Amazon.com customers around the world cast their votes and this evening,
Amazon.com, Penguin Group (USA) and CreateSpace announced the winners of
this year’s Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA) at a special ceremony
held at The Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle. Alan Averill is the Grand
Prize winner in the general fiction category for his novel, “The
Beautiful Land,” while Regina Sirois was awarded the Grand Prize in the
young adult fiction group for her novel, “On Little Wings.” Both authors
have received a publishing contract from Penguin Group (USA) that
includes a $15,000 advance. “The Beautiful Land” and “On Little Wings”
will be published by Berkley Books and Viking Books for Young Readers,
respectively. The novels are now available for pre-order on Amazon.com
at www.amazon.com/abna.
This year's competition drew thousands of submissions from aspiring
writers around the world – the most entries in the history of the
contest. Through several rounds of judging, six finalists rose to the
top. An expert panel of authors, agents and editors weighed in with
comments on the finalists’ work, and in the end, Amazon.com customers
voted to select the winners.
“Today's winners were chosen by Amazon.com customers, which is one thing
that makes ABNA so special,” said Nader Kabbani, Director of Independent
Publishing at Amazon. “This contest not only recognizes talented authors
but also connects them directly with readers looking to discover great
new writers. We congratulate Alan and Regina, whose work clearly
resonated with customers.”
Tim McCall, Penguin Group (USA) Vice President of Online Sales and
Marketing said, “Penguin is always looking for talented new writers to
bring to our readers. We were thrilled to see the many promising
manuscripts entered in this year’s competition by writers who aspire to
be published by Penguin. We look forward to publishing Alan’s and
Regina’s novels.”
Hailing from Seattle, Alan Averill, a former “video game script doctor,”
wrote a draft of “The Beautiful Land” as a part of National Novel
Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a movement that challenges writers to
complete a novel in 30 days. “The Beautiful Land” is a story of two
people in love from the moment they met but destined to be apart
forever. Thanks to a time machine and a mysterious invention buried deep
in the Australian Outback, they now have one more chance to get it
right. One customer reviewer writes: “From the opening statement to the
last quote, [it] had me excited all the way through. The prose is
strong, descriptive in a quirky way, charming, and unique. The
characters are extremely memorable. I can't wait to read how they will
be interacting with one another later in the story.”
Regina Sirois was born and raised outside of Kansas City. She minored in
Creative Writing, but never found the right inspiration for a story
until she became the mother of two girls. “On Little Wings” is her first
novel. In it, 16-year-old Jennifer’s discovery of an aunt she never knew
existed reunites her family and provokes love and forgiveness. One
customer reviewer writes: “…some of the most exquisite writing I've seen
in a VERY long time. Any given sentence, paragraph or scene was sublime.”
Now in its fifth year, the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest is an
international contest co-sponsored by Amazon.com, Penguin Group (USA)
and CreateSpace. For the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest
Official Rules, to view the winning excerpts and reviews, or pre-order
the novels, please visit www.amazon.com/abna.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle,
opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s
Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most
customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything
they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the
lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of
unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books;
Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home
& Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health &
Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web
Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to
in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end
technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any
type of business. The new latest generation Kindle is the lightest, most
compact Kindle ever and features the same 6-inch, most advanced
electronic ink display that reads like real paper even in bright
sunlight. Kindle Touch is a new addition to the Kindle family with an
easy-to-use touch screen that makes it easier than ever to turn pages,
search, shop, and take notes – still with all the benefits of the most
advanced electronic ink display. Kindle Touch 3G is the top of the line
e-reader and offers the same new design and features of Kindle Touch,
with the unparalleled added convenience of free 3G. Kindle Fire is the
Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, apps, games and
web browsing with all the content, free storage in the Amazon Cloud,
Whispersync, Amazon Silk (Amazon’s new revolutionary cloud-accelerated
web browser), vibrant color touch screen, and powerful dual-core
processor.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com,
www.amazon.co.uk,
www.amazon.de,
www.amazon.co.jp,
www.amazon.fr,
www.amazon.ca,
www.amazon.cn,
www.amazon.it,
and www.amazon.es.
As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include
Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates
otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning
of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly
from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve
risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to
competition, management of growth, new products, services and
technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international
expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center
optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and
strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption,
inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More
information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's
financial results is included in Amazon.com's
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most
recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
About Penguin Group (USA)
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally
renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S.
adult and children's trade book publishers, owning a wide range of
imprints and trademarks, including Viking, G. P. Putnam's Sons, The
Penguin Press, Riverhead Books, Dutton, Penguin Books, Berkley Books,
Gotham Books, Portfolio, New American Library, Plume, Tarcher, Philomel,
Grosset & Dunlap, Puffin, and Frederick Warne, among others. The Penguin
Group (http://www.penguin.com)
is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.
About CreateSpace
CreateSpace seeks to be the world’s easiest and most comprehensive
independent publishing platform for writers, filmmakers and musicians.
The company is the leading provider of independent publishing tools that
enable content creators to produce, polish, publish and distribute their
work to customers around the world. CreateSpace offers industry-leading
royalty rates, broad distribution to thousands of sales channels, an
engaged peer community and complete creative control while content
creators continue to own the rights to their work. CreateSpace is also a
leader in manufacture on-demand for Books, CDs and DVDs maintaining
“in-stock” availability for titles without inventory risk. CreateSpace
is a brand of On-Demand Publishing LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc.
(NASDAQ: AMZN).
