On Not Making the ABNA Cut…

If you didn’t know, I am among the many who did not get selected as a semi-finalist for the Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award. Predictably, I was a little bummed. I sat at my computer on the evening of the 15th lurking in the forums and even posted a couple times. By my guestimate, the time they would contact semi-finalists came and passed.

So I continued to lurk in the forums. Then it happened. One person posted saying that they got in. Moments later, someone else posted about their glee. I flipped back and forth between my e-mail and the forums as others posted. Surely mine would come soon.

But it didn’t. Then Amazon posted the list of semi-finalists. That’s when I realized the obvious: that for some reason, I didn’t get my e-mail. Amazon poorly chose not to list the titles in alphabetical order, so I had to search for my title through dozens of pages.

Still nothing. My title wasn’t on the list and I received no e-mail. Some folks started posting in the forums that they got their John Deere letter stating that they weren’t selected. At first, I felt relieved that I hadn’t gotten one of those.

But then, I admitted the truth. I knew I hadn’t gotten in. But I couldn’t understand why they chose to not send me a letter. Many others in the forums were expressing the same frustration. I went to bed after venting a bit.

The next day, I still had no communication. I was starting to bitter at Amazon’s lack of courtesy and even was considered withholding future business from them . . . not because they didn’t select me, but because they thought so little of my effort that they chose to not even communicate a non-personal form e-mail.

Then, finally it came. A good fifteen hours of purgatory. But alas, I have closure. Best of luck and congrats to all of you who made the cut. And for those of you who didn’t, hold your head high and continue to cultivate your craft. Always Dream, Always Live!

p.s. I have actually learned much from this endeavor. I’ll post more on that tomorrow.

[tags]novels, writing, ABNA, Amazon, Amazon.com, Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, contests[/tags]