Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Announcing Sun versus Snow 2017!

It’s that time again for THE BIG BATTLE between the heat and the cold! Yes, it’s time for the fourth year of Sun vs. Snow hosted by me and the fantastic, Amy Trueblood. We had several amazing success stories from last year. This time we have a fun new question and some important details about the entry process. Please read the following THOROUGHLY and then let us know if you have questions.




The submission window for Sun versus Snow will open January 23rd at 4:00 pm EST. 

Act fast. We will only be taking the first 200 entries. Please do not enter early or your entry will be deleted. You can resend at the proper time if this happens accidentally. Confirmation emails will be sent. If you don’t receive one, don’t resend. We don’t want duplicate entries. Please check with us on Twitter first to confirm your entry did or did not arrive, then you may resend. There is only ONE, yes that’s right, ONE entry per person allowed. Any attempt to cheat will result in entries being thrown out. This contest is only for finished and polished stories.


Important note: The story can’t have been in the agent round of any other contest in the last three months. This doesn't mean twitter pitch events with hashtags, but multiple agent blog contests. 


Also, Michelle and I have decided not to accept picture books for this contest. Though we love picture books, Michelle holds special contests just for them. We do accept all MG, YA, NA and Adult genres, excluding erotica. To enter you must be followers of our blogs. Click the “follow” button on my blog. You can find Amy's blog here. If following our blogs doesn't work, follow us on twitter or sign up for our newsletters instead. 



The Format:

Send submission to Sunversussnow (at) yahoo (dot) com. Only one submission per person is allowed. It doesn’t matter if you write under different names or are submitting different manuscripts. You are still one person and get one entry.

Here’s how it should be formatted (yes, include the bolded!) Please use Times New Roman (or equivalent), 12 pt font, and put spaces between paragraphs. No indents or tabs are needed. No worries if your gmail doesn’t have Times New Roman. No worries if the email messes up your format. Yes, we will still read it! :-)  

(Here’s a trick to keep your paragraph spacing: copy and paste your entry into your email and then put in the line spaces. They seem to get lost when you copy and paste. It may look right but sending scrambles the spacing.)

Subject Line: SVS: TITLE, Age Category + Genre
(example: SVS: GRUDGING, Adult Epic Fantasy)


In The Email:

Title: MY FANTASTIC BOOK (yes, caps!)
Genre: YA dystopian Ownvoices (Age category and genre. New this year! Add "Ownvoices" here if it applies)
Word Count: XX,XXX (round to the nearest thousand)
Twitter Handle: (Optional so we can contact you. Will not be public.)


Is Your Main Character hot or cold: 

Describe whether your character is hot or cold. Personalities differ. Is your character a person of volatile emotions or are they calm under pressure?

(Can be in your MC’s POV, but doesn’t have to be. 100 words or less.)


Query:

Query goes here! Include greeting and main paragraphs. Please leave out bio, closing, and word count + genre sentence. You may include comps if you’d like. There is no word count limit on the query but please aim for 250 – 300 words.

New this year! You may include if your story is OwnVoices up in the genre line. We really want diverse and talented writers and striping out the bios sometimes leaves us in the dark.

Remember a query has several paragraphs. Don't send us a pitch.  


First 250 words:

Here are the first 250 words of my manuscript, and I will not end in the middle of a sentence. But I will not go over 257 words. Be reasonable and don’t make us count. Don’t forget to space between paragraphs! No indents!




That’s it for now. Get those entries ready for January 23rd and leave any questions in the comments or ask on Twitter.

Mentors and agents will be posted in January. As of now, we have over ten agents signed up. There will be some crazy cool mentors who are itching to work with the selected entries. Keep checking my blog or sign up for my newsletter for advance warning of the FREE PASS to be on Team Snow!

So get those entries ready! We can’t wait to get started!

21 comments:

  1. Yay! Looking forward to the event!

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  2. I just want to be sure to get this right. Are we single or double spacing our entries?

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  3. Just to be clear "New this year! You may include if your story is OwnVoices up in the genre line. We really want diverse and talented writers and striping out the bios sometimes leaves us in the dark." - we just put OwnVoices up in the genre line, but we don't put bios in the query, right?

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  4. I'm so excited! I'm on what is likely to be the final round of revisions for my book and should be finished just in time for this contest.

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  5. Thanks for another exciting contest! Can you define "Ownvoices" please!

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    1. According to the person who coined the term, ownvoices are books with diverse characters written by authors from that same diverse group. Marginalized groups of characters done by authors in those groups.

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  6. I don't quite understand the details.
    1.Your topic is snowversus sun only. Right?
    2.What are comps? I am 80 and behind the times!!
    3.Never heard of ownvoices before so a Canadian ( as I am) who is Caucasian is my 'own voice"?iS it that specific?

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    1. Let me try to help. The theme of sun versus snow is just for fun. It doesn't have to match with the themes of your book. Comps are published books that are similar to your story--comparison books. Ownvoices is for marginalized groups, which would not include Caucasians.

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  7. Just wondering, I made it into #PitchSlam (September 2016). Can I still enter Sun vs. Snow? Thanks so much.

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  8. My story is dual POV, but the MC isn't in chapter one. Should I write my hot or cold paragraph about the character POV that's in my first 250 words? Or should I write it for the MC? Thank you.

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    1. Your main character. If your story is dual POV, it's wise to have a Dual POV query as well. That way we are introduced to the character in your first 250.

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    2. Thank you! I do have a dual POV query :)

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  9. I follow you on twitter, and I follow you on here but as anonymous. Is that okay for my entry?

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  10. This might be a dumb question - but in the query part, it says include greeting. Is that just "Dear Michelle"? Or would you like the comp titles/word count, etc. that can be mentioned in greetings?

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    1. The greeting is just the hello. Dear Amy and Michelle, Dear Agent for example

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  11. When do you reveal who the agents are?

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    Replies
    1. That happened on January 13th. They are listed on the blog.

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