Announcing Fall Fiction Fest

Who is ready for something new this fall? This year because of the many changes in the contest world, we have had to rethink Nightmare On Query Street and Sun versus Snow. As we didn't want to let these amazing contests (who have many years of success) go, Michelle Hauck, Marty Mayberry, and Amy Trueblood have come with a brand new fall contest called, FALL FICTION FEST!

Like past contests, this will be a query plus first 250 words event. We will open a contest window for twenty-four hours and accept entries that meet the contest requirements and guidelines. Once all entries have been received, Michelle, Marty, and Amy will review the entries and make ten selections each. After these thirty selections are announced, the writers will be paired with seasoned mentors who will help them polish their materials for the agent round. Currently there are ten agents on board with hopefully more committing soon!

The agent round will be open for a full three days and will allow the participating agents to travel between our three blogs and make requests based on what they represent. To keep a bit of fun (and tradition) in the contest, we will continue having the agents request in a fall-flavored way. Like "Add an extra marshmallow to my hot cocoa and send me the full!" 

As always once the agent request period is over, we will direct the participants on how to send in their requested materials.

Now for the guidelines and rules…

1) Entries can be Adult, New Adult, Young Adult, or Middle Grade. All genres (excluding erotica)
2) Entries must be for a completed and polished manuscript (please check word count guidelines to make sure your entry qualifies!)

Some great online posts to check out:

Agent Jennifer Laughran's Word Count Dracula

Writer's Digest Guide to Word Count

3) The entry cannot have been part of an agent round in a contest for the last three months. This does not include twitter pitch events. 

Important dates:

October 31: Submission window opens (will be open for 24 hours)
November 19: Selected 30 entries announced
November 20- 25: Mentors work with entries
November 26-28: Agent round

As we get closer to the submission window on October 31, we will post full details on submission guidelines and entry rules. Follow along at #FallFest. 

The Beards of Grudging

Beards are very important world building and cultural tool in Grudging. You've heard of the beard making the man? In Grudging, that is literally true.

A boy isn't considered a man until he "earns" his beard.

In the city of Colina Hermosa, earning a beard is different for every profession and even changes over time. For main character Ramiro in the military during wartime, that means living through a single, hand-to-hand combat experience. Until he's done that, he can't speak up in council or court a wife. And his military brothers will continue to tease him and call him bisoño and peach-face.

I had a fun time going through pictures online and looking for beards that fit my characters. Also looking for pictures of how I imagined my female characters--and no, they don't have beards. I created a pinterest board about it. 

I really want to find more awesome beard pictures to add to my collection. And I'd like to make a contest out of it!

Such as this great Ricky Martin beard.

You can't post pictures in blog comments, so it will have to be on twitter. Hmm. How to make this easy?

Tweet me your favorite beard picture (@Michelle4Laughs). Or if you read Grudging, a picture that reminds you of a character. (Keep in mind that Grudging is set in a Spanish-inspired land.)  Then so I can keep track, paste the link to that tweet in the comments of this post.

I'll pick three comments to win. One winner will be my favorite picture. Two winners will be random picks by number generator.

Prizes.

Hmm.

I'll let the winner pick a prize from these three options:

-a query critique (one round)
-an ebook of Grudging
-bookmarks of Grudging and a razor

These can be funny or sexy pictures. Please nothing naughty or that you couldn't show your grandmother. I will let this run through Monday, January 25th. You can check out my pinterest board link above for ideas.

So let's give this a try and see what happens! Did anyone else notice there is a nice beard picture in the post below this?

Notes from the Agent Rounds of Pitchwars and NoQS

Now that Pitchwars and Nightmare on Query Street are over, I have a few thoughts about changing trends and maybe just a touch of advice.

Once again the adult entries got much less attention than the Young Adult and Middle Grade ones. Some speculate that it's because they are last on the list of entries. Perhaps agents limit themselves to a certain number of requests and have reached their max before hitting the adult entries. They don't bother scrolling to the end of the blog to read the adult entries. Others consider whether the agents doing contests are much more interested in the children market than in adult. Many of the agents who are active in contests are younger themselves. And perhaps the demand of the young adult market is just more open for debut writers.

I figure it's probably a combination of many of these factors. Whatever the reason, it's impossible not to notice that adult entries got fewer requests in Pitchwars. There was no one with twenty requests like in the YA section.  I did notice a strong uptick in the quality of the adult entries from last year in Nightmare on Query Street. I had a harder time locating great adult entries with unique plots last year and earlier this year. But that seems to have changed. 

