QUERY CONTEST!! - Become an Agent

THIS CONTEST HAS ENDED, and the dates below were for LAST year's contest. I'm going to have the announcement and dates for this year's contest go up this Friday, and the submissions to open on Monday. Follow and stay tuned!

YES! A CONTEST!!!!!

What is this?

This is a contest all about queries. Will your query garner requests? Will you stand out amongst the plethora of queries in the agent's inbox?

When I was querying (and even now), I always wanted to know, "Will my query work?" "What if I was the agent and I had to request pages?"

So, from there came the contest.

I got the idea for this contest from the Authoress's Public Slushpile Contest (she has AMAZING contests almost every month. So go and check her blog out :D).

The Details

• This Monday, I will open up submissions all through Thursday night, until 9PM EST.
• Submit ONLY the meat of your query to SC_Author(at)yahoo(dot).com starting (but not before!) Monday the 18th to Thursday the 21st at 9pm EST.
• Copy the submission format (PLEASE) before you send. The format will go up this Monday (the 18th).
• Hopefully, I'll get at least 10 queries submitted.
• Then, picked by random.org, 10 queries (maybe more, depending on how many submissions I receive) will go up next Monday (the 25th) on this blog.
• Since it is by random, please, take as much time as you need to send your query in! It's in your best interests to send it on Thursday (but NOT AFTER 9pm EST) to spend time honing your query. You won't gain anything by sending it in on Monday.

Here is the fun part. The BEST PART. READ THIS PART!

• Each entrant will get a Post Number for his/her query.
• Each entrant is required to vote YES or NO (as to, "Would you request pages?") on the five queries above his/her post number, and give an explanation as to why (can be as short or long, as generic or specific, as you want). So if you are #6, you'll critique Numbers 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. But, say, if you are number 3, you will critique numbers 2, 1, (then start from the end) 10, 9, and 8. All the posts will be numbered.
• BUT...... THERE IS:

THE TWIST

• Out of the five queries you vote on, you can only vote YES on ONE!

Yes! We are going to make this as agent-like as possible.

You have to pick the best query out of the five you are assigned. If you are extra-awesome and want to critique more than five, then you can only vote YES on one more out of the other five. (If I get more submissions and end up having, say, 15 entries, then the numbers will change and I'll inform you guys about the new rules when the contest starts.)

• The onlookers and observers can only vote YES on one out of the ten entries (because they aren't required to do the time-consuming chore of explaining their NO's like the contestants are).

Requirements

• Follow this blog (and my Twitter if you wish :D)
• Write your query under 400 words - and that's a lot. Ideally, it will be under 300 words (I'm talking only about the meat here - no personalization or bio).
• Thank the Authoress for allowing me to make another version of her amazing contest!

You do NOT need a finished manuscript to enter. In fact, you don't need a manuscript that i
s even started, as I know some people write their queries before they start their manuscripts. (Although, if you submit to this contest, I hope you plan on writing it soon.) This is just to see if your query will work.

I hope that this will be tons of fun, and, even more so, I hope this will be helpful. Even without an agent, you will see whether your query is working or not and why it is or isn't. We can become agents for a little while :D And, hopefully, this will help to everyone in query frustration land :)

Formatting instructions are here: clicky click this!

AND PLEASE, tell me if I'm missing anything. Ask questions below. This is my first time doing such a contest, and I hope I get enough people to participate. *Worrying* I'd love it if you guys would spread the word! *Worries more*

Does anything need clarification? I truly hope you guys enjoy this!

OH! And it's my mother's birthday! Happy birthday mom! I love you :) You're the best, most loving, most caring mother who showers me with more love than I can ever imagine. (And a mother who doesn't know I have this blog. But whatever.)