Breaking through - or that's the hope.

In my so called dormancy (from writing new work, not life... see post below), I decided to enter the Amazon Breakthough Novel Contest. Being that Amazon seems to be taking over the publishing world anyway - I figured, why not?

Now, I know indy publishers and lovers off all things small will be gritting their teeth over that declaration, but I find myself somewhat torn. Yes, Amazon is kicking ass and taking names - or not taking names, and generally ignoring a lot of names, or... well, you get it.

But I find that traditional publishers are moving with glacier speed in changing the way they do business. Digression - that used to be a metaphor that made sense.

Just to say, Amazon is doing things different - as someone who has been beat up by the traditional publishers, again I say, why not? Now, this is not me speaking poorly of my former agent, who I thought was quite excellent (only that he couldn't sell my book). Moreover, it is yelling that self-published author cry, "Let the people decide what they want to read!"

Truthfully, the people are not fully deciding here, as Amazon still holds most of the reins - and by the looks of it will soon hold almost all of them. My novel might not even make it past the first round, but at least it has a shot at being looked at with fresh eyes. Traditional publishers couldn't slot the novel into a easily defined category - which is one of the things I have found that readers actually like. Is it a mystery? Yes. Kinda paranormal? Yup. And literary, too? Indeed. So the hope is, that rather than turn readers off, this melange of style might just intrigue.

Did I just say "melange of style"???

Yes. Yes. I did.