One week to go before Amazon announces the 500 semi-finalists in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards (ABNA). The slush pile of entries (up to 10,000) have been waded through, their pitches read and judged, and the field of 500 should be taking shape. Unfortunately all of this is happening behind closed doors, at ABNA secret headquarters.

Well, maybe it's not a secret headquarters, but the whole process is very hush-hush. For a contest that is set up to publicize Amazon.com, CreateSpace, and Penguin Books, there is scant publicity. I doubt many, outside the 10.000 writers who entered, even know the contest exists. There is no great hype being generated around the contest, no fanfare, not even sexy booth girls.

Amazon seems content to advertise to the contestants themselves, pushing their CreateSpace self-publishing service. There seems to be no real add campaign. I discovered the contest myself quite by accident. I have two books on Amazon's Kindle Reader. I was looking at sales and noticed the contest and the CreateSpace ads. At first I thought the prize was a self-publishing package through CreateSpace.

I am sure there will be more “buzz” once the excerpts are posted and people can comment on their favorites, but that will also be contained mostly within the walls of Amazon.com. The tension will build until members vote for the three finalists, but still all Amazon.com frequent shoppers. There seems to be no desire to push this contest beyond the Amazon.com community.

It will be pushed, by the contestants themselves, onto social networks from FaceBook to MySpace, Blogger to LiveJournal. Maybe that is the payoff for Amazon.com, a ton of free ads as contestants try to get everyone they can to visit Amazon and comment / vote. Some will no doubt shop while they are there, and of course all will have to sign up – building the member base.

Amazon's publishing tools and services, from POD to Kindle, are targeted at frustrated writers trying to get published – so this contest has already generated 10,000 potential customers, and garnered 500 potential salesmen. The writers themselves will drag in countless readers, and potential buyers. In its way it is a brilliant marketing ploy.

ABNA is not American Idol, selling Ford cars and Coke-Cola. It is Amazon selling Amazon – drawing targeted traffic to their web site. Book Surge, Kindle, CreateSpace, Amazon Books, all benefit from ABNA. The writers themselves benefit from the potential readers, agents, and publishers, who will be drawn to the contest – not to mention networking with their fellow writers.

It's a win-win situation. As writers we might want more media attention – bright lights, red carpets – but as a literary event this is actually very well designed. Our bread and butter are agents, publishers, and most of all readers – not the guy who wants a six-pack and a Ford truck.