The ABNA forums turned into a den of snips, thinly veiled jabs and insults yesterday. I took the night off, taking my wife and sons out to dinner, so fortunately I missed the shenanigans. I went on the forums tonight to catch-up and decided it wasn't worth the effort.
Up until now the ABNA message board has been quite pleasant, good camaraderie and light hearted banter. I have reported as much here. I have been impressed at the level of helpfulness and lack of overt competition in this “contest”. There are many people helping each other crit their manuscripts, build their web pages, polish their blogs.
I hate to see that friendly spirit disrupted by snarky remarks and political partisanship. I can only feel that peoples nerves are frayed - waiting, in our collective state of limbo, to hear if we have moved on to the second round. There have been many posts today attempting to sooth hurt feelings and regain our spirit of unity.
Raging flame wars are nothing new, or uncommon, in online communities. The short written blurbs of forums are easily, and often, misunderstood or taken out of context. Cliques form and battle lines are drawn. Hurt feelings lead to hurtful comments. I hope this little blow up has burnt itself out with no lasting animosity. We are all writers and should be able to express ourselves with eloquence far beyond any normal online forum group.
We are all in this together, and we are all impatient and nervously awaiting March 16.
max
- maxwell cynn
- I'm a novelist, freelance writer, amateur coder, webmaster, and Indie publisher who writes deliciously romantic speculative fiction and book reviews from a wide range of genres.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Schrödinger's Contestants (ABNA)
February 20 and approx. 8,000 entrants in the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA) just got cut from the competition. The twist is, none of them know yet. We will not know if our pitches caught the eye of the Amazon editors until March 16, when the field is narrowed to 500. At that point our excerpts will have been read and commented on, then posted for all to see.
To me this is the hardest part of the competition – not knowing. Knowing if my pitch took me through would be great, even knowing it didn't would be helpful for future queries. Those who don't make the cut to 500 will never know if it was their pitch, or their excerpt, that didn't make the grade.
I call this a competition, which it is, but strangely it doesn't feel that way at this point. I have met so many great people, and made new friends. I want them all in the top 500 – I want them all to win. There is more camaraderie than competition. That may change as we move forward, but I hope not.
Someone asked the other day what people would do if they were eliminated. Would they wander off? Would they stay to encourage their new friends? I'll stay around. I'm here for the whole show, right down to voting on the top novel. I, of course, hope I will be in that top three - and here begging for your vote - but either way I'll be here telling you what is going on.
Good luck to all the ABNA novelists. March 16 will be here in no time.
max
To me this is the hardest part of the competition – not knowing. Knowing if my pitch took me through would be great, even knowing it didn't would be helpful for future queries. Those who don't make the cut to 500 will never know if it was their pitch, or their excerpt, that didn't make the grade.
I call this a competition, which it is, but strangely it doesn't feel that way at this point. I have met so many great people, and made new friends. I want them all in the top 500 – I want them all to win. There is more camaraderie than competition. That may change as we move forward, but I hope not.
Someone asked the other day what people would do if they were eliminated. Would they wander off? Would they stay to encourage their new friends? I'll stay around. I'm here for the whole show, right down to voting on the top novel. I, of course, hope I will be in that top three - and here begging for your vote - but either way I'll be here telling you what is going on.
Good luck to all the ABNA novelists. March 16 will be here in no time.
max
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Only two days left until Round One ends...
Two days left in the first round. On Friday, February 20, 2009, Amazon editors will slash the ABNA contest entries from approx. 10,000 (we don't know the exact number) down to 2000 based solely on the strength of their pitches. This is the part of the contest that many writers dread the most: the Pitch.(insert gothic background music)
Writing a pitch, or query, for your novel is a world of difference from writing the novel itself. It takes a completely different skill set to write a 400 word snip-it that excites jaded editors, making them want to read your manuscript, then to write a 100,000 word story that will hold readers and keep them turning the pages.
You might think the two go hand-in-hand, writing is writing after all. If you can keep someone reading an epic you should be able to hold them for 400 words. Not exactly. In a novel, you want the reader turning pages, you want them saying they “can't put it down”, but inevitably they will. When they do you want them not to forget it... to pick it back up.
