Friday, April 26, 2013

Query Kombat Agents and A Free Pass Opportunity

I know you are all salivating to hear what agents are participating in Query Kombat, but first up is the itinerary. This is an usually long contest and it moves like lightening once it starts. It is hard to keep track of all the activities without a calendar. So here you go, ink this in:


May 13th-17th: Call for submissions
Top 64 revealed: May 24th

Round 1: May 28th-June 3rd, Voting window closes at 8PM
32 Winners announced: June 4

Round 2: June 5th-9th, Voting window closes at 8PM
Sweet 16 Winners announced: June 10th

Email mentors assigned entries: June 10th
Revamped query emailed back: June 12th (by 10PM)

Round 3: June 14th-18th, Voting window closes at 8PM
Elite 8 Winners announced: June 19th

Round 4: June 20th-23rd, Voting window closes at 8PM
Final 4 Winners announced: June 24th
Agents browse and make requests: June 24th-June 25th

Round 5: June 26th-27th
2 Big Winners announced: June 28th

Final Round: June 29th
Grand Champion announced: June 29th

Wrap up: July 1st

One week after the close of the tournament, we will invite agents back to make requests on the top eight...okay, okay fine...the top sixteen queries. Now, since we're talking about agents, why don't we introduce them. I think you'll be happy with the variety of genres they represent. (And no, we didn't invite only agents that start with J. Funny how things turn out.)  

The 10 Query Kombat Agents:

Jenny Bent of The Bent Agency
Jennifer Goloboy of Red Sofa Literary
Jessica Sinsheimer of Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency
Jennifer Mishler of Literary Counsel
Jordy Albert of The Booker Albert Literary Agency
Rebecca Scherer of Jane Rotrosen Agency
Juliet Mushens of The Agency Group
Jamie Bodnar Drowley of Inkling Literary Agency
Claire Anderson-Wheeler of Anderson Literary Management
Julia Bannon of L. Perkins


Want to win a FREE PASS into Query Kombat?

The Free Pass Contest is closed!

Okay! Here's whatcha gotta do:

1. Follow my blog.  
2. Comment your Query Kombat entry nickname below. (One nickname only. No bombarding the comments with numerous versions. But you may explain why you choose it.) I'll pick my favorite and announce my winner next Friday, May 3rd, when we show off the mentors and judges.



Some nickname examples from my own queries (They're up above in the tab sections.) might be: The Fighting Hamsters, Extra-Crispy Rabbit Gal, Coughing Princess with Attitude, Have Wizard Will Travel. Yeah, okay, those were really off the top of my head. 

Anyway, that's all ya gotta do. 

Now, you'll have three chances to win if you subscribe and comment on each blog (SCWrite, Writer's Outworld). You even have a fourth chance to win if you use the QueryKombat hashtag to shout about your nickname. 'Cause if you think about it, 60 is nicely divisible by three...61 is not.

Before I go, I want to thank SC for inviting me to help host this contest. And I want to really give Mike all the credit for coming up with the idea and doing most of the busy work. He got all these great agents! And a super big thanks to the agents for participating!

So good luck! And show me those cute, humorous, scary, fun nicknames!

40 comments:

  1. If you comment on each blog, do you have to have different nicknames for each one?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can use the same. We are choosing according to our own tastes so what I don't pick may interest SC or Mike.

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  2. Bahaha! Already passed #1 - follower for long time. So...that leaves a nickname, right?

    Pajama Lovin' Time Braider ... I'll go with that for now LOL

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  3. What a great contest! Thanks for helping to put this together this fantastic opportunity, Michelle. I, for one, am very excited to see how this plays out.

    My novel's nickname is Killer Kiss. The book starts with my seventeen-year-old protagonist accidentally killing his girlfriend with a kiss, so you can understand why I thought it fitting. :)

    Thanks again for this wonderful opportunity!