I do know that I plan a little experiment for Sun versus Snow in February. This time, I want to list the adult entries first, then young adult and middle grade. Just to see if there are any changes in the amount of requests. 

And now the biggest and most startling change I've seen in contests in the last month. Agents are offering within days. I don't think it's a secret that at least five Pitchwars entries got offers by a day after the agent round. It's more of a secret that there have been three offers to Nightmare on Query Street entries in less than a week. This is a big change from past contests. Agents aren't waiting. They are obviously feeling some kind of pressure to strike first and are reading manuscripts and making decisions literally overnight. 

It's certainly wonderful that some writers aren't waiting three months to hear back from agents. To hear news so fast is a blessing! But I think this calls for a different strategy for the writers who are picked for contests. First off, they need to send their requests in to the agents quickly. Possibly within hours of the request and not be tardy and wait a few days to reread their work. If agents are signing people overnight, they need to make sure their manuscripts are among those arriving first. 

Second, if agents are offering so quickly, that can mean the writer's options are slimmer. Typically when you get an offer, the writer has to notify all other agents with requests and queries and give them an opportunity to read and pass or offer. That gives writers an opportunity to have multiply offers. Writers can go with the best agent offer. If they don't have a batch of queries out already and an agent offers, they can't send out more queries. That just isn't done. It would be rude.

In Pitchwars where the writers weren't allowed to query, many of them didn't have anything out with agents. Their only opportunity is the requests they got in the contest. So the advice would be to send a batch of cold queries at the same time they sent the agent requests, just to give themselves possible options. That's how I advised my mentees to proceed. 

And there's just a brief update and a change happening within contests. I'm interested to see if the trend continues. Sun versus Snow will be my next contest and submission is in late January. See you then!

September Picture Book Party

We are doing it again! (And yes I recycled this post. So much to do. No time for fresh material.)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!

And if you don't write picture/chapter books please don't run away. I NEED YOUR HELP NOTIFYING PICTURE BOOK WRITERS. This contest is such short notice that I need everyone to spread the word. Tell your friends who write PB and please post on twitter. 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.

So far there are four picture book agents and two editors on board.  The agent round will be September 23th-25th. The submission day is September 14th at 4:00 pm 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 between 15 and 20. Sharon is my expert on this as I don't know much about picture books, except I enjoy reading them.

The Rules:

Please be a follower of this blog. You can click the "Join this Site" button in the left sidebar. Please follow myself and Sharon on twitter. I imagine we 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 September 14th at 4:00 pm 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. The window will stay open until we get 250 entries. However long that takes. It could be minutes or it could be days. I'm really not sure on this one.

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: @schriscoe_
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
Word Count: xxx (round to nearest ten, hundred for chapter books)

Query:

Your entire query letter here. Include your comps, bio, greeting, closing. (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 September 14th! 

Mini-Contest Winners

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

My first newsletter went out this morning, and I think the experiment is a success so far. Over one hundred wonderful people signed up for early notice of contests, writing news, and offers. 

Of course you can still sign up using the contact form in the right sidebar. The more the merrier! In April the newsletter will have the call for mentor and judge volunteers to help out with Query Kombat. And I expect it will also hold some sneak peaks at that contest and some agents involved.

As for the mini-contest:

Bess Cozby won the query critique from Sarah Negovetich! And Kathleen Allen won the query critique from me!

I want to thank everyone who entered and signed up for the newsletter. Your support has been wonderful! The writing community is just the best.

I'm happy to give to you guys with this blog and contests. You give such heartwarming support to me in return.  

Newsletter and a Mini-Contest

The mini-contest is over, but don't miss another. You can still sign up for my newsletter and get notifications.

News!  Get it First!

It's not easy to try something new, but I always say what the heck. It could be fun. So I'm going to try and gather a list of people who'd be interested in a newsletter from me.

What this newsletter would be is a way to get early notice of any contests I might have up my sleeve or any writing news that springs at me like a tiger from the bushes. It will be a heads up that something interesting is going to happen. For example: I might notify you of the release of my newest short story or send you an advance preview of the agents for Query Kombat. (QK is coming in late spring.)

