I have entered Digging Deeper into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. Firstly, whilst I admit I shop at Amazon ... in fact I'll hold back for now until after the first round of judging in case they're reading this.

They started accepting submissions yesterday and you've only got until the 7th Feb. So if you're interested, this is how it works.

"Now through February 7th, 2010, or until we've received 5,000 entries in each category, you can enter your unpublished or self-published English-language novel into the General Fiction category, or the new Young Adult Fiction category. The contest will then proceed through four phases of judging:

First Round: Amazon editors will review a 300 word Pitch of each entry. The top 1000 entries in each category (2000 total entries) will move on to the second round.

Second Round: The field will be narrowed to 250 entries in each category (500 total entries) by Amazon top customer reviewers from ratings of a 5000 word excerpt.

Quarterfinals: Publishers Weekly reviewers will read the full manuscript of each quarterfinalist, and based on their review scores, the top 50 in each category (100 total entries) will move on to the Semifinals.

Semifinals: Penguin USA editors will read the full manuscript and review all accompanying data for each semifinalist and will then select three finalists in each category (six total finalists).

Finals: Amazon customers will vote on the three finalists in each category resulting in two grand prize winners.

Review the Official Contest Rules and watch our video tutorials for instructions on preparing and submitting your entry."

If you fancy giving it a bash, visit https://www.createspace.com/abna?ref=480641&utm_id=5141

I'm not particularly hopeful of winning against 10,000 entries but you gotta give it a go eh?