'Become an Agent' Querypalooza/Contest!!

FOURTH TIME HOSTING THIS!!!!! WOOOO!!!!

Query Kombat is coming up soon, but NEST PITCH IS COMING UP EVEN FASTER. If you don't know what it is, FIND OUT. Submissions are on April 1st for Nest Pitch. It's a truly amazing and unique contest (we potentially see your first 10 pages instead of only 250!).

So this Querypalooza (because I don't want you to think of it as a contest) will help you get your submissions in shape!  

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. This is a critique session BUT WITH A TWIST. Read on below to find out what the awesome twist is.

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).

This is NOT a contest that involves agents, editors, or publishers. I actually hope they don't look over the entries because this contest is a place for writers to test out queries and see if they work. I want this to be a safe place for you to submit a query you're unsure about or experimenting around with. That's hard to do if there is the possibility of an agent seeing your work. So be free and FEEL free!

The Details

• This Thursday the 19th, I will open up a window for submissions. It'll start at 1 p.m. EST and will end when I get 20 submissions.

If the submission window's time frame is not good for you, go to lettermelater.com to schedule the email to be sent!

• The first 20 entries in the submission window will make it into the contest.
• Submit the meat of your query and the first 250 words to SC_Author (at) yahoo (dot) com. More details about submission format below.
• I will be sending confirmation emails so you know I got your email, and I will later send confirmation emails to the people that made it into the contest.
• The 20 queries I receive will go up on this blog on Sunday at 8 pm. That's when the contest will start!! The contest ends on Saturday the 28th.

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

• Each entrant will get a Post Number for his/her query.
• The basis of the contest is this: Each entrant is required to vote YES or NO (as to, "Would you request pages?") on the seven queries above their 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) 20, 19, and 18. All the posts will be numbered.
• BUT...... THERE IS:

THE TWIST

• Out of the seven queries you vote on, you can only vote YES on TWO!

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

You have to pick the best two queries out of the seven you are assigned. If you are extra-awesome and want to critique more than seven, then you get one more "Yes" for every four you critique. If, for some reason, you only critique one more, that one CAN be a "Yes." But if you critique more after that, you must give out 3 "No's" before you can give out a "Yes." Ask questions in the comments below for the nitpicks: it does get confusing, but it makes sense in my head! You MUST critique the seven posts above yours before going on to more! 

For the Onlookers and Observers

• 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). So yes, non-contestants can also participate!!!! But they cannot simply give 'Yes's' to their friends; that's cheating. Don't do that, please. PLEASE.
• If the non-contestants are so awesome as to actually explain their No's and Yes's, their voting guidelines will be the same as the contestant's :) 
• Non-contestants are awesome. We've always had a good number devote so much time to this, and it's been amazing.

The winner of the contest will be the ones with the most 'Yes's'! I'll set up an interview with them, like I did for Sherry Ellis, Tiffanie Lynn, and Nikki Roberti! I will be checking to make sure that the winner voted on the seven above their post's number. That is key; I want to spread out votes as equally as possible so that one person doesn't get 5 Yes's out of 5 votes and another person gets 6 Yes's out of 10 votes. Because, technically, the second person wins in that scenario.

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 and no bio unless the bio is CRUCIAL to the story).
• Thank the Authoress for allowing me to make another version of her amazing contest!

You do NOT need a finished manuscript to enter, as I know some people write their queries before they start their manuscripts. This is just to see if your query and 250 will work for agents.

I hope that this will be tons of fun, but 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: 

Again, send it to SC_Author(at)yahoo(dot)com as:

In the subject line put "Become an Agent : [Title of Your Manuscript]". That's all I need :D

In the actual body, put it like how I have below (so I can easily copy-and-paste from email to Blogger)

Bolded where bolded, with all the words included (so keep in 'Title', 'Genre', 'Word Count', etc. but, of course, put in your own personal details.)

Title: My Awesome Title!
Genre: My Awesome Genre!
Word Count: My not-so-awesome word count that I'd rather not tell anyone!

Then just slap in the meat of your query under the title, genre, and word count. Throw in your bio (if you want) too, because agents DO look at that when they receive queries and it DOES make an impact, I want this contest to be as realistic to what agents see as possible. But ONLY INCLUDE YOUR BIO IF IT'S CRUCIAL TO THE STORY!! See the comments below for more info.

First 250: Throw in your 250 here, NO tabs; line breaks instead of tabs, like they are on this blog post right now. And you have a cushion of 10 words; so if your sentence ends on word number 257 or 242, keep it there. You don't need to edit to perfectly hit 250 words.

I will delete any names or stuff. This way, if you have some friend-bloggers who get in the contest as well, hopefully, they won't be influenced as much. And all critiques will not be personal in any way.

I'm counting on you guys not to tell people which is your entry :) Doing so will only harm you, and I have faith in all of you that you want this contest to be constructive. But feel free to spread the word about this contest!

