Writer's Report 2.0

By CANDICE CHOI
AP BUSINESS WRITER

Think you have the next big novel? So do the hundreds of writers vying in a contest at Amazon.com.

The online retailer and some of its most prolific reviewers have picked 836 semifinalists from 5,000 entries to compete for a coveted book deal with Penguin Group, including a $25,000 advance.

Now, Amazon hopes readers will download excerpts of the semifinalist entries and help rate and review them. Penguin editors will consider the comments when picking 10 finalists by March 3. A winner will be announced April 7.

In a secondary raffle, anyone who reviews at least 25 semifinalist excerpts is entered in a contest for an Amazon Kindle, a $2,000 Amazon gift certificate and prizes from Hewlett-Packard Corp.

The contests come just months after Amazon.com launched its on-demand book publishing unit, CreateSpace.

Depending on the success of the winning book, Amazon.com will decide whether to make the contest annual, said Aaron Martin, director of print on demand for Amazon.com.

Amazon.com would not disclose the financial terms of the contest partnership with Penguin, a unit of London-based media giant Pearson PLC. Penguin also does not disclose royalty arrangements.

Amazon.com said company officials and “top reviewers” – customers selected by the company who write a lot of reviews – winnowed down the initial submissions together.

To get started as a reviewer go to this Amazon Link