Authors spend a lot of time thinking about pacing: the ups and downs of a given story. We think about where to end our chapters, when to give the reader a break, when to keep them glued to the story. We build worlds the reader wants to visit, characters the reader wants to know. Those literary devices take pages and chapters to build. The reader becomes more and more invested in the story, the characters, the setting, and they return time after time to read on. You can't do that in a blurb.
Editors, on the other hand, don't have time to read thousands of novels a week, so you have to hook them fast and hang on. They are the browsers at the bookstore, looking for a good read. They look at the blurb on the back of the book. If it doesn't hook them, they put it down and look at the next book. If it does, they open the book and read a little. If they don't put it down, they buy it.
Most writers hate writing pitches, even more than writing a synopsis. How do you convey the intricacy of a 100,000 word ms in 400 words? So we all sit on the edge of our seats waiting to get past that dreaded pitch/query stage and on to someone actually reading and judging our “real” writing.
We will never know if we made it past the pitch stage and into the second round, where excerpts from our novels will be judged. We will only know if we make it to the magic 500 of the Quarter-Finals. Only those who pass both the gauntlet of the pitches and the rigor of the excerpt reading will know their pitches pulled them through. If I don't survive into the Quarter-Finals I would love to know if it was because of my pitch or my excerpt. Alas, Amazon has not set the contest up that way.
February 20 will pass, expert reviewers will begin reading the 2000 golden excerpts, and we will wait nervously for the announcement, “on or about” March 16, to see if we are still in the running.
Good luck to all of the entrants. Remember, the best way to beat the stress, and forget about the contest for awhile, is to keep writing. The first thing everyone will want to know when you win is, “What else have you written?”, so polish up that second blockbuster and have it ready.
Writing a pitch, or query, for your novel is a world of difference from writing the novel itself. It takes a completely different skill set to write a 400 word snip-it that excites jaded editors, making them want to read your manuscript, then to write a 100,000 word story that will hold readers and keep them turning the pages.
You might think the two go hand-in-hand, writing is writing after all. If you can keep someone reading an epic you should be able to hold them for 400 words. Not exactly. In a novel, you want the reader turning pages, you want them saying they “can't put it down”, but inevitably they will. When they do you want them not to forget it... to pick it back up.
Authors spend a lot of time thinking about pacing: the ups and downs of a given story. We think about where to end our chapters, when to give the reader a break, when to keep them glued to the story. We build worlds the reader wants to visit, characters the reader wants to know. Those literary devices take pages and chapters to build. The reader becomes more and more invested in the story, the characters, the setting, and they return time after time to read on. You can't do that in a blurb.
Editors, on the other hand, don't have time to read thousands of novels a week, so you have to hook them fast and hang on. They are the browsers at the bookstore, looking for a good read. They look at the blurb on the back of the book. If it doesn't hook them, they put it down and look at the next book. If it does, they open the book and read a little. If they don't put it down, they buy it.
Most writers hate writing pitches, even more than writing a synopsis. How do you convey the intricacy of a 100,000 word ms in 400 words? So we all sit on the edge of our seats waiting to get past that dreaded pitch/query stage and on to someone actually reading and judging our “real” writing.
We will never know if we made it past the pitch stage and into the second round, where excerpts from our novels will be judged. We will only know if we make it to the magic 500 of the Quarter-Finals. Only those who pass both the gauntlet of the pitches and the rigor of the excerpt reading will know their pitches pulled them through. If I don't survive into the Quarter-Finals I would love to know if it was because of my pitch or my excerpt. Alas, Amazon has not set the contest up that way.
February 20 will pass, expert reviewers will begin reading the 2000 golden excerpts, and we will wait nervously for the announcement, “on or about” March 16, to see if we are still in the running.
Good luck to all of the entrants. Remember, the best way to beat the stress, and forget about the contest for awhile, is to keep writing. The first thing everyone will want to know when you win is, “What else have you written?”, so polish up that second blockbuster and have it ready.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Is it March 16 yet?
