ABNA Finalists to be announced tomorrow

Tomorrow, July 8, is a Big Day for those still in the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. ABNA administrators will pare the list of 25 semifinalists down to only five finalists, one in each of five categories in the contest (General fiction, Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror, Romance, Mystery & Thriller, and Young Adult Fiction).

While the public won't know the results until tomorrow, the 25 semifinalists actually already know their fate -- and have since last Wednesday. On July 2, ABNA started contacting the finalists, who had some procedural matters to address -- contracts to sign and whatnot -- before the public announcement. Therefore, if you were a semifinalist and didn't get a call last Wednesday, you knew you didn't advance to the finals.

The Grand Prize winner, who gets a $50,000 publishing contract from Amazon, will be selected from the list of five finalists, with each of whom getting a $15,000 contract.

While I only made it to the quarterfinal round, I think this would be the last truly emotional announcement to anticipate because, win or lose, you get a publishing contract with Amazon if you are a finalist.

 I haven't read many of the semifinalists' excerpts, except for the five in the M/T category (which was the category I entered). I have a favorite and have expressed that to the author and can only hope that they make it through. Theirs is a great work and deserving of being selected as a finalist.

So best of luck to the 25 semifinalists and the five finalists to be announced tomorrow.

I, as always, am laboring away on my WIP, which is currently titled The Deadly Game, and I will probably enter it in the 2015 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition next winter. And I will query my 2011 ABNA quarterfinal novel, An Untidy Affair, to agents and publishers throughout the rest of this year.

Thanks for reading.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The finalists were announced and The Dead Key by D.M. Pulley was selected as the finalist in the Mystery & Thriller category. And while it wasn't my choice in the category -- I was pulling for Hart Johnson's A Shot in the Light --  Pulley has a fine, well-written novel. We will see if a mystery is the grand prize winner. It has never happened in the seven years of the contest. mbd