Speculation, Fact and Fiction

According to the New York Times

Joining the growing list of publishers that use public votes to decide what to publish, Penguin Group is teaming with Amazon.com and Hewlett Packard for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

Only it's not quite that straight forward as you'll find if you read the rest of the article. There's a progressive short-listing and judging process that isn't all that different to any tradtional literay contest - it's just that using current technology and resources should make the process faster and spread the burden more widely.

Good luck to them, that's the publishers and the aspiring writers. Literary contests have always been a legitimate way into print. Which isn't any guarantee of fame, fortune or a lasting career as a writer, of course. Sorry, that does sound snide, doesn't it? I don't mean to. I hope we do see something really good come up through this route.