Once More unto the Breach

Well, it's that time of year again, and another Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest is upon us.  I've been an entrant in all previous ABNA contests, and once again I am stepping into the fray, seeking to pit my words against those of my fellows in a painstaking battle of prose.

In ANBA #2 (2009), we saw The Guns of Mars as a semi-finalist, one of only 7 Science Fiction novels to get that far.  In all years since, I haven't even made it out of the pitch phase, and the "finalists" for those years were pretty dry stuff.  I know I'm not the only one who noticed that Sci-Fi stories were basically being shut-out of the running, and the stories that Penguin Publishing wanted were more akin to what Oprah's book club was after.  Now that Amazon is sponsoring the contest themselves, that may be about to change.

For the last 3 years, I have politely urged Amazon to revise their contest, to allow those of us who write genre fiction a genuine shot at winning.  At long last, they have heard my plea (and those of many other writers), and they've changed the contest accordingly.  Now there is a unique category for Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror in the contest, and there will be a guaranteed finalist in this category.  This gives so many writers hope, as we now have a sub-category within the contest which assures that we at least have a chance, even if it is still a longshot.

So, as I said, I've entered again, but I have no illusions.  I know that if I can break through the pitch phase that my entry will have a very good chance.  Yet, the pitch phase itself is a very subjective process, and previous years have taught me to expect nothing.  How ironic it would be, to finally get what I've asked for (an ABNA with a separate Sci-Fi category) and to still fail at the first stage.  Somewhere, somebody will be laughing for sure, so I'll give them less satisfaction by knowing my chances and accepting the probable defeat.

The next argument I'll have to push is a change to the "pitch" phase.  It really is a subjective process, and it doesn't necessarily facilitate the advancement of the "best" entries.  There are plenty of people out there who can throw together a 300 word "advertisement" that'll make any editor's mouth water, but their manuscripts are hardly ready for prime-time, if you catch my drift.  Including the first page of your manuscript along with the "pitch" would make things a lot better, as the initial reviewer would have a sample of each writer's work upon which to base their judgment.

All right, I've nagged and lamented enough.  Win or lose, here goes another shot at the fantastic dream of my life.  Once more unto the breach...

Failed Again!

So, another ABNA pitch round has come and gone, and for the third year in a row I find myself cut out of the action at the starting gate.  It's getting to be an all too familiar occurrence, and I've come to accept that getting The Guns of Mars to the semi-finals in ABNA#2 may have been a fluke.

The hardest point of getting bumped during the pitch phase is that you get no feedback whatsoever.  There's no explanation of why your pitch was rejected, so you're left scratching your head.  I guess the people reading the pitches just aren't interested in what I write, for whatever reason.

This year, I had planned to submit "Virtual Domination" into the contest, it being the unpublished 4th volume in the Morgan Asher saga.  However, in the last few days before submitting, I felt my pitch for Virtual Domination wasn't good enough and was certain for rejection.  At the same time, I'd been tinkering with the promo for Prisoner of Time, which I self-published a few years ago, and seeing that the contest accepts self-published books I felt it was my best bet this time around.  In retrospect, I doubt I'd have gotten any farther if I'd gone with my original submission plans, but we'll never know.

Anyway, here's the "pitch" I wrote for Prisoner of Time this year:

A dark entity lurks within a virtual environment, and he's trying to get out. A sorceress hell-bent on revenge inadvertently pits herself against him in her own quest for vengeance, and a jaded hero finds himself caught in the middle of an epic struggle of bad versus evil in "Prisoner of Time."

Morgan Asher hates virtual reality.  While billions of people waste their lives on computer-generated fantasies, he desires a real life, but he finds himself drawn into a sword and sorcery program in search of a lost lover he long believed to be dead.  Entering the world of Fantasan, he quickly finds himself in over his head, pitted against xenophobic elves, dastardly pirates, and sword-wielding monks hell-bent on his destruction.  It seems everyone is out to get him.

All the while, a trap is being set by a mad sorceress, Josie Johansen, a woman who blames Morgan for the death of her best friend.  Josie intends to make Morgan a prisoner of time itself, exiling him to the distant future, yet everything changes when a mysterious demon reveals himself—for the fallen angel Haloran seeks to escape his simulated prison and enter the real world!  To stop the ascendance of Satan-incarnate, Josie must set aside her personal feelings and cooperate with Morgan, but will she ever be willing to forgive him?

I believe this is far superior to the current back-cover blurb I have for Prisoner of Time, and plan to start using this in the future on my website, and eventually on the back cover of the forthcoming 2nd Edition of the book.  So it wasn't a total loss.  It would have been nice to get somewhere with the ABNA again, but it's obvious that their literary interests lie in a different direction than mine—their loss.

Here's to failure!  It looks like this is shaping up to be another one of those years...

Surrender? Never! (Minstrel Mondays)

Today is the opening day for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2012 Contest!  I've already gotten my submission safely delivered, and can now sit back and dread next month's first cut, where 4 out of 5 entries will be dropped because their "pitch" doesn't pique the curiosity of the anonymous judges.  I feel I have a good shot this year, but I thought that last year when I failed to crack the first round threshold.  It's all pretty random, and heavily based on personal tastes.  I just have to hope that I receive the right judges, who'll like my sales pitch.

I'm still waiting to hear back from someone before I reveal some pretty exciting news.  Stay tuned for that.

Now, back to Minstrel Mondays, with a general poem about the entertainment industry.  Whether you're an aspiring writer, actor/actress, singer/songwriter, comedian, etc... you'll find something familiar in this piece, that I dedicate to everyone who has a dream and still strives to fulfill it.

Hope

it's what I need

it's what I'm seeking

each and every day.