A month to go before we hear anything on the ABNA quarterfinal. The discussion board at Amazon is settling in. The early stress of - “I screwed up my submission” and “Will I be disqualified if...” - is dieing down into finding new friends and networking with other writers.
Most people in the contest never come on the boards. There were up to 10,000 submissions, maybe a couple of hundred on the boards and of those less than a hundred post. Someone put up a thread to try and get an idea of who was on the boards, about 108 replies so far.
I find the Amazon discussion board to be clunky and cumbersome. Of course their main purpose is discussion of products and services at Amazon.com, so in that respect they are good. Relevant threads appear down below the fold on pages. You can read and comment.
It really isn't designed as a Forum, per se. It would be nice if we had a dedicated forum for the ABNA community, but using the existing system ties everything back into Amazon's overall profile / community. I'll get used to it.
There are many people who were in last years contest who have returned, and some who never left. It is a surprisingly strong community. There was a swirl of activity the last few days before the deadline, and I'm sure activity will increase as we get closer to March 16.
From what I understand, after March 16 our submissions will be reviewed and posted. Amazon community members will be able to view and comment on our work. I expect things will get very active then among the quarter finalists. The next month is a good time to make friends, and get to know each other.
I've added several friends to my profile. I posted a message about this blog and invited other bloggers to share their url. I had a few responses from others blogging about ABNA. You can find a link to their blogs in the sidebar.
I'll try to get some interviews with some of the contestants, old and new, and post them here. Writing is, at times, a very lonely pursuit. It is great to be around fellow writers and enjoy the comradery and companionship.
Blogs:
Angela Baca
http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/A2LS8A37M3C6P3/ref=cm_pdp_blog_blog
Steffan Piper
http://www.steffanpiper.blogspot.com/
Brent Billy Curtis
http://amazonbreakthroughnovelaward.blogspot.com/
Most people in the contest never come on the boards. There were up to 10,000 submissions, maybe a couple of hundred on the boards and of those less than a hundred post. Someone put up a thread to try and get an idea of who was on the boards, about 108 replies so far.
I find the Amazon discussion board to be clunky and cumbersome. Of course their main purpose is discussion of products and services at Amazon.com, so in that respect they are good. Relevant threads appear down below the fold on pages. You can read and comment.
It really isn't designed as a Forum, per se. It would be nice if we had a dedicated forum for the ABNA community, but using the existing system ties everything back into Amazon's overall profile / community. I'll get used to it.
There are many people who were in last years contest who have returned, and some who never left. It is a surprisingly strong community. There was a swirl of activity the last few days before the deadline, and I'm sure activity will increase as we get closer to March 16.
From what I understand, after March 16 our submissions will be reviewed and posted. Amazon community members will be able to view and comment on our work. I expect things will get very active then among the quarter finalists. The next month is a good time to make friends, and get to know each other.
I've added several friends to my profile. I posted a message about this blog and invited other bloggers to share their url. I had a few responses from others blogging about ABNA. You can find a link to their blogs in the sidebar.
I'll try to get some interviews with some of the contestants, old and new, and post them here. Writing is, at times, a very lonely pursuit. It is great to be around fellow writers and enjoy the comradery and companionship.
Blogs:
Angela Baca
http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/A2LS8A37M3C6P3/ref=cm_pdp_blog_blog
Steffan Piper
http://www.steffanpiper.blogspot.com/
Brent Billy Curtis
http://amazonbreakthroughnovelaward.blogspot.com/
Saturday, February 14, 2009
2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award
Last Sunday (Feb.8, 2009) was the entry deadline for the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA). I entered about a week before that, and like most entrants was reviewing and stressing about my entry right up to the deadline.
The CreateSpace format allowed entrants to edit their submissions, including the full manuscript, right up until the deadline – so there was a lot of last minute tweaks, second looks, even rewrites. People were reworking their pitches, changing whole chapters of their ms, it was crazy.