Some brief clearer-upper points of conduct:

1. HAVE FUN! PLEASE PLEASE HAVE FUN! Oh. And hope this helps you, too :D

One more thing:

You must must MUST read this post before entering. 

This contest is brutal. You might not think so right now but it is BRUTAL. You'll absolutely hate what some people have to say, you'll want to trash their critiques. Don't shrug it off. I'm telling you it will happen. Too bad. I'm warning you right now. I always have writers that are almost in tears because of this contest. It's really a helpful, good contest; SO many writers have told me how helpful it was. But it's also a hard one. And honestly, would you rather have this or rejections from agents?

AND PLEASE, tell me if I'm missing anything. Ask questions below.

We'll be Tweeting under the Twitter hashtag #BecomeAnAgent! Twitter really is amazing for authors to connect and celebrate together :D It'll be fun. I'm SC_Author on Twitter.

I'll post more guidelines about ethically voting and voting fairly when all the posts go up :) The critiques and the explanations for the votes are really the biggest part of this contest, so I'll need another post to discuss them in detail.

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

Jadah McCoy - 'Become an Agent' SUCCESS STORY!!!!!!!

YAYAYAYA I'm so excited! We haven't had a success story on the blog for a while (because contest season has died down - and will be revving up again in the coming months). BUT HERE'S A SUCCESS STORY! I remember Jadah quite well from the contest. She's an awesome person and I'm so happy for her success :D

Additional awesomeness: this is a success story from the contest closest to my heart, 'Become an Agent' (closest to my heart because it isn't a contest, it's a critique session! Trust me, I love Query Kombat and Nightmare on Query Street a LOT). 

TAKE IT AWAY, JADAH!

#

Hi all!

Currently I'm downstairs bundled in my comforter while watching the snow fall, drinking a Hot Toddy (it's 5 pm somewhere), and waiting for my favorite acquisitions editor in the world to send me the link to my announcement on Publisher's Marketplace. This is the moment I've been waiting for pretty much all my life. Every version of myself - 5-year-old Jadah scribbling one page stories, 14-year-old Jadah penning hormonal fanfiction in her black-walled room, 18-year-old Jadah vomming her very first (totally cringe-worthy) novel onto MS word) - has been waiting for the moment when someone else reads my work and says, "People will love this."

Thank goodness for Vicki Keire, an acquisitions editor at Curiosity Quills. She was that person. Her enthusiasm for my book immediately won me over and made this an easy decision.

I began writing Culling in January of 2014. It started as a 2,000 word short story and then I was going to wipe my hands of it and be done. My fantastic, lovely, and talented critique partner, Lynn Vroman (Go read her fantasy series now! It's fantastic!), fell in love with those first 2,000 words and demanded that I continue the story. Well, thank goodness I did, right?! It took me a year, but I got that first draft out.

My query was done and polished before the novel was even a quarter of the way written. I was so desperate to procrastinate that I turned to query writing (I know, right?). It was at that point that I heard of SC's "Become An Agent contest". Critiquing queries and helping other authors is one of my favorite things (I even critique queries on my blog!), so this was right up my alley.

I was very confident with my query and first 250 words. Most people liked my query! Pretty much no one liked my first 250. Bummer. I am SO thankful for this contest because it helped me realize that I totally started my novel in the wrong place. Everyone was so right about that first page, and I rewrote the beginning to be even more fabulous with the help of those lovely and super helpful queriers who commented on my entry. Criticism is always a hard pill to swallow, but if you work past the initial defensiveness and really listen to what others have to say, integral information can be gleaned.

Fast forward many moons! The battle isn't over! I began officially querying my novel January of 2015. Many rejections. Such sad. The overwhelming response was that my novel was simply too dystopian and, as we all know, editors treat dystopian like the NSA treats someone who stands up on a plane and screams they have Ebola. But my query did receive three full requests, which resulted in two offers. I am very, very happy to say my novel has found a cozy home swaddled in the arms of the Curiosity Quills crew. I encourage writers to submit there - they've been infinitely helpful and welcoming.

And that's all, folks!

Blurb for Culling, a NA sci-fi:

In this Bladrunner meets Alien debut, eighteen-year-old Syl lives in the ruins of Earth's first colonized sister planet. By day she searches abandoned skyscrapers for food, but at night genetically-spliced, flesh-eating bugs--the Cull--come out for a meal of their own. When Syl is abducted and her own DNA spliced, slowly turning her into one of the Cull, she discovers the androids who destroyed her world aren't nearly as dead as everyone thought.

Jadah lives in Nashville, TN and works as a legal coordinator. When not babysitting attorneys she can be found desperately juicing her brain for creative ideas or fantasizing about her next trip out of the country (or about Tom Hiddleston as Loki - it's always a toss up when she's fantasizing.) Culling is her debut novel.

Visit her:

Blog

Twitter

Facebook

Goodreads

Pinterest

CONGRATS JADAH!!!! Make sure you all congratulate her on Twitter and visit her other social media sites :D This might have inspired me to do another round of 'Become an Agent'....hmm.....