Let me on

the stage again

so I can pull off

a miracle.

Never in my life

have I ever asked for more

but never have I ever asked for less.

It's nothing to receive

this immaterial thing

but we're all hoping.

Throw it out again

trying hard to win

at a game that has

no ultimate winner.

Losers still abound

and failures come around

to the realization that

no one ever knows.

You could be the hit

they've been waiting for

the superstar of tomorrow

waiting in the wings

but by chance you turn out

to be yesterday's star

you'll never know

how far you could go.

Giving it your all

is only thinking small.

You've got to get out

and give it someone

else's hundred and ten.

How can you do it alone

when your competition is overgrown?

There's no comparing numbers

with the borg!

Step into the light

and keep fighting

for your moment.

There's nothing worse

than thinking "I could've tried."

If you try and fail again

even if you never win

at least you'll sleep soundly

knowing you did all you could.

When history is written

the worst of the losers

are those who never tried

and are left forgotten.

If you keep striving for the mark

even if you never reach it

somebody

somewhen

will at least know you were

alive.

Pitches, Revisions, And A New Poll



Happy Friday the 13th!



I've been coming out of the slump this week, taking on some little writing projects to help get me back into the swing of things.  I started out working on a new promo for Virtual Domination, which I may enter into the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest.  Earlier this week, I wrote 2 different versions of the pitch.  For those who aren't familiar with the contest, the "pitch" is the initial hook, much like a query letter.  With the ABNA, the first round is judged purely on that 300 word blurb, and nothing else.  I can't say I'm really satisfied with either pitch I wrote, so I might go a different route (depending on my instincts, and feedback from a couple of writer friends).

Bringing us to the "different route," yesterday I started looking at Prisoner of Time.  I self-published it three years ago, and in that time I realized there was something missing from chapter 2.  The first page was a dull narrative, used as a bridge to the previous volume, Virtual Wiles.  Reading it through, a new idea came to mind about how I could rework this hunk of text, and incorporate any relevant data into later conversations.  So, I made the first change to Prisoner of Time in years, and fixed what I believe was the book's only real flaw.  It reads smoothly now from beginning to end.

With Prisoner of Time newly improved, that has got me thinking.  Maybe I should enter it into the ABNA!  The contest does accept self-published titles, and Prisoner of Time is something I've thought about submitting for years.  I initially considered submitting it in 2009, but I instead went with The Guns of Mars, which subsequently became a semi-finalist.  Perhaps it's time to put Prisoner in the spotlight, and see what happens?

Again, the pitch is the problem.  I spent a couple of hours yesterday afternoon writing up the Prisoner of Time pitch, working with the blurb on the back cover.  In retrospect, it isn't all it could be.  To advance in the ABNA, you really need to impress the judges, as only 1 in 5 books make it through the first round.  There are a lot of writers who fail to succeed, simply because they aren't the best at advertising.  Yes, there's also the luck factor, since there's no telling the tastes of the 2 judges you'll get to read your pitch.  If I can get through the first round, odds are I'll run straight to the semi-finals again, maybe even break through to the win, but that damn pitch needs to be perfect!

Okay, so that's what I'm doing right now.

Bringing us back to the blog, you might notice the new poll to the right.  It asks what your favorite Martin T. Ingham novel is.  It's a fun feature that'll stay there in perpetuity, allowing my readers to give a little bit of feedback.  Don't be afraid to vote!

Well, back to the grind.  Send me your hopes and prayers, and together we'll survive this experience.

ABNA: Give Sci-Fi & Fantasy A Chance

The 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest will be coming up soon, and as we hit year 5 of this exciting writing competition, I continue my plea that those of us who write outside the mainstream be given a real shot at the prize.

On average, you can group mystery, romance, thriller, suspense, and other various sub-genres in with what they call "mainstream" these days, but Science Fiction & Fantasy works are still considered outside the norm.  They lurk in a category all by themselves, and are still shunned by certain segments of the publishing community for being "escapist garbage."  As such, it is really unfeasible to expect these fantastic tales to compete with more traditional literary stories.

The ABNA contest has proven itself over the past years to be a venue that favors human interest stories formatted in pretty traditional literary styles.  With the exception of Fresh Kills (ABNA's 1^st winner), all the winners have been pretty dry.  I don't buy that that's caused by a lack of qualified submissions in the non-literary genres, and the obvious explanation lies with the personal tastes of the judges picking the finalists.  They clearly prefer stuff geared toward Oprah's Book Club, rather than finding the next Heinlein or Asimov.

Sci-Fi & Fantasy are two categories that could probably be dropped from the ABNA completely, though that would upset a lot of writers, and paint those running the contest as exclusionary.  Instead, they settle for a weak compromise, where they "accept" entries in those genres, but weed them out before the finals.  Some headway has been made in the "Young Adult" category, but there is no viability for serious, adult Sci-Fi & Fantasy in the contest.

What I suggest as a perfect solution is for Amazon to add a third category for the ABNA, which would give those who write Sci-Fi & Fantasy the chance to truly compete.  It would run en-tandem with the Mainstream and Young Adult categories, and it would give those of us who write "speculative fiction" a real shot at winning.  I know, people writing Romance or Mystery might want their own award as well, but like I said, they're able to fit in with the literary stuff to some degree.  They're "normal," unlike us weirdos who write about space travel or warlocks.

There is a financial payout to be had from this.  Sci-Fi & Fantasy may be the furthest from the mainstream of any genre, but it also has one of the largest fan-bases of any genre.  It only makes sense for Amazon and their publishing partner(s) to attempt to cash in on this subset of the population.  They have an untapped market, just waiting to buy the first book to win the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for Speculative Fiction!