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  4. Hey Michelle! What an awesome list of agents... so exciting :) Thanks to you and your co-hosts for working so hard on putting this together.

    The nickname for my novel is "Spirit Slayer." It's about a girl named Dare who has to figure out how to lay a murderous ghost to rest.

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  5. What a great contest. Thanks for hosting

    I'm going to nickname my novel Rocketeer because he is a superhero and my book is about a kid that gets abducted by aliens and is given a superpower.

    Also it fits with my day job as an Aerospace Engineer (Rocket Scientist) ;)

    I'm excited to get involved with the contest :)

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  6. I'm so excited about this contest!

    I'm going to think about a kickass nickname and come back when its ready :)

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  7. Nickname: Dr. Thermo

    My novel stars a scientist with the power to control thermodynamics. Also, it sounds like a James Bond Villain, and that fits me...

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  8. This contest is so cool! I appreciate all the hard work you guys are putting into this.

    My nickname is going to be Lightning Slinger because the main character shoots lightning based spells out of his revolvers.

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  9. My YA novel's nickname is Genie Smackdown.

    Because when genies are dying...someone's gotta lay the smackdown.

    Thanks for this! You guys are awesome :)

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  10. Thank you so much for doing this. It sounds like a lot of fun!

    My adult Urban Fantasy novel's nickname is Prophylactic Decapitations. More than a few decapitations take place in the manuscript - some prophylactic, some not.

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  11. The Princess and the Pee-stick

    I think you can guess what it is about. (No, not Kate Middleton...) ;-)

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  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. My nickname is Odyssey2-Homer meets Pippi

      It's an MG Fantasy that tells the story of Michael Homer, who sets off on an epic adventure in a stolen tall ship with Anatolia Strongarm (inspired by Pippi Longstocking) to seek treasure, fight monsters and save his family from destitution.

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  13. My entry's nickname would be HeadscarfJazz.

    My MC's name is Yasmeen, which is the Arabic version of Jasmine. The story is about the obstacles and opportunities come with wearing a headscarf.

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  14. My entry's nickname would be Drain-Free Fairy, the first character my MC encounters.

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  15. My nickname is Beelzebub Basher. The name should be obvious. Okay, here's a little background. First, I sold my soul to the Devil for a book deal (don't judge, when you are just one out of a-billagillion wanna be authors, one needs to resort to drastic measures) Second, the Devil requests that I write his biography (he wants me to show the World how caring and benevolent he really is. He seems to have had a lot of bad press since that apple and garden fiasco) Third, he plans to use some kind of devilish trickery to hypnotize the World's population t believe whatever I write in His new biography. Fourth, I guess you will just have to read the book to find the reason for the nickname.

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  16. My entry will be:

    MORTAL PROM KORT SHENANIGANS

    Wanted a name that would pay homage to the Mortal Kombat style contest, drop my title, and I always appreciate a chance to use the word shenanigans.

    @amilouiseallen

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  17. I originally was going to go with “A Tale of Two Narrators” but in the interest of sticking to the 15 character guidelines, my nickname is going to be “Phantasmagoria.”

    My novel deals with the blurry areas where nightmares start to bleed into reality. I also like to say it’s Alice in Wonderland with guns, so this seemed appropriate.

    May is so far away…


    @StephenTBW

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  18. I've got it!

    Mine is Krusher.

    My novel is about a very curious usher in purgatory (Kurious Usher) and I'm prone to mangling my words by saying it too fast.

    So Krusher! :)

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  19. My nickname will be: BMW

    It stands for Bourne for More Work. Bourne because my MC has a lost memory. More Work because, well... my dog's nickname is Work, and my little brother's nickname is Extra Work, and my MS's nickname is More Work. I know it sounds bad, but I mean work in a good sense because I love all three of them! Oh, and BMW because the novel is fast-paced.

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  20. Walkabout Hampster.