'Become an Agent' Revision GUIDELINES

Read this post before you criticize revisions!

Pitch Wars is coming up very very soon. I had the September deadline for votes to be on Tuesday at 9 pm but since I'll be away from the Internet starting Wednesday morning until Sunday (VACATION TIME !!!!) I thought I'd bump it up to make room for revisions .

The new deadline is today, Monday, 6 pm EST.

Most of You have Already done your votes so thank you! If You Have not done it and can not get it done in the time frame, do not worry about it, just do it before 9 pm Tuesday. I'll tally up the votes and post the winner on Tuesday.

Starting at 6 pm EST, I'll edit each post and replace  the entry with a review that you 'guys can send me at the same email, same format, same everything, except  in the email's subject line, say 'Become an Agent Post # __ '(whatever post number you are).

Everyone That PARTICIPATED in the contest have the opportunity to submit a revised version of Their query and 250 The revisions will come from the feedback gotten From this contest.

That Those revisions have posted, I'll list below. (I'll try to do it as fast as possible: D)

Revised List of Entries

Post 1
Post 2
Post 4
Post 5
Post 6
Post 9
Post 11
Post 17
Post 18
Post 19
Post 20

The quicker you send me your revisions, the quicker I ll have them up! Already I've got a few.

Same rules apply for  voting etiquette , except now you can give as many as you want Yes's (way too hard to track with a changing number of revisions). And, more Importantly, say if the review was an improvement or not! 

So, still give the 'Yes' and 'No' (sorry, it might feel a lot more brutal to get No's now after revisions, but honesty is the best, in my opinion). But Also say, "Improvement" or "Not Improved".

As always, be  constructive.  brutally Do not be harsh. There's a smaller number of entries now so take your time to tell them what they 'did right In Their query and 250 as well :) I feel That it's almost as Important as Knowing Knowing what's working what's not working.

Be sure to return the please if your review gets to criticize! posted If You Have to revision and are critiquing someone else's review, make sure to include your number in your post so the writer has criticized An Easier time finding your post.

I AM EXCITED.

Now That the contest is over, it's the time for feedback for  me.  In the end, all I want to know is:  How was the contest? Any suggestions for the next time?  Be as honest as you need to be.

Become an Agent Critiquing Guidelines!

Read this before you start critiquing or voting!!

We are #BecomeAnAgent on Twitter :) Please please please, join the discussion! I'll even set up a question: What aspect of your entry do you want to improve on the most?

 Read this for full details on this contest because I kind of suck at summing things up. Basically, the entrants will vote on other entrants' entries (woah, say that 1304983 times fast) and say Yes or No based on the question: "If I was an agent, would I request more pages?"

Non-entrants can participate in this contest too!!!

Here are the voting guidelines for the entrants (those who are in the contest) AND the audience.

For the entrants

• Entrants will have to critique a minimum of seven other queries and can vote Yes on two out of those seven. They MUST  critique at least seven and give a however-brief explanation as to why they voted Yes or No. Read on to see what are acceptable Yes's and No's.
• Entrants must critique the seven queries which have lower numbers than their post (each post will have a post number). So, if you have post #9, you critique #2 through #8. But, say, if you have #3, you critique numbers 2, 1, then start from the other end, 20, 19, 18, 17, and 16.
• At the end of each critique, entrants, put down your own post number so I can tally how many critiques each entrant did.
• If entrants finish critiquing their seven queries and so amazingly want to critique more, then they have two choices:

1. Give a Yes or No for seven other queries. Two Yes's for the batch. If they critique ALL 20, then they'll have six Yes's to give out all together! (But you can only give out 6 Yes's if you've given out 14 No's as well.)

For the audience

• Audience members have only three Yes votes for the whole lot. (With no need to give/explain No's.) However, if the awesome audience does decide to give/explain No's, then just follow the same rules for the entrants.
• The only difference between the audience and the entrant voting procedures is that entrants are required to give a minimum of seven critiques, and explain Yes or No for each one. Audience can give three (or even less) Yes's to whichever queries they want without explanation (but, really, explanations would be best).

Pretend you are agents and are sifting through your slush pile.  Mention the reasons you voted Yes or No! And explain them enough so the writer can use the feedback to improve. If you want to give an in depth critique, please, do so. That'd be awesome :D

Since there is a maximum amount of Yes's, you can say in explanation of a No: "I would have given this a Yes, but I liked query #89234234 better. Sorry!" But keep these types of No's to a minimum. This query is about feedback and helping writers make better queries. This type of critique won't help them improve.

And don't vote No just because you don't like the genre. (Hopefully) the writer will only query agents interested in their genre. So read each query pretending that you like that genre. Exceptions are for hard-to-sell genres like paranormal or dystopian. In those cases, the genre is a hugely significant factor in determining why agents say no. Be honest with the writers here and tell them if it's their genre that's holding them back. Be honest in saying if the premise of the story is not unique enough to stand out in the suffocated genre.

