Jury Presented for America's Next Author Contest

Oct. 18, 2012 - PRLog -- eBookMall.com has announced the official jury members of their "America's Next Author" short story writing contest, which aims to find new writing talent and is now in its bustling second week of competition.

"As a reader I look for compelling ideas, characters, and an economical style with no 'wasted' words. At heart, though, I'm a marketer and I am always thinking about how well a given story lines up with potential readers. Will it resonate? I look for a certain 'differentiating factor' or 'hook' that will speak to readers and get them to read that first sentence,” says new jury member Peter McCarthy.

The America's Next Author jury is made up of experienced professionals who will oversee the contest and will give critical feedback to authors via story reviews and weekly columns. Their main task, though, will be to go through the hundreds of submissions with a fine-tooth comb, trying to find hidden gems that were overlooked by the voting public, and award four wild cards.

The jury members are: Autumn Stephens, co-editor of The East Bay Monthly magazine, and former book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle; Chauncey Mabe, who served as book review editor at the Sun-Sentinel newspaper in Fort Lauderdale for 23 years and is now a freelance journalist and ghostwriter; Sandy Diaz, president of Smith Publicity, a book marketing company dedicated to helping authors create awareness about their books through media coverage; and Peter McCarthy, former VP of Penguin Group (USA) Online, and former VP of Marketing Innovation for Random House, Inc and currently the Founder and Principal Consultant of McCarthy Digital.

America's Next Author has introduced a new twist to the standard writing contest. Besides the appealing Grand Prize of $5000, participants have the opportunity to gain new fans and nominees will receive press coverage, boosting their writing careers. Stories are not only judged by the official jury, but  are also judged by the public, who can vote for their favorite stories online. Authors can influence their odds of winning by promoting their story with popular social media like Facebook and Twitter. The contest includes eight nomination rounds, in which the top-ranked author from each week is chosen to compete in the final round. Writers can join during any of these eight nomination weeks, and there is still plenty of time to join and start getting votes.

Contact

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Online

America's Next Author: http://www.ebookmall.com/americasnextauthor
Jury Members: http://www.ebookmall.com/americasnextauthor/jury
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aNextAuthor
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AmericasNextAuthor