On March 16, 2009 (Monday) Amazon.com will post the excerpts presented by the 500 writers who made the quarter-final round. There were approximately 10,000 entries in ABNA this year, so it is a huge achievement to make this cut. It was decided based on the writers' pitches of their novels and the strength of their excerpt.

Between March 16 and April 14 Excerpts and associated reviews will be posted at http://www.amazon.com/abna where Amazon customers can download the excerpts and write their own reviews. (Information on submitting reviews on Amazon.com can be found at http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/guidelines.html

On April 15, 2009 Penguin will select 100 semi-finalists based on those reviews, among other things. Between now and April we all need your help. Get in there and read those excerpts, rate them, comment, make your voice heard, and support your favorites. Obviously I hope you read mine and give me a excellent review, but read as many as you can.

There will be 500 excerpts from the best of the 10,000 writers who entered. This will be some great writing. You may be reading the first chapter(s) of the next Best Selling Novel. This has been compared to the American Idol of writing because you, dear reader, not only get to review and critique the top writers – on May 15, 2009 you will get to vote on the winner. More on that later.

For now, get ready for some great reading over the next few weeks. Visit Amazon.com, sign up as a customer or log in if you are already a customer, review the guidelines, and get ready to read some great fiction. I'll post a link to my excerpt as soon as I have it. You can also friend me on Amazon.com through your customer profile.

Http://www.amazon.com/abna