Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest

Doo doo doo do DOO, doo doo do DOO DOO
*flashback sequence, sometime 2011-2012*

I'm just a surfing around the internet trying to think of good writing goals.  Hmmm, you know, I hear authors are finding a lot of success with Amazon.  They're getting good, decent contracts and really making a name for themselves with a publisher that seems to care about them as people, not machines.

Huh, Amazon has a Breakthrough Novel Award Contest?  How did I not know about this sooner?  Boy oh boy, my heart is full of happiness and joy and puppies licking candy canes!  But despite my excitement, I am an author who cares about her career. I know that NOT understanding what's expected of me in my contract, and NOT understanding at least enough legalese to protect myself is a DUMB MOVE.  Let's look over the terms of this contest hmmmm...

*SCREEEEEEEEEEECHing halt*

Huh.

If you win Amazaon's BNAC, you get a contract for your book.

From Penguin.

Thanks, but NO THANKS.  You can collect your consolation prize at the door there, Penguin, but you won't be wringing me dry, a new and vibrant author, with your machine of lies and death.  If Amazon isn't offering the contract for their own contest, well, I didn't avoid the query-go-round for nothing!

*close window, forget about ABNAC 95%, fast forward to today*

Oh, Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award Contest.  I remember this.  The one with Penguin that was actually not a very good deal at all.  Well, maybe they've changed something, let's have a looksee...

Well, I see the $5,000 paid against royalties for the winner has been increased to $50,000.  That's pretty substantial.  And now there are also 4 "First Prize" winners that get paid $15,000 against royalties along with the printing of their book.  That's kind of nifty.  What else?

Oh, previously self-published books can be submitted, as long as they meet the 50-150k word requirement. So I'd be okay on "Shackled" but not so much on "Youth" which falls a little shy of the 50k minimum.  Anything else?

... Huh.

Amazon has taken control of their contest.  Now, if you win Amazon's contest, you get published... by Amazon.  Well that certainly sounds more appealing!  Hmm, but if you "win", you have to accept the contract "as-is" with no negotiations.  Now, I've heard contracts from Amazon are a-to-the-wesome, but I've never actually SEEN one.  Though, I suppose I could take the contract to a lawyer once it was offered. Let's do a little more digging...

Well, I'd have to give up worldwide rights.  And there would be no "end" on the contract, as far as this shows, so if they don't get me in the right places and it never sells, I don't have recourse to get that book back.  I have to be honest, I don't understand if "Interactive Editions" includes if the book is optioned for a movie, or is made into a movie.  Am I expected to give up revenue for that?  Is a movie an "interactive product"?  I'm not really finding anything to back it up with a yes or no.

Gross vs Net, people often don't understand this.  My book might make $400,000 gross.  But if Amazon says they spent $400,001 dollars in marketing/layout/overhead, that is subtracted from the gross to leave the net: -$1.  That would mean that after the initial advance royalties, I wouldn't see a single red cent.  I don't like Net Revenue.  I think without defining exactly what CAN come out of Gross, you're leaving yourself open to a dangerous, expensive and vague loophole.  I always push for points (percentage of Gross, Ex: 5 points = 5% gross), because then no matter how much they spend, as long as money comes in, you get a part of it.  I am incredibly wary of this "net" business.  Especially when I don't understand what "interactive editions" could really identify.

But on the other hand, who am I?  I'm not a big name, I'm not well known and talked about with reverence.  I'm still a fledgling author, in the grand scheme of things.  $50,000... or even $15,000 in advance royalties and all the power of Amazon behind me?  Am I willing to essentially give up one book for that kick in the behind towards the door marked, "Success"?  How many books do I think I have in me?

More than one more?

...

HELL YEAH I DO!

Pffftt, one more book in me.  Who'm I kidding?  I have dozens, maybe hundreds, if I don't stop getting in my own way of writing them!  I can write a book for this contest!

Okay, you've nabbed me now, Amazon.  So I can just submit my novel anytime next year, right?

What do you mean, NO?

What do you mean you're only accepting the first 10,000 entries?

Starting January 14th?!?!  And you'll only accept them until you reach 10,000 or January 27th?!?

