The Amazon Breathrough Novel Award has reached its limit of 5,000 manuscripts. The e-tailer, in cooperation with Penguin and Hewlett-Packard, announced the contest Oct. 1 and set a Nov. 5 deadline for submissions. A Penguin spokesperson said Amazon is reviewing the submission to make sure they meet eligibility requirements and is putting additional manuscripts on a waiting list. The winner will receive a $25,000 advance from Penguin and a publishing contract. The contest is open to all unpublished English-language writers around the world.
Under the contest guidelines, Amazon’s review panel will narrow the field to 1,000 manuscripts, and those manuscripts will receive a review from a team being assembled by PW. Penguin will pick the 10 finalists and Amazon customers will vote for the winner.
In other prize news, The Last Tycoon has won the Financial Times & Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award for 2007. Written by William Cohan and published by Doubleday, the book examines the history of one of Wall Street’s most famous companies, Lazard Freres.