What this newsletter will not be is a weekly or even a monthly thing to clutter your inbox. I plan to only use it sparingly. Nor will the information I collect be used for any other purpose. (Disclaimer Disclaimer Legalese terms here)

All you have to do is fill out the information in the right sidebar. Which means your name and email address, along with any message you want to leave me.

To unsubscribe, leave that message in the same contact widget and I'll take you off the list. Or shout at me on twitter or anywhere else. 

Almost forgot! Published/agented writers, if you're interested in being a mentor or judge in a future contest, fill out the form and put mentor/judge in the comment section.

To start things off with a mini-contest, I'll pick one person who signs up for the newsletter to receive a private query critique from me and an ebook copy of Winter's Regret with my latest short story. (When Winter's Regret becomes available.) 

And as a second and even better prize, my agent Sarah Negovetich is offering a query critique as well! Sarah reps YA and MG, but she has great insight to offer on any query.

I'll take entries until midnight on March 14, 2014. Your manuscript does not need to be completed.
  
So that's it. Let's see if this idea sinks or floats. Thanks everyone! Questions can go in the comments.

HOORAY FOR 100K PAGE VIEWS!

The contest is over and we have a winner! Thanks to all who helped me celebrate!

I'm celebrating and you made it all possible! It's In The Details will soon (or already has) hit 100K page views!

That means a giveaway!

Enter the Rafflecoper to win a private query critique plus a first chapter edit. I've done a few paying editing jobs and I'll give you the works for FREE! That's line edits and big picture items!

Not enough excitement? 

And until November 30th, you can also enter to win one of five autographed trade paperbacks of my book, Kindar's Cure, over on Goodreads! 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Kindar's Cure

by Michelle Hauck

Giveaway ends November 30, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Last Day to Enter My Giveaway

Giveaway is over! Thanks to everyone who entered!

Princess Kindar of Anost dreams of playing the hero and succeeding to her mother’s throne. But dreams are for fools. Reality involves two healthy sisters and a wasting disease of suffocating cough that’s killing her by inches. When her elder sister is murdered, the blame falls on Kindar, putting her head on the chopping block.

    
No one who survives eighteen years of choke lung lacks determination.  A novice wizard, Maladonis Bin, approaches with a vision—a cure in a barren land of volcanic fumes. As choices go, a charming bootlicker that trips over his own feet isn’t the best option, but beggars can’t be choosers. Kindar escapes with Mal and several longtime attendants only to have her eyes opened that her country faces dark times.

Her mother’s decision to close the prosperous mines spurs poverty and joblessness, inciting rebellion and opening Anost to foreign invasion. As Mal urges her toward a cure that will prove his visions, suddenly, an ally turns traitor, delivering Kindar to a rebel army, who have their own plans for a sickly princess.

With the killer poised to strike again, the rebels bearing down, and the country falling apart, she must weigh her personal hunt for a cure against saving her people.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Announcing NIGHTMARE ON QUERY STREET

The QK Crew is back with an awesome Halloween-themed query contest, Nightmare on Query Street! Don’t have a scary manuscript, DON'T WORRY. This contest is about fear. What is your main character really afraid of?

Live the fear!

The Details:

The submission window opens at 12 noon (EST) on October 19th. The window will close at 8pm or when we receive 100 entries, so please send early. (If there is a great demand of people in different time zones wanting to have two submission windows, we'll talk about it.)

We are accepting all age categories and genres, excluding picture books and exotica. But be sure to check our list of agents when it goes live to see if they represent your book's genre. 

Michelle, Mike, and SC will make ten picks each, and those ten picks will go up on our blogs from October 25th through the 27th, where agents will make requests! 

If you plan on participating in the contest, you have to be following all our blogs (Michelle, Mike, and SC).

It's pretty simple, actually. But there's a catch.

Along with your query and 250 words, you must write a SHORT paragraph (no more than 100 words) about your main character. This is the question you must answer:

What is your main character most afraid of?

The Format:

Send all your submissions to nightmareonquerystreet (at) yahoo (dot) com. Only one submission per email address or person is allowed.

Here's how it should be formatted (yes, include the bolded and everything!) Please use Times New Roman (or equivalent), 12 pt font, and put spaces between paragraphs. No indents or tabs are needed.  

Title: MY FANTASTIC BOOK (yes, caps!)

Genre: YA dystopian (This means age category and genre. YA is not a genre.)

