Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award

I am biting the bullet and entering a contest. Not that I have ever thought there was anything wrong with entering contests, it is just kind of intimidating to think about entering one for myself.

So this week I am beginning the process of making sure that I have all my ducks in a row for contest submission and hoping for some good feedback.

As it is called the "Breakthrough" novel award I want to make it clear that I am not entering this because I think I have written a very deep novel that will change the world, etc. But I do think it has some merit, and I am hoping to make it to the quarterfinals where the book where will be reviewed by Publisher's Weekly.

So, what am I doing to get ready?

I am reviewing the manuscript to edit out mistakes just to make sure it is as polished as it can be. This is a harder task than you might think. I had to print out the book because when I was editing it on the computer I found that I wanted to change more than just errors. It kind of became more of a full-on overhaul rather than just editing for mistakes.

I have to figure out my 3,000-5,000 word excerpt. It says it should be the first words, which makes sense, so I am trying to determine how far into the book the excerpt will go.

The "pitch," which I have shared with you here before. It is a 300 word cover letter/summary of the book.

So, those are the 3 easy steps to contest submission. It's a little bit of a daunting task to think about getting that much done, ready, and polished before submitting the work to professionals to review. But I am doing it.

Wish me luck and I'll let you know how it goes!