I recently posted that I had entered my first novel in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. Today, I am very happy to announce that, based on my pitch, my entry is one of the top 20% of entries to advance to the second round, and my name and the title of my novel are now on the Amazon website under Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror.
In the next stage of the contest, two randomly selected Amazon Vine reviewers will read a 3,000-to-5,000-word excerpt of my novel and rate it.
May God have mercy on their souls.
Since my novel is only a second draft and I’m the only person who’s read it, the second round is about as far as I expect to advance in the contest this year. If I get any further, it will be by sheer luck. That said, I’m thrilled to have Amazon’s editors validate the concept for my novel, which should make the book easier to sell to publishers once I finish a final draft.
I also want to thank Nick Mamatas for encouraging me to write the novel based on a short story I workshopped with him in late 2012. Without his encouragement, I would never have turned my short story into a novel.
Reflections of a Rational Republican 
Congrats and good luck!
Thanks!
I saw your name on the list a little while ago and came over to congratulate you on it. Well done!
And who knows, you might be good to go on your second draft and win the whole thing. 😀
Thanks, Tom.
No. There’s not a chance I win this thing. I tend to do 8-10 drafts before I send anything out. And sending things out before others see it is a big no-no. I could get lucky, but I would have to get REALLY lucky.
I think my plot is pretty solid – I’m an outliner/planner, but my characterization is really weak. I need to work on that a bit more before I even show this thing to beta readers.
The good news is that I’ve validated that my pitch works, and in today’s bottom line driven world, sometimes that’s all that matters.
Hey, it’s a hell of a start.
Plus, you’re ahead of me. I’m not really sure what my weak points are, so you’ve got me there. 🙂
Either way, congrats again. Having a good pitch is going to be key in selling it after all. Having that down means you’re definitely moving in the right direction.
Thanks!