Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Picture Book Party in March 2017

We are doing it again! (And yes I recycled this post. This time it's because I have a terrible cold and feel like poo. Please send chicken soup.) Spunky. Adorable. Heartwarming.




Those are some of the words that describe picture/chapter books. I'm happy to join with Sharon Chriscoe to do a little something for a group that is left out of most contests. This mini-contest is for you!

Tell your friends who write PB and please post on twitter and in your writer groups. We need help spreading the word. Also the twitter party will be for everyone, so I hope to see you there under the hashtag #PBParty. There will be daily topics that apply to all writers during the submission week.

The agent round will be Wednesday, April 5th - 7th. The submission day is Sunday, March 26th at noon Eastern time. Then Sharon and I will go through the entries and pick our favorites. I'm not sure how many entries will be chosen, but the number will be around 20. Sharon is my expert on this as I know less about picture books.

The Rules:

Please be a follower of this blog. You can click the "Join this Site" button in the left sidebar. Or if that is stubborn and won't work, you can subscribe to my newsletter or follow @Michelle4Laughs on twitter. I imagine I will be tweeting hints as well as partying!

You may send two entries for different manuscripts. That's two and only two, whether you have multiple pen names or multiple email addresses. Please be honest and not send more. Only one entry will be chosen per person. If you send two, still only one will be picked. Any attempt to cheat will result in entries thrown out (and sadly it has happened in the past.) 

On March 26 at noon Eastern the submission window opens. Do not send early or your entry will be deleted. You may resend at the correct time if this happens. I'm recycling an email address as I already have too many. Please send your entry to SunversusSnow at yahoo dot com

You should receive a confirmation email. If you do not, please contact me on twitter before resending.We want to get a good count of entries and duplicates make that harder. The window will stay open until we get 250 entries. However long that takes. It could be minutes or it could be days, but I'm betting there will be plenty of time this round.

This contest is only for finished and polished manuscripts. It has to be ready to go out to agents.

The Format:

Subject Line of your Email: PBParty: Title

Example:  PBParty: Hot Tub Santa

Inside the email please bold where bolded in my example. Single space with spaces between paragraphs. Use Times New Roman or equivalent font and the size should be 12. 

(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.)

Name: Sharon Chriscoe
Twitter Handle: @extracleansanta (optional)
Title: HOT TUB SANTA
Genre: (Here please tell us what type of picture book this is) Example: Board Book, Bedtime Rhyme, Nonfiction, Biography, etc. or List Chapter Book If this is OWNVOICES, please say so here!
Word Count: xxx (round to nearest ten, hundred for chapter books)

Query:

Your entire query letter here. Include your comps, bio, greeting, closing. Please be sure to note diversity and ownvoices in the query as well. (You may use whatever you want for a greeting. Dear Agent. Dear Michelle and Sharon.) 

Here is your chance to make your entry shine and make the agent fall in love with your words. 

First 50 Words:

Include your first 50 words for a picture book, 100 words for chapter books. Do not stop in the middle of a sentence. You may go over by one or two words to finish a sentence but not more than five. Single space and put spaces in between paragraphs. You may center or tab if appropriate.

Edit: For short picture books, less than 50 words may be submitted. Any count under 50 is allowed.

Also I will delete parts of entries after the contest ends, if requested. For those writers uncomfortable with their work being out there for all to see.  


Bonus: You may attach one illustration to your email to show an example of your artwork. If you don't have artwork, don't worry. 




I would like to thank Mel Stephenson for creating our logo artwork! Be sure to follow her at@paintandwords

That should cover about everything, but you may leave questions in the comments or on twitter. Don't forget the #PBParty hashtag.

We can't wait to see all the cuteness on March 26th! 

30 comments:

  1. Thanks for this info! I found the link to this in the SCBWI discussion boards. And, funnily enough, I'm attending a writer's workshop on March, where the keynote speaker will be your agent! I'm happy I found this- seems to be perfectly fated timing! Nice to "meet" you, and count me in!

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  2. Thank you for including chapter books, not many comps do. Can't wait!

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  3. Thank you for this great opportunity! Couldn't find the button to join the site in the left hand column, but subscribed to the newsletter!

    Quick question: Do Illustrator's Notes count in the word count? I'm thinking yes, but hoping no, since one of my MS begins with one that takes up about half of my 50 words :)

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  4. I was about to ask the same question!

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  5. No "Join This SIte" button is in evidence for me, and I've tried subscribing to your newsletter three times and keep stalling out at the point where I'm supposed to have received an email and click on a link to complete the subscription process. (I've tried two different email addresses and checked the junk folders). I do follow you on Twitter, so I hope that's enough! I'm excited about the PBParty and appreciate the opportunity.

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    1. Leah Kessler, I've got the same problem. I've followed Michelle on twitter too. It's a mystery. :)

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    2. Glad to see I'm not the only one having a hard time subscribing. I also follow Michelle on Twitter. Thank you for providing this exciting opportunity.

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    3. I am having the same problem too. I cannot "join this site" and I am not getting the follow-up email for the newsletter to finish subscribing to the newsletter. I just followed Michelle on Twitter.

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    4. In my MS a character recites 9 alphabet letters. Can this count as 1 word versus the 9 my doc info says?

      Same problem as others, but follow on Twitter.

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    5. You can count the letters as one word.

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  6. Illustrator's notes count toward the 50 words. Keeping that consistent with past contests.

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  7. If you already have illustrations (and thus in current drafts the illustrator's notes have been removed), should they be added back in?

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    1. That's up to you and whether they are needed to tell the story.

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  8. Thanks so much for doing this Michelle! I look forward to participating.

    Rita C. Orrell

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  9. I appreciate all your hard work, Michelle.

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  10. The PB Party sounds fun! Thanks for hosting. Quick question: I tried to sign up to subscribe to your blog, but I never received a confirmation email. Is the subscribe button working? Or is there a certain amount of time that has to pass before the email is sent? (I subscribed an hour or two ago.) Thanks!
    -Melanie

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    1. It has a habit of not working for some people. That's okay, as long as you tried.

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  11. What is OWNVOICES? Guess I should know . . ..

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    1. Ownvoices describes a book featuring a marginalized main character written by an author of the same marginalized group.

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  12. I assume two books in a series can be two entries, right?

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  13. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  14. Hi Michelle, I don't see a join this site button, but I do follow you on twitter, and I signed up for your newsletter. Looking forward to this event again--

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  15. Hi Michelle, I don't see a join either, so I signed up to follow the blog.

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  16. Hi Michelle. This sounds great but it is all new to me (first book). Quick question. Do we attach the entire manuscript as part of our submission? It looks like we only include the first 50 words (for a picture book) and the query. Thanks much!

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    1. Never mind. I found the answer. Thanks.

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    2. Everything goes in the body of the email unless you have an illustration. And send only the first 50/(100 for chapter books) words.

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