Amazon, along with several sponsors, is running a novel contest called the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. The contest accepted 5,000 entrants in November, with progressive stages whittling the entrants down until a winner is finally chosen. I joined, submitting my second completed novel, Captured by Crystal. It’s a story that was written early in my career, but it’s still one I’m proud of.

Well, dear friends, today was the day they announced who would make it to the semi-finals (the top 1,000 entries), and I just found out that Captured made it. I’m very excited, though obviously, with 999 other novels in the running, I’m not getting my hopes set too high.

But (and this is the cool thing about the ABNA) it’s not only up to the judges. They’re opening up votes to any and all readers. All you have to do is stop by the ABNA site and browse through the entries, read them, and post a review. That will help the judges to determine which entries should make it to the round of 100 and then again for the final 10.

I am hoping that I can beg a favor from you. Would you mind dropping by and reading Captured? It’s a scant 5,000 words. If you’re interested, you can find the entry here. I would certainly appreciate the chance to earn your review. All you have to do after reading the excerpt is review it via the “Create your own review” button, just like any other Amazon review.

If you do stop by, you have my thanks. Oh, and don’t think Amazon has forgotten you. In their own words: “The three customers who provide the most high quality reviews will be qualified to win one of three customer prizes, including an Amazon kindle reader, $2000 in Amazon gift card value, and an HP photo printer. Learn more at www.amazon.com/abna.”

One last thing, from the ABNA site, some tips on writing the reviews as they pertain to the contest:

What Makes A Good Review?

In the semifinalist round, we’re breaking new ground in our customer reviewing community: this is the first opportunity for customers to play an active role in the publishing process. The criteria for judging an unpublished book are a little bit different from the norm. Keep these pointers in mind as you’re reading and remember: your voice counts.

• Be persuasive. Experts at Penguin will be relying on customer reviews as they prepare to select the finalists, so don’t hesitate to tell us what you really think. The reviews that provide the most thorough, thoughtful feedback are the ones that will help Penguin choose the Top Ten.
  
• Quantity and quality help. The more reviews you write, and the more helpful each review is, the more likely you are to win one of our three prize packages.
  
• Discuss. As with customer reviews for all our products, you can comment on others’ excerpt reviews and rate them. Any discussion and activity we see around specific titles will only keep us coming back for more, so feel free to speak up and banter with your peers.
  
• One quick heads-up: Per the contest rules, every excerpt is a maximum of 5,000 words in length. As a result, you may find that excerpts vary in length or end unexpectedly. Consider yourself warned–and happy reading!

Thanks and good luck to the others who had made it.