Hey Friends!

So, back in October, I entered the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest -- yesterday I found out I made the SEMI FINALS!

What this means is that a 5,000 word excerpt of my novel *Oh, and She Has a Dog* is now up on Amazon, for free download -- and part of the judging of the next round is readers ranking the excerpt and writing reviews of how much they liked it. (you can read it online, as a .pdf, you don't need to store it on your computer.)

So, please, please, please
considering visiting the site and "downloading" it and ranking it
-- and writing a review!

The best written reviews are also eligible for prizes --When you read excerpts from the semifinalists and post reviews, you’ll be in the running to win a prize package (including an Amazon Kindle, a $2,000 Amazon.com gift certificate, and an HP photo printer) for providing the most--and the most high-quality--reviews. See rules for full details.

TELL YOUR FRIENDS! FORWARD TO LISTSERVS!

(even listservs that I'm on, cause it will mean more coming from you)

I have no fantasy of winning this contest (5,000 people made the original cut back in November . . . I'm not sure how many semi-finalists there are but it's hundreds) -- but the next round would be really cool (cause you get a write up in Publisher's Weekly).

Here's the link to my page -- and below that I'll list the official info about the contest.


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012658EO


OFFCIAL INFO FROM AMAZON:

From now until March 2, we're inviting Amazon.com customers to download, read, and review excerpts from our semifinalists and help decide who will make it to the Top Ten. Penguin will select manuscripts to read from the semifinal round based on customers' feedback and Publishers Weekly reviews. The 10 finalists selected from this round will be announced on March 3. Customers will then vote to select the winner, to be announced April 7, 2008.
What Makes A Good Review?
In the semifinalist round, we're breaking new ground in our customer reviewing community: this is the first opportunity for customers to play an active role in the publishing process. The criteria for judging an unpublished book are a little bit different from the norm. Keep these pointers in mind as you're reading and remember: your voice counts.
Be persuasive. Experts at Penguin will be relying on customer reviews as they prepare to select the finalists, so don't hesitate to tell us what you really think. The reviews that provide the most thorough, thoughtful feedback are the ones that will help Penguin choose the Top Ten.

Quantity and quality help. The more reviews you write, and the more helpful each review is, the more likely you are to win one of our three prize packages.

Discuss. As with customer reviews for all our products, you can comment on others' excerpt reviews and rate them. Any discussion and activity we see around specific titles will only keep us coming back for more, so feel free to speak up and banter with your peers.

One quick heads-up: Per the contest rules, every excerpt is a maximum of 5,000 words in length. As a result, you may find that excerpts vary in length or end unexpectedly. Consider yourself warned--and happy reading!


Thanks!
Hildieblog