Hungry, hungry hippos, Batman!  I'd better get writing!  (And you should too!  Good luck everyone!)

Youth!

So apparently while I wasn't paying attention, Amazon switched from the easy to maneuver .azw format into the hair-ripping, gut-busting, rage-inducing .azw3.  You wouldn't think that three could make much of a difference, but oh, how it does.  My whole formatting process was completely thrown off and it took me two days of downtime to figure out how to properly format.

I took a jaunt with Scrivener, finding it very, very painful to work with.  I tried Writeway, which I had a lot more success with, but that I'm still not convinced I want to plunk down 25-50 dollars for.

In the end, I did it by hand.  (And with a little help from Calibre.)

But the good news is: Youth is now for sale!

You can buy it on Amazon

Or Barnes and Noble

Or even Kobo!  (Okay, not Kobo yet, but it's coming!)

"Youth for you, when you can appreciate it most."

A blessing? A curse? One pill can restore the aged, the infirm, the terminally ill to the sprightly, energetic days of their early twenties. One pill reverses cancer, strengthens bones, restores eyesight... makes the user young again.

There is only one side effect: 100% Death within one month.

Louise Smith has been virtually abandoned by her family. Her children have moved away, mostly out of touch. Her husband spends his days in the care of a nursing home, too mentally ill to be safely home. Is her life worth living?

Louise must decide: tough out her days, or one pill for the final hurrah.

The Bedside Table

When I was a kid, I fell asleep on a dime. The instant the lights were out - so was I. As I got older, I slept less and less. It wasn't until I was in college and I forgot to sleep for three days (and started hallucinating) that I realized I might have become an insomniac somewhere along the way.

I don't suffer from rampant insomnia, just very, very minor. I have a friend who would stay up for a week or more at a time and then crash - and there was nothing he could do about it.

Stress obviously inflames my insomnia. But if I'm not quite tired when I lay down, I have the worst habit.

With my eyes closed, my body relaxed, waiting to drift into sleep under the warm covers, I start to create.

The perfect scene.

The perfect line.

The next bit of the story I'd been stalled on while sitting at my computer all day.

And who wants to get up then? When you're already snuggled into bed and waiting for sleep? And what are the chances you will exactly remember that phrase or scene or word, just as you had it, in the moments before slumber? I'll give you a hint. It starts with "Z" and ends with "ero". For me, anyway. I am most perfectly, unquestionably creative when the last thing I want to do is get up and write it down.

So on my bedside table, I left an empty notebook and a pen. And my booklight...

Just in case.

Last night Andy fell asleep within milliseconds of laying down. And SNORED (sorry, hon, but it's true!) I couldn't fall asleep. But what I could do, was imagine.

Imagine I did!

I couldn't take it anymore, I wasn't sleeping. But then it hit me - I was prepared. I snapped on my bedside light, opened up the notebook and exploded all my thoughts onto the paper, effectively writing the first chapter of a novel I've been hemming and hawing over for the past... three? years.

Turn your weaknesses into strengths, that's what I say :)

Double Up

So I've been working pretty hard, trying to get that next bit and that next bit out! "Youth" is coming along very nicely, it's a very clean story. There isn't a lot to bog me down - the story doesn't take weird turns, it's this, then this, then that! As a result, the length has doubled in the past few days, pushing past 7k already.

I'm still amazed at the power this story has over me. It's not just how I get so immersed in that world, it's how I see things and my heart is wringing just to try and describe them. This story feels very real to me, more like I witnessed it happening then made it up off the top of my head.

I originally pictured it as a short about 10k, but Andy said, "You shouldn't waste this on a short - you should make a novel out of this." I can't guarantee a length, in my opinion, a story is told when it's finished. Whether that be a 2k slice of life, or a 574k doorstop (coughAtlasShruggedcough), a story is a story when it's finished.

"Youth" isn't finished yet, and there are a number of checkpoints it has to pass before it's "told". With that in mind, I've bumped the length-o-meter up to 20k, to give me some more progress/breathing room.

And for all those waiting for it:

KRAKAKOW!

