Wednesday, July 15, 2015

New Agent Submission Time

SUBMISSION IS CLOSED!

The submission window opens today at noon Eastern time and stays open until 8:00 PM!

Please if you’ve made an agent round in another contest in the last six months, such as Query Kombat, refrain from entering and give others a chance. Though if you have a new, fresh manuscript, that’s absolutely fine to enter. Or if you were picked for Query Kombat but did not make the agent round, you are good also.

One entry per person only. 

This contest will take MG, YA, NA, and Adult of all genres. No non-fiction or picture books.

There will be email confirmation. If you don't receive one, check with me on twitter before resending.

Selected picks will be revealed as soon as we are ready, and a short revision period will be allowed with the Team Experts. The agent round will be July 27th-29th.

To follow the Team Experts on twitter go here. To see the agents taking part go here.


In order to enter the contest you
MUST follow formatting guidelines, and submit during the contest window. All entries that follow those guidelines will be considered.

Entries will be sent to: NewAgentContestJuly (at) gmail (dot) com

Formatting guidelines:


Font: Times New Roman, 12pt, single-spaced with spaces between each paragraph. No indents. (If you can’t get Times New Roman in your email, use whatever is closest. Formatting problems will not eliminate you from contention but missing pieces of an entry will.)


Subject line of the Email: Title: Age Category and Genre. Do not skip this step or your entry will be deleted. (ex. Pygmy Hazards: MG Humor) You need both an age category and a genre.

Inside the body of the email (with examples):

Name: Michelle Hauck
Email address: MichelleHauck@loveher.com

Title: Pygmy Hazards
Word count: 34,000
Genre: MG Humor

Query:

Tom, the classroom hamster, wants to escape from the h-e double hockey sticks otherwise known as school. His old military pet shop days didn't include playing house or being sentenced to a boot camp of never-ending show ‘n tell, math facts rap, and story time. But he’s learned a lot behind the bars of his cage. For example, if you want to keep breathing, never trust a pygmy who has earned the nickname Squeezer. Somehow he has to get away before the pygmies dress him as Strawberry Shortcake again or worse.

When a “subspatoot” fills in, Tom sees his chance to put Operation Escape the Pygmies into action. He makes a run for the border, hamster style. Bad news. The principal says Tom is a distraction to learning and better off flushed. The way out is turned into a battlefield of snapping mousetraps, sticky snares, and poisoned pellets.

Tom seems doomed until the friendless Squeezer lends an over-excited hand. She quickly goes from supervillain to super sidekick. Now, the greatest obstacle to his freedom may be Tom’s soft spot for this lonely pygmy.

(Only include the meat of your query. No bio. No Comps. No Dear, and No sincerely. Just the good stuff. Queries may be up to 350 words, but 250 is preferred.)


Please, please, please enter the spaces between paragraphs manually after you copy and paste. Those suckers tend to get lost and then we get a big blob of text.


First 250 words:

Put your first 250 words here. 


Don't include the chapter title, they eat up words. And please, don't stop in the middle of a sentence. 255 words are fine. 260 are too much!

Also, no indentations. Indentations are evil. Put line spaces between paragraphs please!

All queries submitted are FINAL. There will be no chance to revise unless the entry is chosen. Please read, reread, and rereread your submission before you hit send. You have time to polish your work. Get someone else to read for typos. Competition will be fierce.


In order to enter the contest, you MUST follow all five Team Experts and the contest host (@Michelle4Laughs) on twitter. (If you're not on twiter, then you should be. You're missing out.)


And you must follow the host’s blog. That means clicking on the "join this site" button in my sidebar. Also signing up for my newsletter counts.



Now about the twitter party! It will take place under the hashtag #NewAgent.

July 15: Shout out what age category and genre you are entering. After the window opens shouts out when you submit.

July 16: It's about the new. Tell us when you were new to writing. In other words, how long have you been at it? Is this your first manuscript or your 20th? What keeps you writing? Do you love story telling or surprising others with your twists?

July 17: Time to be honest. What embarrassing mistakes did you make as a new writer with your first manuscript or while querying. Did you have a book of 246K word count like me? Confession time.

July 18: What favorite new book are you looking forward to getting in your hands in 2015 or 2016?

July 19: What new way have you devised for your villain to torture your main character? Give us an example from a great scene in your ms.

July 20: What's helping you through the wait? Is it a food treat? Keeping busy? Writing?

July 21: What's your newest project? The story that isn't finished yet. Have you completely switched age categories or genres.

July 22: What's the first thing you'll do when you sign with a new agent? Indulge in daydreaming a little and imagine how you'll react. 




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