The premise of this whole post? Be honest. But nicely.

The only types of unacceptable No's will be:

1. Genre-based No's. (See above paragraph for explanation and exceptions.)
2. Cruel, spiteful No's.
3. No's with little-to-no explanation. Be specific! (But no need to do a whole line-by-line critique). This will absolutely be the main problem for the contest, and it'll lead to angry or sad writers. In text, it's really hard to convey nuance in a critique. What the critiquer writes will be interpreted differently by the critiquee, and usually negatively. Writers: remember, nothing is personal here. To help stop this problem, try saying at least one good thing about each No (while staying honest, even brutally honest!) and thoroughly explaining your reasoning.
4. There is absolutely NO tolerance for No's that stem from prejudice or for a personal dislike of a subject matter. There are no exceptions to this rule. 

The only types of unacceptable Yes's will be:

1. Yes's obviously based on friendship ("Oh, she's my friend, so I have to give her a yes.") If you are friends with the writer and you truly love their query, then go ahead and vote Yes. This is on the honor system. We're all adults and I trust you guys.
2. Yes's with little-to-no explanation.

Also, if you see that there is a entry or a few entries that aren't getting many comments (maybe the posts lower down on the blog's page that sometimes get hidden from view) please try giving them votes to make the number of critiques mostly equal throughout the 20. That's why I made the whole 'critique the 7 above you' so the votes would be fairly equal in number. I'll be Tweeting links to posts that don't get much feedback so follow me on Twitter.

Please try not to share what post is yours over Twitter. Doing so might inadvertently get you some 'Yes's' from friends that other entrants who aren't on Twitter don't have the chance to receive. But feel free to Tweet about the contest! Twitter is awesome :) 

One more thing

Don't expect all Yes's. DON'T. Because I'm guaranteeing it, you won't get it. This isn't a contest where the goal is to win. It's to grow. Because, for many of you, this contest will be brutal. But it'll be brutal in a good way; I know from experience in one of the Authoress's critique contests! Hopefully, you entered this contest to fix your query/250 and grow. It'll be a brutal few days of voting but, hopefully, in the end, the feedback will be worth it all :D

Phew. That's it!! Go go go!!!!!!!!!

The deadline to finish up all critiques is Tuesday 9 p.m. EST. On Wednesday, I'll announce the winner - the one with the most Yes's - and (if they permit me) do a mini-breakdown of their entry to try finding out why the entry won. I'll also set up an interview with the winner :)

Have fun guys! And be nice! And please, comment on this post, Tweet me, or email me (I rarely check my email though) if you see some mistake in your entry! The mistakes will probably be a missed italics. I will not fix typos that were in the original email. 

GOOD LUCK GUYS! HOPE YOU HAVE FUN!!

'Become an Agent' Submissions Window is OPEN!

We have reached 20 entries, and so, the submissions window is officially CLOSED! I'll be sending out the "Yes, you're in" emails in the upcoming hours.


If you don't know what this contest is, go read up about it by following this link!

If you're reading this, the submission window has officially opened. It starts at 6 p.m. EST and ends once I get 20 submissions. Your submission's time stamp (since it'll be sent over email) must be at or after this time to be viable for a spot in the contest. 8:59 won't work!

There will be a confirmation email going out so you know that your email reached my inbox. However, this email won't confirm a place in the contest. I'll do that manually. If you don't receive my 'You're in the contest!' email by the end of the day, I'm sorry, but you didn't get a spot.

Again, the format for the submissions (and send all submissions to SC_Author (at) yahoo (dot) com): follow this link and read up on it

I was going to also talk about voting etiquette, etc. but I think it's smarter if I talk about it on Thursday when the contest actually starts. The rules for voting are all here so go over the details while I prepare for the contest! Remember, you have to be following this blog in order to submit to this contest.

We'll be Tweeting under the Twitter hashtag #BecomeAnAgent :D It'll be fun. I'm SC_Author on Twitter.

WOO!!!!!!

Hopefully, this contest will be as fun as it was last year. Actually, fun story: because I hosted this contest last year, Mike emailed me about joining together to start a little contest called Query Kombat. I then invited Michelle to complete our trio and from there our contest-creating trio was formed. There's your fun fact for the day!

Any questions? Ask them below! And GOOD LUCK!

Become an Agent Contest!

YES! The third time I'm hosting this. (This is a long post, cramming in all the details and stuff!)

Right before Pitch Wars (because of it, actually) here comes a critiquing contest! Hopefully it'll help you prepare for Pitch Wars. If you don't know what Pitch Wars is, read this. It's an awesome contest coming up in two weeks.

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).

This is NOT a contest that involves agents, editors, or publishers. I actually hope they don't look over the entries because this contest is a place for writers to test out queries and see if they work. I want this to be a place for you to submit a query you're unsure about or experimenting around with. That's hard to do if there is the possibility of an agent seeing your work. So be free and FEEL free!