Word Count: XX,XXX

My Main Character's Greatest Fear:

My MC fears potatoes. (Can be in your MC's POV, but doesn't have to be.)

Query:

Here is my fantastic query!

First 250 words:

Here are the first 250 words of my manuscript, and I will not end in the middle of a sentence, even if I hit 259 words :)

And that's it! Send in that email during the submission window and you're ready to go :)  There will be a confirmation email.

This should be FUN. This is a Halloween-themed contest, so please spend time on the MC's Greatest Fear paragraph! If you're writing a funny book, make a funny twist on the question, or say your MC is scared of strawberries or something. If it's a serious/sad book, you should have a field day, because the MC's fear might be so heart-wrenching.

Make us want to know more about your MC, to spend hundreds of pages with them because they are so interesting. This is a new way to pitch, so have fun with it (but don't stress out over it like it's a query).

So go over and follow our blogs (Michelle, Mike, and SC) and our Twitters (Michelle, Mike, and SC) (we're Tweeting under the hashtag #NightmareQuery) to stay in touch with all that we're doing. 

WE ARE VERY VERY VERY EXCITED. We can't wait to see your MC's fear.

Announcing A New Query Contest

NIGHTMARE ON QUERY STREET

Details Coming Soon

10/19

7 AGENTS and climbing!

The Agent Greeting Contest is Open!

The Agent Greeting Contest is closed.

Dear Manly face Agent:

My teeny-tiny contest is now open! Jump right in and leave your best dear agent greeting. 

One entry per customer, but no limit to the creativity. Feel free to tie your greeting in with your novel. Please try not to duplicate other entries.

Keep it clean. Obscene comments will be deleted. (More contest details here.)

Technically your manuscript does not need to be finished or polished, but it might be a good idea. 

Dear Scooter Pie Agent:

In return, please be a follower of this blog. If you feel like shouting about your greeting, which I'd appreciate, use the hashtag #agentgreeting. Querying can be a depressing business. I want this to be fun and twitter makes everything fun.

If you want to comment on another person's greeting, please do it on twitter so as not to mess up the random number generator.

Dear Make-me-Famous Agent:

The contest will stay open until 5:00 pm EST on August 7th. Then I will randomly draw the five winners and randomly match them up with their agent. (See agent list here.) Winner will need to get in touch with me about contacting their agents. 

A runner-up winner will also be drawn and will receive a copy of either Summer's Double Edge, featuring my short story Frost and Fog, or my epic fantasy, Kindar's Cure. Runner-up winner must live in the United States or Canada and provide an address. 

Dear Alien-abducted agent:

I will post the winners on August 8th.

That's all there is to it. Be as creative as you can and have fun!

Announcing the Agent Greeting Contest Prizes

The Agent Greeting contest (details here) will start on August 5th with the opportunity to win a query critique from not one, but five agents. Five random winners will each be randomly assigned to an agent. I will direct the winner how to email their query to their agent.

Now to get to the good stuff: the identities of the agents! Take a good look and see whether your query falls into their areas of expertise. Agent Greeting will be open to all fiction genres and age categories, but the agents might be more helpful with queries that fall in their wish lists. 


Agent #1:

Danielle Smith an associate literary agent at Foreword Literary Agents where she represents picture books and middle grade authors and illustrators. Her enthusiasm for children’s literature began as a young child, but grew exponentially when her own two children were born and shortly thereafter she began reviewing books at her top rated children’s book review site There's A Book. For more than five years she’s been involved professionally with books through print and online publications such as Women’s World and Parenting Magazine, as a member of the judging panels for The Cybils awards for fiction picture books, as well as locally by serving on the board of The Central Coast Writer’s Conference. She is most interested in finding new author/illustrator talent, children’s fiction and creative non-fiction from picture books through

Agent #2: 

Jordy Albert is a Literary Agent and co-founder of The Booker Albert Literary Agency. She holds a B.A. in English from Pennsylvania State University, and a M.A. from Millersville University of Pennsylvania. She has worked with Marisa Corvisiero during her time at the L. Perkins Agency and the Corvisiero Literary Agency. Jordy also works as a freelance editor/PR Director. She enjoys studying languages (French/Japanese), spends time teaching herself how to knit, is a HUGE fan of Doctor Who, and loves dogs. 

