Amazon.com customers can vote for their favorites and choose the
grand prize winners in the general fiction and young adult fiction
categories at www.amazon.com/abna
Winners to be announced at a special awards ceremony in Seattle on
June 16
SEATTLE & NEW YORK & CHARLESTON, S.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May. 22, 2012--
Thousands of entries poured in for the fifth annual Amazon Breakthrough
Novel Award (ABNA) contest – and after several rounds of judging, six
finalists have just been announced in the international competition
sponsored by Amazon.com, CreateSpace and Penguin Group (USA). From now
until May 30, Amazon customers can read excerpts from the finalists’
works and vote for their favorite novel to determine the winners in both
the general fiction and young adult fiction categories at www.amazon.com/abna.
Based on customer votes, two grand prize winners, one in each category,
will receive a publishing contract from Penguin Group (USA) which
includes a $15,000 advance. This year’s ABNA winners will be revealed at
a special awards ceremony in Seattle on June 16, 2012.
“This year’s ABNA contest saw thousands of submissions from talented
writers around the world,” said Nader Kabbani, Director of Independent
Publishing, Amazon. “According to the judges and editors, the quality of
the entries continues to climb, making the contest more competitive each
year. The finalists this year are among the best yet and Amazon.com
customers will have a challenge picking a favorite.”
Tim McCall, Penguin Group (USA) Vice President of Online Sales and
Marketing said, “Penguin prides itself on the relationships we have with
our authors. We are thrilled that this contest allows us to be able to
offer talented writers an opportunity to be published at Penguin, and we
look forward to connecting these writers to new readers.”
An expert panel from the publishing world will also weigh in with
comments on the finalists’ work to help voters make their selections.
The literary experts for the 2012 general fiction portion of the contest
are: Linda Fairstein, best-selling author of the Alexandra Cooper
novels, including “Night Watch” (available July 2012); Anne Sowards,
Executive Editor of The Berkley Publishing Group; and Donald Maass,
literary agent and author of “The Breakout Novelist.” Panelists for the
young adult fiction titles include: Andrea Cremer, best-selling author
of “Nightshade,” “Wolfsbane” and “Bloodrose;” Regina Hayes, President
and Publisher of Viking Children’s Books; and Charlie Olsen, literary
agent for InkWell Management.
The three finalists in the general fiction category (listed in
alphabetical order by author’s last name) are:
“The Beautiful Land” by Alan Averill, Seattle, Washington
Averill, a former “video game script doctor,” wrote a draft of “The
Beautiful Land” as a part of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a
movement that challenges writers to complete a novel in thirty days.
“The Beautiful Land” is a story of two people in love from the moment
they met but destined to be apart forever. Thanks to a time machine and
a mysterious invention buried deep in the Australian Outback, they now
have one more chance to get it right.
“Grace Humiston and the Vanishing” by Charles Kelly, Scottsdale,
Arizona
Kelly, a former reporter at the Arizona Republic, discovered the
story of Grace Humiston, “the feminine Sherlock Holmes,” deep in the
archives of the New York Times. Her story, particularly her work
on a case to find a missing girl in 1917, became the basis for the
novel. When a teenage girl from a wealthy family disappears, Humiston
leads an investigation that takes her through the sewers of police
corruption in New York City to the slave and prostitution trading ports
of Argentina.
“A Chant of Love and Lamentation” by Brian Reeves, Oregon City, Oregon
Reeves, a former Peace Corps volunteer, spent ten years perfecting his
novel. “A Chant of Love and Lamentation” reflects the struggle for
Hawaiian identity and the sovereign movement. A cab driver sets off a
sequence of events by blowing up a grand Waikiki hotel to strike back at
the forces that have long suppressed Hawai’i. As the islands slide
farther into strife, three men fight to hold onto a Hawai’i that once
was, or push it towards its ultimate destiny.
