I got quite the exciting call from my friend Gwyn this morning! Once again, it astounds me how little I can know about things that actually matter and how much I know about inconsequential, ridiculous things that will in no way further my career or help me achieve total financial independence (i.e., Jessica Alba’s daughter’s name is Honor Marie).

Apparently, Amazon is having holding a major contest right now — and giving out the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award this summer! I realize that this is partially a marketing tool to get writers to inadvertantly become exposed to their new program, CreateSpace, to self-publish, but hey — mission accomplished. I signed up and entered. The deadline looms — this Sunday, Feb. 8. They’re accepting up to 10,000 entries for evaluation! So I pumped myself up, tried to seem marketable, uploaded my manuscript and came up with a snappy pitch. I did the best a sleepy girl could do on a snowy morning in Maryland on a Wednesday. I was eager to get everything submitted — I didn’t want to obsess about it all day.

So now I just get to obsess until they announce the 500 quarterfinalists on March 16. Excerpts from those folks’ novels will be posted on Amazon to be rated and reviewed. And then they whittle down the entries by panel, etc., until the “grand prize winner” is announced May 22. Simultaneously frightening and exhilirating!

Regardless, I entered. And by 11 a.m. today, I’m already feeling quite accomplished! All of my writer friends, I encourage you to submit, too . . . I’m not selfish enough to want to keep the entry pool small for my own gain! Or am I? 🙂 No, I’m not. Check out the rules and enter on Amazon at this link!