She is looking for stories that capture her attention and keep her turning the page. She is looking for a strong voice, and stories that have the ability to surprise her. She loves intelligent characters with a great sense of humor. She would love to see fresh, well-developed plots featuring travel, competitions/tournaments, or time travel. Jordy is specifically looking for:

* Middle Grade: contemporary, fantasy, action/adventure, or historical.
* YA: sci-fi, dystopian/post-apocalyptic, contemporary, historical--Though I am open to looking at other sub-genres, I'm looking for YA that has a very strong romantic element. 
* NEW ADULT CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
* Romance (contemporary and historical).

Agent #3

Sarah Negovetich of Corvisiero Literary is fully aware that no one knows how to pronounce her last name, and she's okay with that.

Her favorite writing is YA, because at seventeen the world is your oyster. Only oysters are slimy and more than a little salty, it's accurate if not exactly motivational. 

Sarah's background is in Marketing. FYI, your high school algebra teacher was right when they told you every job uses math. She uses her experience to assist Corvisiero authors with platform building and book promotion.

Sarah is only accepting MG and YA fiction manuscripts. She is open to any genre within those age groups, but prefers speculative fiction. Contemporary is not her favorite, but she will look at it. She is not interested in seeing poetry, novels in verse, short stories/novellas or anything focused on saving the environment (she's all for recycling, but doesn't want to represent it).

Agent #4

 

Tamar Rydzinski worked at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates prior to joining the Laura Dail Literary Agency. She graduated from Yeshiva University in 2003 with a major in literature and a minor in business.

Tamar is not interested in prescriptive or practical non-fiction, humor, coffee table books or children’s books (meaning anything younger than middle grade). She is interested in everything else that is well-written and has great characters, including graphic novels. A fantastic query letter is essential – “you need to make me want to read your book, and be excited to read it,” she says, “with those first couple of paragraphs.”

Agent #5

Michelle L. Johnson is a literary agent, the founder of Inklings Literary Agency and has a business administration background in addition to a lifetime of working with books (sales, editing, and writing) and authors (marketing, promoting, event planning). She is also a script/story consultant for an independent film under production in Halifax, NS.

Before founding Inklings Literary Agency, she was with Corvisiero Literary Agency. She has spent many years in the editing field for private clients and multiple independent publishing houses.

She has also owned and operated a Writers' Center and Bookstore in Virginia Beach, organizing numerous special events for authors and artists alike.

Michelle is closed to unsolicited query until further notice, but in fiction Michelle looks for Contemporary, Suspense, Thriller, Mystery, Horror, Fantasy, including Paranormal and Supernatural elements within those genres.

She is also interested in romance of every heat level, including very well written erotica.

In Non Fiction, she is interested in Memoir, True Crime.

She is especially fond of plot twists that surprise her and deep, well-rounded characters that make her laugh and cry.

Not looking for: Textbooks, Cookbooks, Short Stories, Picture Books, Poetry, Coffee Table Books, Christian Fiction, Screenplays, Steampunk.

Agent Greeting Contest

Dear Sweetie-pie Agent:

Announcing my teeny-tiny contest. I know very well that writers love to experiment on their queries, tweaking words and sentences, creating version after version. Obsessing over whether it is good enough. The only area where you can have fun and relax is the greeting, which no one will ever see because it is doomed to be replaced with your dream agent's name.

On August 5th, I will launch a post in which you can comment with your best and most imaginative Dear Agent greeting. One entry per customer, but no limit to the creativity. Well, one limit. Keep it clean. Obscene comments will be deleted.  

Dear Hearts-forever Agent:

In return, please be a follower of this blog. If you feel like shouting about your greeting, which I'd appreciate, use the hash #agentgreeting. Querying can be a depressing business. I want this to be fun and twitter makes everything fun.

Dear Smarticus Agent:

I'm sure you are wondering about the prize. I will randomly draw one winner on August 7th, who will receive an email query critique from a generous real-life dream agent. A runner-up winner will receive a copy of Summer's Double Edge, featuring my short story Frost and Fog. Runner-up winner must live in the United States or Canada. First place winner can live anywhere.

Winners must get in touch with me to claim their prizes. Runner-up winner must provide their address. 

If--that's right if--other agents volunteer their critique skills, I will draw more than one winner.  UPDATE #2: I now have THREE FOUR (moving on up) FIVE agents! We'll see if I can find some more! Volunteers are welcome.

So that's it. I will give more details about the agent next week. Stay tuned.