    Why? Because I'm Australian, and walkabout is something Aborigines used as a kind of initiation rite. I've gone "walkabout" and now live overseas. Hamster comes from my maiden name, Hamstead, so people in school called me either hamster or hamhead. Hamster is a little less demeaning :-P

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  21. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Echo E. Firebird

    E.L. Konigsburg's novel From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was not simply one of the reason why I began writing, but it's also the reason why the main character of my novel Firebird, Echo, lives in the New York Public Library after running away from home. Inspired by the book she read as a child, Echo stops by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Finding the Met's security a little too thorough, she opts instead to make the NYPL her home. America's brave librarians have fought valiantly to keep security cameras out of libraries to protect their readers' rights so all Echo has to do is avoid the night guard. The nickname is an homage to the book that inspired both me and my character to do the things we do.

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  22. Nickname - COPERNICUS NERDICUS

    I felt I'd be insulting my novel's MC (and the title of my novel!) if I didn't use his horrible nickname as the nickname for the contest. Thus, I reluctantly suffer in his same torment and choose the nickname, Copernicus Nerdicus.

    Excited for the contest - it's going to be very excited. And I keep hearing the mortal kombat movie song in my head, which is always a good thing lol.

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    Replies
    1. I love how I put excited twice.....*bangs Iphone on desk* stop auto correcting me! lol GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!

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  23. So excited for this contest! Thanks for holding it!

    My novels a YA Fantasy about a girl named Faiyth who can't seem to control the powerful magic she has. There's a darkness inside her, one that she doesn't know the origins of. This darkness makes her unintentionally hurt those around her with magic.

    So I'm going to nickname mine Gotta Have Faiyth.. (George Michael song playing in my head)

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  24. These are so awesome! I'm going to have a very hard time deciding. Everyone is so creative.

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  25. Control Freak and the Demon Monkey. So there's a circus where everyone is controlled by the man behind the scenes who first kidnaps the performers when they utter a certain phrase. He has a monkey that really likes to bite one of the MC's...

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  26. My Query Kombat nickname will be ForbedenLove. I know this sounds incredibly cheesy but my YA sci-fi thriller romance is called The New Eden Chronicles and focuses on a forbidden love between the two narrators.

    Looking forward to this contest--sounds crazy and fun! Thanks!

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  27. I've been caught in an unimaginative mood and everything I come up with doesn't sound very awesome, lol. I think I'll go with Kombat Kikewile because I like the spirit of the Query Kombat and because the secret my MC discovers is known by a native term: Massache Kikewile (loosely translated as "wicked evil").

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  28. My Query Kombat name will be BEASTLY CHICK. My story's MC is under the spell of a hot witch/horrid beast who curses him with an envy-worthy skill his buddy calls the Chick Magnet. I'll leave it at that.

    Thanks for hosting this contest! Very excited!

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  29. My nickname for this contest will be "Paladin Peter".

    The main character in my book "The Paladin's Code" is a young paladin who contains a lot of my own personality, and even more of who I would want to be if I had been born into his world.

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  30. "The Hookers" will be my Query Kombat nickname. Curious yet? 8-)

    The two MCs in my NA contemp are not actual hookers (I know, you're so disappointed--maybe for the next novel, huh?), but they are (for most of the story) two college students who can't keep their hooks out of each other. The original title was HOOKED ON YOU.

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  31. My Query Kombat nickname will be... SWAY ME BUBLE because it's a Persuasion redux and the Captain Wentworth character is a Michael Buble-esque singer.

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  32. Such a great opportunity! May 1st I'm posting an interview on my blog with my agent, MacKenzie Fraser-Bub, with Trident Media, which might be of interest to the querying crowd.

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  33. My nickname is...Born-again Virgin!

    In my new adult MS, my poor, 20-year-old MC, after a two-year dry spell, is dubbed as such by her roommate. So on a year abroad in Scotland, she's determined to gain re-admittance to "the club"!

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