Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award?

[anthimeria]

I scorned it last year because I hadn't submitted The Novel to any agents at all yet.  Now that I have half a dozen rejection letters under my belt, I'm considering it.

Thing is, half a dozen rejection letters is just  not that many, not when you're querying agents.  On the other hand, the way my life is going right now, it would be MUCH easier to submit to the contest than to redo my entire agent search and query letters (remember how I said I saved almost everything when the old laptop died?).

To be honest, the only thing making me wary is that when you become a quarter-finalist, they post a 3-5k word excerpt of your novel on Amazon for people to read, and I am worried this will constitute some kind of publication, and most agents require the novel you're querying for not to be previously published (okay, that sentence was a crime against English, but it gets my point across).

Thoughts?  Am I being paranoid?  Is the chance worth it?  Should I suck it up and get back to the agent search and wait for next year's contest?

Comments

[elenagleason.com]

I would exhaust the agent route before going for the contest. Though I doubt agents would count a 3-5k novel excerpt as published. Some of them even take on works that were previously self-published (rare, but it theoretically happens). It sounds like you're considering the contest for reasons of laziness rather than logic though, and while I can empathize (definitely, definitely empathize), I think logic should be at the forefront here.

...But I also think your concerns about publication aren't justified in this case, so. Up to you. :)

[anthimeria]

Grrargh, you're probably right. I'm just going to feel stupid if next year rolls around and I haven't gotten around to submitting The Novel to agents again. Because I can see it . . . a year just isn't that long, which is a terrifying thought, since about ten years ago a year was *forever*.