The Details

• This Tuesday the 5th, I will open up a window for submissions. It'll start at 6 p.m. EST and will end when I get 20 submissions.

If the submission window's time frame is not good for you, go to lettermelater.com to schedule the email to be sent!

• The first 20 entries in the submission window will make it into the contest.
• Submit the meat of your query and the first 250 words to SC_Author (at) yahoo (dot) com. More details about submission format below.
• I will be sending confirmation emails to the people that made it into the contest.
• The 20 queries I receive will go up on this blog on Thursday at 8 am. That's when the contest will start!!

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

• Each entrant will get a Post Number for his/her query.
• The basis of the contest is this: Each entrant is required to vote YES or NO (as to, "Would you request pages?") on the seven 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) 20, 19, and 18. All the posts will be numbered.
• BUT...... THERE IS:

THE TWIST

• Out of the seven queries you vote on, you can only vote YES on TWO!

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

You have to pick the best two queries out of the seven you are assigned. If you are extra-awesome and want to critique more than seven, then you get one more "Yes" for every four you critique. (The details: if, for some reason, you only critique one more, that one CAN be a "Yes." But if you critique more after that, you must give out 3 "No's" before you can give out a "Yes." Ask questions in the comments below for the nitpicks: it does get confusing, but it makes sense in my hand!) But, you MUST critique the seven posts above yours before going on to more! 

For the Onlookers and Observers

• 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). So yes, non-contestants can also participate!!!! But they cannot simply give 'Yes's' to their friends; that's cheating. Don't do that, please. PLEASE.
• If the non-contestants are so awesome as to actually explain their No's and Yes's, their voting guidelines will be the same as the contestant's :) 

The winner of the contest will be the ones with the most 'Yes's'! I'll set up an interview with them, like I did for Sherry Ellis and Tiffanie Lynn! I will be checking to make sure that the winner voted on the seven above their post's number. That is key; I want to spread out votes as equally as possible so that one person doesn't get 5 Yes's out of 5 votes and another person gets 6 Yes's out of 10 votes. Because, technically, the second person wins in that scenario.

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 and no bio unless the bio is CRUCIAL to the story).
• Thank the Authoress for allowing me to make another version of her amazing contest!

You do NOT need a finished manuscript to enter, 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 and 250 will work for agents.

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: 

Again, send it to SC_Author(at)yahoo(dot)com as:

In the subject line put "Become an Agent Submission: [Title of Your Manuscript]" at least. That's all I need :D

In the actual body, put it like how I have below (so I can easily copy-and-paste from email to Blogger :D)

Bolded where bolded, with all the words included (so keep in 'Title', 'Genre', 'Word Count', etc. but, of course, put in your own personal details.)

Title: My Awesome Title!
Genre: My Awesome Genre!
Word Count: My not-so-awesome word count that I'd rather not tell anyone!

Then just slap in the meat of your query under the title, genre, and word count. Throw in your bio too, because agents DO look at that when they receive queries and it DOES make an impact, I want this contest to be as realistic to what agents see as possible. But ONLY INCLUDE YOUR BIO IF IT'S CRUCIAL TO THE STORY!! See the comments below for more info.

First 250: Throw in your 250 here, NO tabs; do line breaks instead of tabs, like they are on this blog post right now. And you can a lee-way of 10 words; so if your sentence ends on word number 257 or 242, keep it there. You don't need to edit to perfectly hit 250 words.

I will delete any names or stuff. This way, if you have some friend-bloggers who get in the contest as well, hopefully, they won't be influenced as much. And all critiques will not be personal in any way.

I'm counting on you guys not to tell people which is your entry :) Doing so will only harm you, and I have faith in all of you that you want this contest to be constructive. But feel free to spread the word about this contest! More on the not-telling-people thing on Monday's post.

Some brief clearer-upper points of conduct:

1. HAVE FUN! PLEASE PLEASE HAVE FUN! Oh. And hope this helps you, too :D

One more thing:

You must must MUST read this post before entering. 

This contest is brutal. You might not think so right now but it is BRUTAL. You'll absolutely hate what some people have to say, you'll want to trash their critiques. Too bad. I'm warning you right now. I always have writers that are almost in tears because of this contest and I hope this time I won't! It's really a helpful, good contest; SO many writers have told me how helpful it was. But it's also a hard one.

AND PLEASE, tell me if I'm missing anything. Ask questions below.

We'll be Tweeting under the Twitter hashtag #BecomeAnAgent! Twitter really is amazing for authors to connect and celebrate together :D It'll be fun. I'm SC_Author on Twitter.

I'll post more guidelines about ethically voting and voting fairly when all the posts go up :) The critiques and the explanations for the votes are really the biggest part of this contest, so I'll need another post to discuss them in detail.

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

Lynn Vroman - 'Become an Agent' SUCCESS STORY!!

