Amazon and Penguin Group (USA) Name James King Winner of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award
James King, author of Bill Warrington's Last Chance, has won the second annual contest in search of next popular novel and will receive a publishing contract worth $25,000 from Penguin Group (USA)
James King, an Ohio native and current resident of Wilton, Conn., has been a corporate communications specialist for the past 20 years, but dreamt of becoming a fiction writer since the age of six. In 2006, with the support and encouragement of his wife and two children, King decided to pursue his dream. He entered the Master of Arts program in creative writing at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y., and when he completed his degree in May 2008, he had written most of what would become the novel Bill Warrington's Last Chance.
In Bill Warrington's Last Chance, the title character tries to reestablish ties with his estranged children after he is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. After several attempts at a reunion fail, he decides to kidnap his 15-year-old granddaughter, April, so that his children will be forced to talk to each other—and to him—as they attempt to "rescue" April.
Viking/Penguin author Sue Monk Kidd, a member of the contest's expert panel said: "one of the best things you can say about a novel is that the story lingers after you finish it. I have gone on thinking about this one without trying."
The 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition, which began Feb. 2, 2009, drew several thousand entrants, representing all 50 U.S. states and 21 countries around the world.
To view the winning excerpt and reviews, please visit www.amazon.com/abna.
How the contest works
The contest consists of four judging phases by expert reviewers, publishing professionals, and Amazon.com customers. The winner, who will receive a $25,000 publishing contract with Penguin Group (USA), will be announced on May 27, 2009.
Initial Round: Expert reviewers from Amazon select 2,000 submissions from the 10,000 initial entries based each novel's "pitch." The 2,000 entries are then rated and receive two excerpt reviews from Amazon Editors and Amazon Vine Reviewers.
The field narrows to 500 entries...
Quarterfinals:Excerpts of the 500 are displayed on Amazon.com along with the reviews from the previous judging round. Publishers Weekly now reads, rates, and reviews the 500 remaining full manuscripts.
The field narrows to 100...
Semifinals: Penguin Group (USA) reads and ranks the 100 semifinalists, taking into consideration the reviews from the two previous judging rounds.
Penguin Group (USA) chooses three novels to move to the final round of judging...
Finals: Amazon.com customers select the best of the three remaining novels as the ABNA Grand Prize Winner for 2009.
More than 5,000 registrations were received for the 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, representing approximately 2,000 cities around the world and every state in the United States. Bill Loehfelm emerged as the 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Grand Prize Winner from a pool of 5,000 entrants. G. P. Putnam's Sons published his novel, Fresh Kills, in August 2008 to critical acclaim. The Associated Press hailed the novel as
"the finest crime fiction debut since Dennis Lehane burst on the scene...not just a crime novel but a psychological novel of impressive subtlety and complexity." Loehfelm said, "The opportunity to enter this contest and share my manuscript with two publishing industry powerhouses like Penguin Group and Amazon was thrilling enough—but to go from long-time struggling writer to nationally published author in nine months is an aspiring writer's dream."
For complete terms and conditions for the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award as well as more information about the contest, please visit www.amazon.com/abna. For more information on the CreateSpace self-publishing service or to visit the CreateSpace Community, please visit www.createspace.com
The expert panel of publishing professionals will be:
Featured Authors
Dates to Remember
February 2: Contest submission period opens
March 16: Quarterfinalists announced on Amazon.com
April 15: Semifinalists announced and Publishers Weekly reviews posted
May 15 - May 21: Three Finalists chosen by Penguin; Amazon.com customers vote for the Grand Prize Winner.
May 27: Grand Prize is announced on Amazon.com
Sue Monk Kidd
Sue Monk Kidd is the award-winning and bestselling author of the novels The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair, and the acclaimed memoirs When the Heart Waits and The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, and Firstlight, a collection of early writings. The Secret Life of Bees has spent over two years on The New York Times best seller list, was chosen as the BookSense Paperback Book of the Year in 2004, and was nominated for the prestigious Orange Prize in the U.K, among others. The Mermaid Chair, a #1 New York Times bestseller, was awarded the 2005 Quill Award for General Fiction and adapted into a Lifetime TV movie. The Secret Life of Bees became a major motion picture by Fox Searchlight in October 2008. Each of Kidd's novels has been translated into more than twenty-two languages. Her new memoir, Traveling With Pomegranates, co-authored with her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor, will be published in 2009. Kidd lives near Charleston, SC.
