I don't think I've ever before given you a straight press release on this blog, but this contest sounds like so much fun that I thought I'd pass the word along. If you enter, please share a link to your video here!

April 12, 2011
For Immediate Release:
Doubleday Books Launches Robopocalypse Video Contest

The robots are coming! And they won’t stop until each and every one of us are crushed under their steely treads. We at Doubleday plan to welcome our shiny metal overlords, and to do it right, we’ll need a video trailer as electrifying as they are. We need your help—and we’re willing to pay handsomely for it. Create and submit a video inspired by Daniel H. Wilson’s new novel ROBOPOCALYPSE by May 13 and you could win one of three cash* prizes:

Grand Prize: $750
First Prize: $500
Second Prize: $250

*Enjoy it now! Money won’t be worth much when they come...

Your video must be either 30 seconds or 60 seconds in duration and in one of these accepted formats: “MOV,” “MP4,” “WMV,” “FLV,” or “AVI”. Your video must feature the book shot of ROBOPOCALYPSE somewhere within.

You can find everything that you need, including an excerpt of the book, images, directions on how to upload your video, complete rules and other resources at our Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Robopocalypse/159188360773812

ABOUT ROBOPOCALYPSE:

In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication. In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans – a single mother disconcerted by her daughter’s menacing “smart” toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a ‘pacification unit’ go haywire – but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.

When the Robot War ignites -- at a moment known later as Zero Hour -- humankind will be both decimated and, possibly, for the first time in history, united. Robopocalypse is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us…and an entertaining and engaging thriller unlike anything else written in years.

DANIEL H. WILSON earned a Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University. He is the author of such nonfiction works as How to Survive a Robot Uprising. Wilson lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and daughter.