For those of you not familiar, there’s a site called AuthorAdvance.com. It’s a great website, where you can find agents, markets and track your submissions to them. There’s also a social networking aspect to it, so you can blog, form and join groups, etc. I’ve used it for a little while now, and in it’s previous incarnation litmatch.com and think the site has a lot to offer. (No, I don’t work for them, nor are they paying me. When I like something, I feel compelled to share it.)

Anyway, right now they are doing a giveaway. It’s easy to enter, and will provide a good introduction to the site if you don’t already use it. Here’s an excerpt from their newsletter:

Entering is easy: just add a Market, Contest, Event, or Publisher to the site between now and November 30, 2010.  One winner will be chosen at random from all available entries, so if you enter ten listings, that’s ten chances to win!

The prize is $100 Amazon gift card, which I’m pretty sure anybody would be happy to have. So, even if you don’t enter the contest, check out the site and if you create a profile, be sure and friend me!

Get out the black tie and get ready to check out the red carpet, it’s the first annual Book Trailer Awards, aka, The Moby Awards. This show is presented by Melville House and will feature the following categories:

Best Big Budget Book Trailer; Best Low Budget Book Trailer; Best Cameo in a Book Trailer, Best Author Appearance in a Book Trailer and Least Likely to Actually Sell the Book.

The awards are tonight, so it’s too late to enter, but I’m sure they’ll give it a go next year too, so be sure and get your trailers ready!

Which brings up an interesting point, I’ve started to see more and more of these trailers, but I’m curious if authors are seeing success with them. Do you have a trailer for your book? Do you feel as though it’s brought attention to your book and helped generate sales? Basically, how has a book trailer enhanced your book or marketing?

You can read all about the Mobys by clicking here. Good luck to all the finalists!!

I know many of you are writers, but we’re also readers, right? And who is going to turn down the chance to win a free book?

The Girl From the Ghetto blog has a giveaway going on now. The deadline is May 16th, at midnight, and the book is “Manhood for Amateurs” by Michael Chabon.

I have the book on my “to-read” list on Goodreads.com (friend me if you haven’t already), and it sounds great. The blog post for the giveaway (click here) mentions various ways in which you can enter the contest. So get to it. The book sounds like a lot of fun.