I love love love success stories, and Lynn's might just be my favorite. That's because it came from my critiquing 'contest' ('Become an Agent') and not one of our agented contests. It's nice to see that 'Become an Agent' has helped people! 

SO, READ ON!!!

As every writer looking to publish knows, the way to an agent or editor is through a query letter. Those 250 words keep us up at night and torture us during the day. That’s how I felt, anyway, when I decided to put my work out there in hopes of finding it a home.

I’ve been writing since high school, but didn’t begin to write seriously until about five years ago. I started with short stories, honing my craft, learning. When I began submitting those to magazines the first sting of rejection hit hard—and toughened my skin. After I received my first acceptance letter, though, all that rejection was worth it. Three more acceptance letters later, and with a lot of short stories filed away, I decided to attempt novel writing.

Writing a novel… yeah, totally different than a 1200-word story. I’d start one, get stuck on the plot, and then start another. Oh, I’d finish some, but hate the whole thing and throw it into the document graveyard. But two years ago I wrote a book I loved. This was the one!

I wrote a query and sent it out to five agents. Every mistake we’re told not to make I made, [I did too, Lynn, don't worry!] and of course, all rejections. I found help from fellow writers, worked on another query, and received more rejections. I also tried contests like Pitch Madness, but still no success.

It was after Pitch Madness when I discovered SC’s contest, Become an Agent, on twitter. This wasn’t a contest where agents might ask for partials or fulls. It was better. In his contest, no matter who came in first, everyone won because what he offered was HELP. So I turned in my query and the first 250 and hoped for the best.

Guess what? I found the best! My first 250 received mostly compliments, but my query… not so much. Every single participant pointed out the exact same issue. I spent the next couple weeks rewriting, using the advice I received.

Right after the contest, I switched gears and decided to submit to small presses rather than agents. After doing some research, I sent out four brand new queries and waited.

And waited.

Then I received the best news ever. Two requests for fulls! To describe how I danced around the house would be disturbing, and so I’ll spare you the mental image. But success! And it gets better. While sitting in the theater with my youngest children waiting for The Lego Movie to start, I heard a ping on my phone—an offer for a publishing contract. My YA fantasy novel is set for release winter of 2014 from Untold Press. Wow, writing that never gets old.

And so the contest that didn’t have the hope of attracting an agent proved something important: Contests that promise guaranteed help are gifts. Not only do we get to test what we’ve written on fellow writers instead of agents, we get the golden opportunity to see our query with a different perspective and make them stronger.

Yup. Definitely one of my favorite success stories because it helped me truly realize contests do make a difference. Thank you so, so much for sharing this, Lynn. It means a TON. It makes hosting contests worth it!

NOW:

Go follow her on Twitter, like her on Facebook, and check out her website. And CONGRATULATE HER ON TWITTER (or in the comments below :D)!

'Become An Agent' Query Contest!!!!!!!

YES! A CONTEST!!!!! (This is a long post, cramming in all the details and stuff!)

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).

This is NOT a contest that involves agents, editors, or publishers. I actually hope they don't look over the entries because this contest is a place for writers to test out queries and see if they work. I want this to be a place for you to submit a query you're unsure about or experimenting around with. That's hard to do if there is the possibility of an agent seeing your work. So be free and FEEL free!

The Details

• This Monday the 27th, I will open up two windows for submissions. One will start at 9 a.m. EST and will end once I get 10 submissions. The second will start at 9 p.m. EST and will end when I get 10 submissions. This is to accommodate people in different time zones. Your email's time stamp must be at 9:00 on each window or after; NOT before!
• The first 10 entries in each submission window will make it into the contest.
• Submit the meat of your query and the first 250 words to SC_Author (at) yahoo (dot) com. More details about submission format below.
• I will be sending confirmation emails to the people that made it into the contest.
• The 20 queries I receive will go up on this blog on Friday the 31st 9 a.m. EST. That's when the contest will start!!

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

• Each entrant will get a Post Number for his/her query.
• The basis of the contest is this: Each entrant is required to vote YES or NO (as to, "Would you request pages?") on the seven 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) 20, 19, and 18. All the posts will be numbered.
• BUT...... THERE IS:

THE TWIST

• Out of the seven queries you vote on, you can only vote YES on TWO!

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

You have to pick the best two queries out of the seven you are assigned. If you are extra-awesome and want to critique more than seven, then you get one more "Yes" for every four you critique. (The details: if, for some reason, you only critique one more, that one CAN be a "Yes." But if you critique more after that, you must give out 3 "No's" before you can give out a "Yes." Ask questions in the comments below for the nitpicks: it does get confusing, but it makes sense in my hand!) But, you MUST critique the seven posts above yours before going on to more! 

