Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the Discover Great New Writers™ program is proud to have introduced the following writers to an eager reading public (just a small number of the nearly 2,000 writers we’ve discovered): T. C. Boyle, Patricia Cornwell, Junot Diaz, Jasper Fforde, Elizabeth Gilbert, Robert Goolrick, Barbara Kingsolver, Janice Y. K. Lee, Jonah Lehrer, Colum McCann, Cormac McCarthy, Audrey Niffenegger, Michael Pollan, Alice Sebold, Rebecca Skloot, Kathryn Stockett, and David Wroblewski.

A small group of Barnes & Noble bookseller volunteers convenes year-round to review submissions to the program, selecting works for our promotion, currently featured at 700+ Barnes & Noble, Bookstop, and Bookstar stores, 30 prominent Barnes & Noble College Bookstores, and on www.bn.com.  

Annually, we recognize two of our exceptional writers with the Discover Great New Writers Award (one each for Fiction and Non-Fiction).  In addition to a $10,000 prize, we promote the winning titles extensively in our stores and online. 

The 2009 Discover Award winners were announced on March 3.  This year’s Discover Award winners included Victor Lodato’s debut novel of a precocious young girl grieving the loss of her sister, titled Mathilda Savitch, and Dave Cullen’s spellbinding non-fiction book, Columbine, a work of investigative journalism that was 10 years in the making, and yields surprising truths about that fateful day in Littleton, Colorado, the killers, their plan, and their victims.  For more information, view the press release. 

Previous recipients of the Discover Award include Monica Ali, Eric Blehm, Tracy Chevalier, Joshua Ferris, Ben Fountain, Chang-rae Lee, Elizabeth McCracken, David Sheff, and Hampton Sides, among others.

Selection Process

Publishers recommend writers making a strong literary debut. Authors cannot submit their own work to the program; self-published writers and titles published via print-on-demand are also ineligible for submission.

An in-house volunteer reading committee, comprised of more than a dozen Barnes & Noble booksellers from the stores and the Home Office, reads and discusses the proposed titles, choosing a selection of new books per season for special promotion.

Once selected, participation in Discover Great New Writers™ includes:

• Face-out display in the Discover bay in each of our bookstores (length of display is usually 12 weeks) 
• An individual shelf-talker with a teaser line placed under each face-out 
• A 20% discount on Discover titles for the entire promotional season 
• An individual review for each title in the seasonal Discover brochure, available free to customers on the Discover bay and in strategic store locations 
• Promotion on Barnes & Noble.com for the Discover Award finalists and Discover Seasonal selections  
• Special consideration for Discover-selected writers for in-store events and book group discussions

Eligibility

• Debuting authors and writers with fewer than three previously published books who have yet to receive a major literary award or whose net sales have yet to reach 10,000 copies. Exceptions are sometimes made for authors who have published more titles, but have yet to break out to a larger audience. Submissions must be original publications, penned by one author. 
• Literary fiction, short story collections and literary non-fiction, such as travel essays, memoirs, or other non-fiction with a strong narrative, qualifies. Books should be intended for an adult or a young adult audience. 
• Deceased authors and those previously featured in the Discover program are ineligible. Books submitted for a prior season and rejected will not be reconsidered.
• Submissions must be made prior to book publication date.

Contact

For further information on submissions, contact:

Jill Lamar
Director, Discover Great New Writers
Barnes & Noble, Inc.
122 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10011

E-mail: jlamar@bn.com 
Phone: (212) 633-3511