I Can Hear the Bandwagon, but I Can't Jump On

The indie community is really a thrilling place right now. It seems like everyday I find a new author out there - a living, breathing, pulsing, thinking organism who is jumping with both feet into indie publishing.

They say they've posted X number of books and are seeing between 1-15 sales a day, just on what they have up for sale. To me, even the idea of selling ONE book a day irrationally excites me. My work for consumption - what a dream!

I consider Aaron over at E-Publisher's Manifesto to be a good friend. I've followed his journey from Ground Zero as his sales have clawed their way up from 1/day to now 14/day! I see his success and cheer him... and also want it for myself.

I've touched a little before on how I gave up writing. I haven't finished that story for the readers yet, but I shall... I shall.

The point I want to make: I don't have a backlist of books to explode the face of the InTaRwEbS with my obvious genius. "Chains of Memory" is the first work I've finished...

In Ten Years.

It will be the only thing I have on Kindle, as I labor through my next piece.

Well, that's not entirely true. Along with Derek J. Canyon and 10 other authors (plus a few in the bonus section), we're putting together an indie anthology of which the proceeds will go to a (as yet unnamed) charity. THE ANTHOLOGY IS CALLED TWELVE WORLDS. (/end shameless plug)

But, we're looking at that around March. CoM will be up in the next ten to seventeen days. Even reading that terrifies me.

I do think finishing CoM has given me some serious momentum though. I jumped into the anthology and wrote my bit. It wasn't terribly long, but the idea burned pretty brightly in my mind. Even though it was only a short story, it was the second!... work I'd finished...

In Ten Years.

I feel like I'm far behind the curve, with only one submission for the indie world. I don't have this huge backlist I can wave around and say, "These are my rejections! These are my almosts! This was not quite traditionally published! Kindle hooooooooooi!" It's just my one novel that I've put a lot into (and about a month later, my one short story that I also put a lot into.)

I kind of wonder where I'll be...

In Ten Years?

Difference a Year Makes

I have to post this, because I find it so hilarious.  I was looking over the stats for this blog and one of my popular posts this week can be found here.  It is a post from EXACTLY a year ago, today.

How much different do I feel about my life!!  I could absolutely be a stay-at-home-author and get work done.  I think I needed some serious work grind to remember there are things out there I love to do - and writing is really one of them.

I may not be the most fabulous writer ever to grace the halls of of the printed word, but I love what I do and I think that shows.

Yesterday I wrote three chapters (Yes, I did manage to get all three, haha, my fiance can't yell at me!)  It averaged out somewhere in the range of 3.3k in words.  I went back today and read over it, tweaked a bit here and there.  I don't know if it's the outline I made so I can see the path clearly... or just that the more I write, the more naturally it comes... or if I'm in one of those "It's just writing itself!" modes... but I did them in record time yesterday.

I feel like a total bundle of nerves about the whole thing.  Only ten days ago, I ordered a cover for my almost complete first novel.  Only a year ago, I wondered if I'd ever finish writing a story!!!

Well, I am proud of myself, and I hope you, dear reader, can share in the warm rays of my ego also :)

Geeking Out

I just want to put out there, into the digital world, that I am geeking out a little bit.  Why?  I just crossed the 40k marker a few minutes ago.  According to my outline, I have 10k and 6 chapters to go.  Then, this book will be finished.

I feel absolutely amazing right now.  I am almost finished.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... I can feel the wind kissing my face and hear the birdsong of freedom.

Why freedom?

I feel like this is a very serious turning point for me, when I can finally shake off the last vestiges of doubt from childhood trauma (as pertains to writing).  I felt so much shame over the whole PotP incident (which I have not fully cataloged yet, sorry)... as I said, I felt so much shame over my failings that I haven't completed a serious work since.  In fact, in the roughly 12-14ish years since then, I have finished only 1 short story.  What a waste of time on my part!  Oh, hindsight, you are truly 20-20.

Finally getting up the courage to tell the story, and to the wide world of strangers (aka: internet) was a huge step.

I feel like walking around and laughing with every person I meet.  I want to share my jubilation with the world!

I am almost finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I must be a good writer, look how many exclamation points I used!)