I went through every part of my submission – pitch, excerpt, bio, etc. - several times. Then I thought I was good... I noticed a printed copy of my ms laying on my desk, half covered, and freaked out. I had given a copy to a friend for review and she had returned it.
She found some typos, made some suggestions, but overall she liked it. I had started fixing the various crit items in the electronic version, but slacked off about halfway through. It was mostly fixing typos, I was working on another ms, editing a third, and writing some shorts. I had some queries out, and figured if I got a partial request I could get it together in a flash – I had half the ms corrected.
The printed, critted ms got pushed aside, buried and forgotten. Until 12 hours before the deadline. I went I and started fixing the typos. A lot of work, but no problem. I got it done, uploaded the corrected version of my ms, and kicked back.
I decided to take one last look, and then step away from the keyboard. Everything looked good. I downloaded the saved version of my ms...
One of the guidelines was to not have your name in the ms. It is linked electronically to your profile so it's not necessary. Typically I have my contact info on the title page and my name in the header. I had removed it for the contest. But I uploaded the corrected ms.
There it was. My name in the header, my contact info on the title page. I was lucky. Easy enough fix and I uploaded a corrected version for the contest. But that makes me wonder if others ended up damaging their ms trying to tweak it. How many will not make the cut because of a bad submission? I hope none, but I have already seen some posts on the forum that are fretting something they discovered too late that could disqualify them.
In March we will find out who makes the quarterfinals. Before then the is a cut from 10,000 (the max number of entries) down to 2000, but we will never know those results. Our first news will come when the cut reduces it to 500.
For the next five weeks we will all be on the edge of our seats, bitting our nails, hanging out on the ABNA forums stressing, joking, and making friends. I will chronicle my own experience through this process.
This is my first literary contest so I am an absolute beginner. Many of the people in the contest are veterans from last year, some finalists from last year. I'll be trying to make some new friends, learn more about my craft, and keep from stressing totally out.
The CreateSpace format allowed entrants to edit their submissions, including the full manuscript, right up until the deadline – so there was a lot of last minute tweaks, second looks, even rewrites. People were reworking their pitches, changing whole chapters of their ms, it was crazy.
I went through every part of my submission – pitch, excerpt, bio, etc. - several times. Then I thought I was good... I noticed a printed copy of my ms laying on my desk, half covered, and freaked out. I had given a copy to a friend for review and she had returned it.
She found some typos, made some suggestions, but overall she liked it. I had started fixing the various crit items in the electronic version, but slacked off about halfway through. It was mostly fixing typos, I was working on another ms, editing a third, and writing some shorts. I had some queries out, and figured if I got a partial request I could get it together in a flash – I had half the ms corrected.
The printed, critted ms got pushed aside, buried and forgotten. Until 12 hours before the deadline. I went I and started fixing the typos. A lot of work, but no problem. I got it done, uploaded the corrected version of my ms, and kicked back.
I decided to take one last look, and then step away from the keyboard. Everything looked good. I downloaded the saved version of my ms...
One of the guidelines was to not have your name in the ms. It is linked electronically to your profile so it's not necessary. Typically I have my contact info on the title page and my name in the header. I had removed it for the contest. But I uploaded the corrected ms.
There it was. My name in the header, my contact info on the title page. I was lucky. Easy enough fix and I uploaded a corrected version for the contest. But that makes me wonder if others ended up damaging their ms trying to tweak it. How many will not make the cut because of a bad submission? I hope none, but I have already seen some posts on the forum that are fretting something they discovered too late that could disqualify them.
In March we will find out who makes the quarterfinals. Before then the is a cut from 10,000 (the max number of entries) down to 2000, but we will never know those results. Our first news will come when the cut reduces it to 500.
For the next five weeks we will all be on the edge of our seats, bitting our nails, hanging out on the ABNA forums stressing, joking, and making friends. I will chronicle my own experience through this process.
This is my first literary contest so I am an absolute beginner. Many of the people in the contest are veterans from last year, some finalists from last year. I'll be trying to make some new friends, learn more about my craft, and keep from stressing totally out.
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