The three finalists in the young adult fiction category (listed in
alphabetical order by author’s last name) are:
“Dreamcatchers” by Cassandra Griffin, Kamloops, British Columbia
Twenty-eight-year-old Griffin is a true geek at heart, enjoying anything
from Star Trek expos to comic conventions on her days off from driving
400 ton dump trucks in Northern Alberta. In her post-apocalyptic novel
“Dreamcatchers,” WW III has come and gone, the divide between the rich
and the poor has widened, and children now move in the world between
waking and dreaming.
“Out of Nowhere” by Rebecca Phillips, Middle Sackville, Nova Scotia
Phillips has been writing young adult novels since the age of 12 and now
has two children of her own. In “Out of Nowhere,” hypochondriac Riley
finds herself haunted by her father’s death. When she meets and falls
for the skateboarding, daredevil Cole, Riley begins to forget her
problems at home until her mother announces two major changes and Riley
lashes out.
“On Little Wings” by Regina Sirois, Olathe, Kansas
Sirois was born and raised outside of Kansas City. She minored in
creative writing, but never found the right inspiration for a story
until she became the mother of two little girls. “On Little Wings” is
her first novel. In it, sixteen-year-old Jennifer’s discovery of an aunt
she never knew existed reunites her family and provokes love and
forgiveness.
The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest is co-sponsored by
Amazon.com, Penguin Group (USA) and CreateSpace. For the Amazon
Breakthrough Novel Award contest Official Rules and to read finalists’
excerpts, and vote for the winning novels, please visit www.amazon.com/abna.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle,
opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s
Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most
customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything
they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the
lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of
unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books;
Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home
& Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health &
Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web
Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to
in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end
technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any
type of business. The new latest generation Kindle is the lightest, most
compact Kindle ever and features the same 6-inch, most advanced
electronic ink display that reads like real paper even in bright
sunlight. Kindle Touch is a new addition to the Kindle family with an
easy-to-use touch screen that makes it easier than ever to turn pages,
search, shop, and take notes – still with all the benefits of the most
advanced electronic ink display. Kindle Touch 3G is the top of the line
e-reader and offers the same new design and features of Kindle Touch,
with the unparalleled added convenience of free 3G. Kindle Fire is the
Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, apps, games and
web browsing with all the content, free storage in the Amazon Cloud,
Whispersync, Amazon Silk (Amazon’s new revolutionary cloud-accelerated
web browser), vibrant color touch screen, and powerful dual-core
processor.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com,
www.amazon.co.uk,
www.amazon.de,
www.amazon.co.jp,
www.amazon.fr,
www.amazon.ca,
www.amazon.cn,
www.amazon.it,
and www.amazon.es.
As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include
Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates
otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning
of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly
from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve
risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to
competition, management of growth, new products, services and
technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international
expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center
optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and
strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption,
inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More
information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's
financial results is included in Amazon.com's
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most
recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
About Penguin Group (USA)
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally
renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S.
adult and children's trade book publishers, owning a wide range of
imprints and trademarks, including Viking, G. P. Putnam's Sons, The
Penguin Press, Riverhead Books, Dutton, Penguin Books, Berkley Books,
Gotham Books, Portfolio, New American Library, Plume, Tarcher, Philomel,
Grosset & Dunlap, Puffin, and Frederick Warne, among others. The Penguin
Group (http://www.penguin.com)
is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.
About CreateSpace
CreateSpace seeks to be the world’s easiest and most comprehensive
independent publishing platform for writers, filmmakers and musicians.
The company is the leading provider of independent publishing tools that
enable content creators to produce, polish, publish and distribute their
work to customers around the world. CreateSpace offers industry-leading
royalty rates, broad distribution to thousands of sales channels, an
engaged peer community and complete creative control while content
creators continue to own the rights to their work. CreateSpace is also a
leader in manufacture on-demand for Books, CDs and DVDs maintaining
“in-stock” availability for titles without inventory risk. CreateSpace
is a brand of On-Demand Publishing LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc.
(NASDAQ: AMZN).
Source: Amazon.com
Amazon Media Hotline
206-266-7180
www.amazon.com/pr
or
Penguin
Group (USA)
Erica Glass
212-366-2951
Erica.glass@us.penguingroup.com
