Amazon break through Novel book deal

smcgiff

Hi folks,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Sizzling-Summer-Prices-Promotions/b?ie=UTF8&node=165467011

In conjunction with Penguin.

You'd pretty much want to have finished your book by now though, as it looks like they want you to submit straight away.

I've just uploaded. It would be good if people from here joined and we could discuss. The official Amazon boards look a bit bitchy. Anyway, happy uploading!

Montallie

I entered but only came across two other Irish people on the boards so far. The posts are often a bit frenzied, and yes, some of them can be rather edgy (I don't think bitchy is quite the right word, as it's often the men who are at the root of it).

genie

I entered too, managed to get a place after someone dropped out!

Good luck to you!

Montallie

Good luck to you, too, Genie. Have you been on the Amazon threads? I don't think I've seen you posting. Do you belong to any other writing sites?

smcgiff

Hi guys,

It looks like we can at least copy and paste, and upload correctly. Shocking that some people got eliminated because of this!

Good luck

Edit: The "bitchyness" has pretty much now stopped. Steven doesn't seem to be posting much these days.

genie

Montallie wrote: »

Good luck to you, too, Genie. Have you been on the Amazon threads? I don't think I've seen you posting. Do you belong to any other writing sites?

`

I did have a look on the Amazon forum because I wasn't sure how to format the Word document properly. I didn't post because they seemed really unfriendly! :rolleyes:

I belong to http://c19.proboards53.com/index.cgi? which has different sections on literature and creative writing etc., and I have the odd look on http://www.writewords.org.uk/forum/forum48.asp but I'm not actually a member because I think it's a bit of a cheek that they charge for membership.

The novel I entered is a historical novel set in Wales in the aftermath of World War One, what's your novel about?

smcgiff

Mine's YA/Fantasy. So I'll be in a category all by myself! :rolleyes:

I've posted the opening scene on my profile page...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A2NTDOVULO4WUS/ref=cm_cd_et_pdp

luckat

If you just want to 'publish' a few copies for friends, Borders is handing out €75 vouchers for their partner AuthorHouse, which will format and print your book. Don't know how much AuthorHouse costs, though.

Montallie

My novel is mainstream one about a family in Dublin.

Some of the threads on Amazon were really frenetic. I can't help being sorry for those whose verification emails have disappeared into the ether, though. It might not necessarily be due to something they did. On the whole the bitchiness seems to have eased a lot. I'm not sure why that guy Steven was getting so much flak. His reputation seemed to have followed him from other boards. Anything I read by him on Amazon seemed okay, but maybe I just didn't see the threads you did.

The best writers' site I've found so far is www.youwriteon.com, which is run by the Arts Council of England. Why can't they do something like that over here? It's a showcase site where you post short stories or the opening chapters of novels. But it's not one of those 'Oh, this is wonderful!' type places. Reviews are assigned, and for every one you do you get a credit to put to your own work. After four reviews you go on the charts and after five you can get into the top ten, if your stuff is rated good enough. Every 1st of the month the top five in the charts get a free professional critique - I've just got one for one of my stories.

The best writers' site for the sociable side of writing that I've found is www.mywriterscircle.com. Some of the guys on there are really funny and we're making an attempt to write the longest poem in the English language which has been going on for some months now.

Montallie

I tried to edit my last post to add this, but something went wrong and the edit vanished.

Ah, smcgiff, is it yourself, Seamus? I'm Allie Lo from the ABNA boards.

And luckat, I saw that offer in Borders, too. I'm not thinking of self-publishing yet, but I'm not snooty about it. I'm in the process of self-publishing my kids' novel, but that's because in the post-Rowling era the world and her husband are writing for children, and so there's much less chance of getting a book taken on. When I've been both ways through the letterboxes of every agent and editor in the Yearbook and Handbook I will definitely do it. Though for the children's novel I'm not going the POD route, but have set myself up as a publisher, bought my own ISBN numbers, commissioned my own artwork, etc. Self-publishing is such a dirty word in the trade that you really have to put your heart into it and make sure your product is at least the equal of the best that's out there, and then market it all the hours you can spare. But the other side of the story is that you get full control of your layout and artwork, won't be backlisted by anyone but yourself, and stand to make a heftier sum from the resulting profits, assuming that there are any.

genie

Good luck to everyone who entered, hope we make the final 1000!

BTW, I tried to post on the discussion board there but as I had never bought anything from Amazon.com I wasn't allowed to. I've only ever bought off Amazon.co.uk but that didn't count. Weird! :rolleyes:

smcgiff

genie wrote: »

Good luck to everyone who entered, hope we make the final 1000!

BTW, I tried to post on the discussion board there but as I had never bought anything from Amazon.com I wasn't allowed to. I've only ever bought off Amazon.co.uk but that didn't count. Weird! :rolleyes:

Hi Guys,

Bit remiss of me to not have posted on this thread of late considering I started it.

Yip - We'll know soon.

Genie, if you want I think you could change your address to a US address and buy a 49 cent ebook, and this would allow you to post.

At this stage you may want to wait to see if you're through before bothering

Hi Allie! Bit of a late comeback from me.

genie

OK, I didn't make the semi final. Were any of you lucky?

Created a US address to try and buy an e-book so I could post on the discussion board but it still wouldn't let me. :rolleyes:

Hope we're not going to get plagued with e-mails from CreateSpace now begging us to self publish with them.