book could have a very big following. The glitz, the glamour, the excessiveness are all in appealing in a romance novel. On the other hand, if this book has little to know romance in it, I am not sure who the book would be marketed for.

What is your overall opinion of this excerpt?
My opinion on this goes two ways: If this is a work of historical romance I am hooked. I want to know what happens next-and I want to see if Fatima and the Prince fall in love. Does Fatima grow up hating her father? Will she ever love her mother?

On the other hand, if this book is more of a history novel, I believe it can become very dry as it is a fiction story, rather than a history book.

ABNA Expert Reviewer

What is the strongest aspect of this excerpt?
I love how clearly the author tells his/her story. There's a lot going on: political intrigue, kidnappings, marriages, complicated family relationships. And yet it's all presented with such skill and verve, in concise, beautifully shaped prose that's simple yet poetic. Much to the author's credit, I believe every word. I'm having a great time reading this.

What aspect needs the most work?
There are times when the writing takes on a slightly melodramatic quality, but given the exoticism of the piece and its heightened reality, this isn't the drawback it could have been. And the author has the skill to not let things get too exaggerated or artificial.

What is your overall opinion of this excerpt?
I loved this piece. The author writes with such authority about the 11th century, yet never in a dry or academic way. This is pure entertainment. like a great old Hollywood movie you'd see on TCM. It's authentic, engaging, beautifully written and a whole lot of fun.

I was surprised not to see some others advancing, including one in particular who I was rooting for, but as I told her today it's ever onward and upward from here. I don't know anyone else among the other competitors. It doesn't sound like there's too much historical fiction that made it through. Correction: 44 historical fiction excerpts made it including mine. Damn. I mean, great, wonderful. LOL. I still think that historicals aren't as "sexy" as paranormal or thrillers for others. For me, there's nothing sexier than people behaving badly in the past, doing what they wanted without the constraints of our 21st century morality. IMO, whoever says history is boring is reading the wrong kind of history.

So, what's next in the semifinal round of ABNA? Thanks to the help of two others who submitted to ABNA in the past, if I understood them correctly, Publishers Weekly will now read and score the excerpts manuscripts - apparently I was wrong yesterday in thinking they would review the excerpts. Based on the highest scores, 50 entrants from each category will be chosen in the semifinal round on April 26. Each quarterfinalist will get a PW review (I think), which I've heard can be harsh. Yippee. Excerpts will also be posted on Amazon, where customers can read them. At this point, I'll be grateful if the excerpt leads to more sales and reviews of Sultana. Like any writer, I've invested years in my work and a little recognition would be nice. Ok, money would probably be better, but I'll settle for recognition.

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award - Key Dates, Requirements & Pitching

Are you entering the ABNA? I am; it's the only contest I've considered this year that is free. Not to rush you or anything, but you have ONE MORE DAY to write that 300-word pitch, ensure your novel is completed at 50,000 to 150,000 words, and select an excerpt of your novel, at least the first 3,000 to 5,000 words. No pressure!

Full details of the contest are here, but this is the first key date to keep in mind.

January 24 - February 6, 2011: The submission period is open, in which you complete your entry form and upload your pitch, completed novel and excerpt. Only the first 5,000 entries in each of the categories, Young Adult Fiction and General Fiction will be accepted.

Requirements include:

A manuscript submitted in Microsoft Word .doc, .docx or .rft format, in Times New Roman and 12-point font; double spaced with 1-inch margins (no "hard" returns to achieve double spacing).

Each manuscript, excerpt, and pitch must be in the English language; not currently or previously published with any publishing house (a self-published novel is okay if you own the worldwide rights); and, can't include the entrant's name anywhere. The manuscript, excerpt and pitch count as part of one entry; you are not allowed other entries.

The hardest part of deciding whether to enter was my concerns about the pitch. Did I mention that the pitch is your only qualifying entry that editors will initially judge? From the 5,000 pitches in each category, the judges will narrow it down to 1,000 of the best selections. So, if the pitch doesn't interest them, the manuscript will not be read. Crap. How in the hellhole do I talk about the characters, conflict, plot development, concept, and audience of a 91K novel in 300 words? Here's my stab at it in 292 words:

SULTANA, a completed historical novel at 91,253 words, is the story of revenge and intrigue, the bonds of family and the redemptive power of love. In thirteenth-century Moorish Spain, the realm of Granada is in crisis. The marriage of a child-bride Fatima, granddaughter of the Sultan of Granada, and the Sultan’s nephew Faraj, has fractured the nation. A bitter civil war escalates and endangers both Fatima and Faraj’s lives. Their interchanging perspectives offer readers and adventurous escape into the past, with rapidly changing events and fascinating historical figures that shaped medieval Spain.

All her life, Fatima has sheltered in lavish palaces where danger has never intruded, until now. A precocious child and the unwitting pawn of her family, she soon learns how the union may determine her future and the fate of Granada. Her husband Faraj has his own qualms about their marriage. At a young age, he witnessed the deaths of parents and discovered how affluence and power offers little protection against indomitable enemies. Guilt and fears plague him. Determined to carve his own destiny, Faraj struggles to regain his lost inheritance and avenge his murdered family.

Throughout the rugged frontiers of southern Spain, the burgeoning Christian kingdoms in the north and the desert states of North Africa, Fatima and Faraj survive ruthless murderers and swift intrigues. They change and grow, establishing a powerful bond, often tested by opportunities for mistrust in an atmosphere of deceit and intrigue. Can they unite against common enemies bent on destroying the last Moorish dynasty in Spain?

Audiences that enjoy historical fiction with universal themes of passionate first love and hope against odds will find the romance in SULTANA appealing, but there are dark elements of danger and grittiness that enhance the sense of danger.


Wish me luck, as I wish you the same if you're entering ABNA.

Writing Contests: Worth It?

I've never officially entered a writing contest before - I tried a short story competition, but my check was never cashed. Here are a few contests in the US with a proven track record, which is always important when you're considering entry fees and the validity of particular contests. I have yet to decide whether I'll enter any of these. If you're interested, check them out:

1. Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (entries due January 24 - February 6)

Each year since 2007, Amazon, Penguin Group USA, and Amazon's subsidiary CreateSpace, have co-sponsored a contest to publish the work of an author in General and Young Adult Fiction categories. The grand prize is a publishing contact, which includes a $15,000 advance against future royalties. There is no fee to enter this contest. I'd have to get going with that required pitch pretty soon if I want to participate. This one's open to published, unpublished, and self-published authors.

2. 19th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards (deadline April 15)

This is an annual competition, involving ten categories of submissions. The grand prize is a trip to NYC to meet with agents / editors (wonder how that works for those of us who live in NYC already), and $3000 (yes, that's three thousand US dollars). Entry judging fee of $100 for all books published between 2006 and 2011. Requires a printed, bound copy of your book; no PDF files.

3. Annual Writer's Digest Competition (deadline May 2)

Actually, there's a late deadline on May 20, but let's think positive and avoid procrastinating, shall we? Essentially the same grand prize as the contest above, but again, check the entry requirements for other rules and the lower entry fee. No, I'm not going to comment on why the entry fee for this Writer's Digest contest is lower than the self-publishing contest above. There are times I do get up on my soapbox, but this won't be one of them.   

If you choose to enter any of these contests, as with anything that requires you to fork over some of your hard-earned cash, be sure to check out contest details thoroughly. The Writer Beware Blog has great information and analysis of various writing contests, here and here most recently. And, good luck with your entry!