For the Onlookers and Observers

• 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). So yes, non-contestants can also participate!!!! But they cannot simply give 'Yes's' to their friends; that's cheating. Don't do that, please. PLEASE.
• If the non-contestants are so awesome as to actually explain their No's and Yes's, their voting guidelines will be the same as the contestant's :) 

The winner of the contest will be the ones with the most 'Yes's'! I'll set up an interview with them, like I did for last year's winner, Sherry Ellis! I will be checking to make sure that the winner voted on the seven above their post's number. That is key; I want to spread out votes as equally as possible so that one person doesn't get 5 Yes's out of 5 votes and another person gets 6 Yes's out of 10 votes. Because, technically, the second person wins in that scenario.

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, 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 and 250 will work for agents.

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: 

Again, send it to SC_Author(at)yahoo(dot)com as:

In the subject line put "Become an Agent Submission: [Title of Your Manuscript]" at least. That's all I need :D

In the actual body, put it like how I have below (so I can easily copy-and-paste from email to Blogger :D)

Bolded where bolded, with all the words included (so keep in 'Title', 'Genre', 'Word Count', etc. but, of course, put in your own personal details.)

Title: My Awesome Title!
Genre: My Awesome Genre!
Word Count: My not-so-awesome word count that I'd rather not tell anyone!

Then just slap in the meat of your query under the title, genre, and word count. Throw in your bio too, because agents DO look at that when they receive queries and it DOES make an impact. I want this contest to be as realistic to what agents see as possible.

First 250: Throw in your 250 here, NO tabs; do line breaks instead of tabs, like they are on this blog post right now. And you can a lee-way of 10 words; so if your sentence ends on word number 257 or 242, keep it there. You don't need to edit to perfectly hit 250 words.

I will delete any names or stuff. This way, if you have some friend-bloggers who get in the contest as well, hopefully, they won't be influenced as much. And all critiques will not be personal in any way.

I'm counting on you guys not to tell people which is your entry :) Doing so will only harm you, and I have faith in all of you that you want this contest to be constructive. But feel free to spread the word about this contest! More on the not-telling-people thing on Monday's post.

Some brief clearer-upper points of conduct:

1. HAVE FUN! PLEASE PLEASE HAVE FUN! Oh. And hope this helps you, too :D

AND PLEASE, tell me if I'm missing anything. Ask questions below.

We'll be Tweeting under the Twitter hashtag #BecomeAnAgent! Twitter really is amazing for authors to connect and celebrate together :D It'll be fun. I'm SC_Author on Twitter.

I'll post more guidelines about ethically voting and voting fairly on Monday, when all the posts go up :) The critiques and the explanations for the votes are really the biggest part of this contest, so I'll need another post to discuss them in detail.

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

Interview with (Agented) Contest Winner, Sherry Ellis!

SO. I recently ran a "Become an Agent" contest and Sherry Ellis's query won!!!

She emailed me a few days later to tell me that she got representation for BIG HOLE TO CHINA with Owen Burnham (UK) and Anne Charles (USA) of L & C Agency.

SO. OF COURSE. We had to celebrate. How? With an interview, of course!
Here is an interview with Sherry Ellis

(I think I'm going to start making this a 'thing' with the contest winners from now on. Yes! There will be more contests! Stay tuned.)

This is a 7 Question Interview because 7 is Harry Potter's magical number :)

1. Tell us about your writing/publication experience. How did the querying process go? The actual writing? Was it hard?

Let’s just say it has been an extremely long process! Writing the first draft took about three months. It was the revisions that took forever! I revised it about one hundred times before I felt it was ready for submission. That took another year. And then I submitted it. That was a year ago. One agent said he liked the concept, but he felt my protagonists weren’t strong enough. So guess what? I had to go back to the drawing board and rewrite the whole thing, again! (I changed the point of view from third person to first person, and it worked much better.) So we’re talking a three year process just to get the manuscript where it is today. As far as the query process, I was a mad woman sending out query letters. I started in January this year, and sent out 93 queries. I received 36 rejections. (Interestingly, after I had been accepted by the L & C Literary Agency, another agent expressed interest in my manuscript.)


2. What/Who kept you going on this quest for publication, especially if you felt like giving up some times?

Part of it was internal – I have a drive to succeed. And I felt my idea was a good one. The other part has to do with the awesome ladies in my critique group. They helped so much with suggestions to make my manuscript and query letter better. They too, felt I had something good with a lot of marketing potential. I really couldn’t have done it without them!


3. Give us a step-to-step about how 'the call' went. More importantly, how did it feel? :D What was your reaction?

Wow! I was so excited. I could not believe that I had actually gotten a “yes”! I think I’m still in shock. I have written so many manuscripts and received so many rejections. I could probably wallpaper my house with all of the rejection letters! The agent was extremely positive about my manuscript and said it was “compelling and well-written.” He said he wished to represent me. So of course I had to accept!


4. How long did you expect to go on submitting?

Forever. I was really hoping it wouldn’t take that long, though! Seriously, I had planned to submit to every agent and publisher who might be interested in my genre, until I got a “yes.” I figured it would take a few years to get through all of them.