Photo by Sigrid Estrada
Sue Grafton
New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton is published in 28 countries and 26 languages—including Estonian, Bulgarian, and Indonesian. Books in her alphabet series, begun in 1982, are international bestsellers with readership in the millions. And like Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, Robert Parker, and John D. MacDonald—the best of her breed—Sue Grafton has earned new respect for the mystery form. Her readers appreciate her buoyant style, her eye for detail, her deft hand with character, her acute social observances, and her abundant storytelling talents.
Sue divides her time between Montecito, California and Louisville, Kentucky, where she was born and raised. She has three children and three grandchildren. Grafton has been married to Steve Humphrey for more than twenty years. She loves cats, gardens, and good cuisine.
Photo by Laurie Roberts
Eamon Dolan
Eamon Dolan is Vice President and Editor in Chief of the Penguin Press, a premier publisher of history, current affairs, narrative nonfiction, memoir, and quality fiction. In his two decades in the business, Eamon has published a number of bestselling novelists, including Tony Hillerman, Lisa See, and Donna Leon. His many nonfiction bestsellers include James M. McPherson's Tried By War, David Sheff's Beautiful Boy, Jerome Groopman's How Doctors Think, Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, Buzz Bissinger's Three Nights In August, Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, and Stefan Fatsis' Word Freak.
Before coming to the Penguin Press, he held positions at Houghton Mifflin and HarperCollins.
Barney Karpfinger
Barney Karpfinger studied English at Columbia University while supporting himself by working as a paralegal. He founded the Karpfinger Agency in 1985, after having worked at two other literary agencies and also running the contracts department at a major publishing house. His clients include Amitav Ghosh, John Lescroart, Leah Hager Cohen and Bill Loehfelm, the winner of the first Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, among others.
Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Featured Authors
Dave Isay
Dave Isay is the founder of StoryCorps. His radio documentary work has won nearly every award in broadcasting, including five Peabody Awards. He has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a MacArthur Fellowship, a United States Artists Fellowship and an Edward R. Murrow Award. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.
Photo by Harvey Wang
Harlan Coben
Harlan Coben's most recent thriller, Hold Tight, debuted simultaneously as an instant #1 New York Times and London Times bestseller in April 2008. He is the international bestselling author of sixteen novels, The Woods, Promise Me, The Innocent, Just One Look, No Second Chance, Gone for Good, and Tell No One, as well as the popular Myron Bolitar series. His books are published in 37 languages. Film adaptations of several of Coben's works are currently in the pipeline, with The Innocent most recently sold to Plum Pictures, and the award-winning French adaptation of Coben's breakout bestseller Tell No One is now enjoying its critically-acclaimed American theatrical release.
Winner of the Edgar Award, the Shamus Award, and the Anthony Award, Coben lives in New Jersey. His new novel, Long Lost, will be published by Dutton in the end of March.
Photo by Béatrice le Grand
Jane Green
Jane Green has written ten novels, including many New York Times bestsellers. Winner Her first novel, Jemima J, is being made into a movie for Lifetime. Jane's eleventh novel, Dune Road, will be published this June. A native Londoner, Jane now lives in Connecticut with her partner, four children, and many animals. To learn more visit www.janegreen.com
Photo by Sigrid Estrada
Aleksandar Hemon
Aleksandar Hemon is the author of The Lazarus Project (Riverhead Books; May 2008), which is a finalist for the National Book Award; The Question of Bruno; and Nowhere Man, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Born in Sarajevo, Hemon visited Chicago in 1992, intending to stay for a matter of months. While he was there, Sarajevo came under siege, and he was unable to return home. Hemon wrote his first story in English in 1995. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation in 2004. He lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter.
Photo by Velibor Božović
