Amazon Announces Seventh Annual Breakthrough Novel Award Contest, 2/16

Amazon Publishing today announced that the annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA) contest, which seeks great new voices in popular fiction, will open to submissions on Sunday, February 16, 2014. Authors can submit their work in the categories of general fiction, mystery/thriller, romance, science fiction/fantasy/horror, and young adult fiction. A finalist will be chosen from each category with one Grand Prize winner receiving an Amazon Publishing contract and a $50,000 advance. Four additional finalists will receive an Amazon Publishing contract and a $15,000 advance.

The 2014 ABNA contest is open to unpublished and self-published English-language novels submitted from February 16, 2014 through March 2, 2014 or until 10,000 eligible entries are received, whichever is earlier.

CreateSpace, an Amazon company, will again host the contest entry platform, which includes a community for authors to keep them up-to-date on the contest and help them prepare their entries.

Once the contest has closed to submissions, the selection process is as follows:

• First Round: Amazon-selected editors will choose the top 400 pitch entries from each category to advance to the next round.
• Second Round: Select Amazon Vine reviewers will read excerpts of the entries and narrow the pool to 100 titles in each category. Throughout the year customers are invited to become Amazon Vine reviewers based on the trust they've earned in the Amazon community for writing accurate and insightful reviews.
• Quarter-Finals: Reviewers from Publishers Weekly will read, review and rate the full manuscripts to find the top five semi-finalists for each category.
• Semi-Finals: Amazon Publishing editors will lead a panel of judges who will choose a finalist in each of the five categories, announced on July 8, 2014.
• Final Round: In the last stage of the contest, Amazon.com customers will select the Grand Prize winner from among the five finalists.

On January 1, 2014, Skyscape, Amazon Publishing's imprint for young adult and crossover fiction, published the 2013 ABNA Grand Prize winner Timebound by Rysa Walker.

"Entering Timebound in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award was absolutely the best decision I've ever made as a writer, and I'm pretty sure I'd say that even if it hadn't won the Grand Prize. The feedback I received during the various stages of the contest was truly beneficial to me as a new author, and the ABNA community on the discussion boards kept me entertained during the many tense moments as we awaited the results," said Walker.

"Reader response to the 2013 ABNA Grand Prize winner Timebound-an average star rating of 4.5 over 1,046 reviews-is a great indicator that ABNA continues to discover and amplify talented new authors. We are looking forward to seeing what terrific books come out of the ABNA class of 2014!" said Daphne Durham, Publisher of Adult Trade and Children's Group.

For the complete Official Rules for the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and more information about the contest, please visit www.amazon.com/abna.

About Amazon Publishing

Amazon Publishing is the publishing arm of Amazon.com. The Amazon Publishing family consists of imprints StoryFront, 47North, AmazonCrossing, AmazonEncore, Amazon Publishing, Grand Harbor, Jet City Comics, Kindle Worlds, Lake Union, Little A, Montlake Romance, Skyscape, Thomas & Mercer, and Two Lions. For more information visit www.apub.com. Amazon Publishing is a brand used by Amazon Content Services, LLC.

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. Kindle Paperwhite is the world's best-selling and most advanced e-reader. It features new display technology with higher contrast, the next generation built-in light, a faster processor, the latest touch technology, and exclusive new features designed from the ground up for readers. Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle, features improved fonts and faster page turns. The new Kindle Fire HDX features a stunning exclusive 7" or 8.9" HDX display, a quad-core 2.2 GHz processor, 2x more memory, and 11 hours of battery life, as well as exclusive new features of Fire OS 3.0 including X-Ray for Music, Second Screen, Prime Instant Video downloads, and the revolutionary new Mayday button. The all-new Kindle Fire HD includes an HD display, high-performance processor and dual speakers at a breakthrough price.

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, www.amazon.es, www.amazon.com.br, www.amazon.in, www.amazon.com.mx, and www.amazon.com.au. 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 and data 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.