The Road to Getting My First Novel Published

Five years ago, I quit teaching high school English at LAUSD, my father died and I wrote the first draft to my first novel Prodigal Son. At the beginning of this year, I finished my fifth draft and submitted it to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award within one hour of the deadline. Based on a 300-word pitch of the novel, 10,000 total entries were boiled down to 1,000 entries in general fiction and 1,000 entries in young adult fiction (Prodigal Son being one of them) at the end of February. As of the end of March, 500 total are now Quarterfinalists based on the first few chapters. Prodigal Son being one of them. 100 Semi-finalists will be announced at the end of this month.