5. What is your favorite book? Genre? Author?

I’m a kid at heart, so I love reading kid lit. I’d have to say my favorite genre is Middle Grade fiction, and my favorite author is Rick Riordan. His book, Throne of Fire, is terrific. My all-time favorite book though, is Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. It’s all about what‘s really important in life. If you read it, make sure you have a box of tissues with you. I pretty much use an entire box when I read it!


6. Harry Potter or Twilight? (Or Hunger Games, Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr. Who...whatever obsession is your greatest :D)

 Harry Potter, hands down! I love the characters and complexity of the plot. I think the books are so well-written. And of course it’s Middle Grade/YA fiction, which I thoroughly enjoy! (Although, I think Dr. Who is kind of fun!)

(Yes! Yes yes yes! Nothing more to add.)

Funnest question (in my opinion):
7. What part of your book did your agent love the most? Basically, what made him want to offer representation? (It's okay, you can gloat here :D)

He liked my main character, six-year-old Bubba. He thought Bubba had a great voice and quite a sense of humor. (I have to admit, it has been a ton of fun writing the way a six-year-old would view the world. The only trouble is, now I have a six-year-old in my head!) He also thought the book would be a great educational tool since it teaches kids about the language, history, and culture of other countries around the world.

Here’s a snippet from my book:
Just then I heard a rumble sound. But it wasn’t from thunder. My tummy did a flip-flop because what happened next was bad. The ground got all shaky. Then it cracked.

“Get out!” Squirt screamed.

I dropped my shovel and climbed. Except I couldn’t get out, because that hole got big. Real big. “Help!” I yelled.

“Bubba!” Squirt reached for me. Then the ground shook. The floor opened and I went down. Down, down, down through the big hole.

^Yea. That is pretty darn fantastic.

Thank you so much for having me as a guest! I wish all aspiring writers out there success in finding an agent or publisher for their work!



Visit (and congratulate) Sherry at her website,  Twitter, blog, Facebook, and Amazon Author Page!

Congrats, Sherry! Excellent query and snippet! And thanks for doing this interview and participating in the "Become an Agent" contest!

Contest Winners, & I Quit Blogging

Rabbit, rabbit!

About me quitting blogging.

It was a tough decision. Truly. But blogging just takes up way too much time, and although I had a lot of hope for more contests and the like, I don't think I can do all of this anymore.

You guys were amazing. Really. I loved meeting every single one of you and you made me feel like I wasn't alone in this publication hope I have. I don't think I'll ever forget you guys.

This will be my last post, and a happy one at that -- I'm announcing the winners of the "Become an Agent Contest" :) Hopefully, it will lighten my mood. I'm going to shut down my blog tomorrow....

APRIL FOOLS!!!

Lol. I'm not quitting blogging. And this won't be my last post (*fingers crossed*). I JUST LOVE ME MY APRIL FOOLS JOKES!!! Everyone around me in my real life: beware. This is my favorite holiday (it really is, not lying). I love the writerly community, guys. I'm not quitting blogging today :)

Now, the contest.

First of all, you guys were AWESOME. Truly. I couldn't believe all the great critiques, comments, and feedback you were giving each other -- and so many of you went above and beyond and critiqued queries you weren't even required to! That is amazing. You guys are truly wonderful. Thank you so much for being such amazing people.

Here are the winners:

First place:

1. Post #16 with 7 Yes's.

Tied for second place:

1. Post #1 with 6 Yes's.
2. Post #11 with 6 Yes's.
3. Michelle Huak (Post #12) with 6 Yes's.

(Comment or email me, all winners, if you are okay with/want me to post your names as well. I was about to, but then I stopped. I think I should ask permission first :D)

It was close, guys, and you all had good queries. You should be so proud of yourselves.

WAIT. There's more.

Shell Flower made a great suggestion in the comments of this post. And I think that idea is great.

• If you want to post one query revision in the comments of your query submission, go ahead. (Just one revision. If it becomes a query critique forum, it'd be too crazy :D) 
• Then, others can critique it by replying to that comment. No more limits on Yes's. Just vote Yes or No, and go in depth (like you've been doing :D).
• If you do critique others' queries, feel free to link or put your post number in that critique so others can find your query.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO THIS. NOT AT ALL! Seriously, I really, really mean it. You guys have done such a great job already. This is for those who want to hone their queries a little more. So if you got a lot of Yes's, don't bother. Seriously. You don't have to do this. You have no obligations whatsoever. None of us (I hope) will mind if you decide not to do more critiques. In the end, it means more work. You don't need to do this. (I'm trying to make it as clear as possible, if you can't tell, hehe.)

If you do revisions, just say so in the comment section of this post, and include your query's post number. That way, others can find your queries faster. And if you get a critique, it'd be great if you returned the favor :)

1st place winner, check your email soon :)

FEEDBACK TIMEEE!!!!!!!! What'd you like to see changed next time? Any other contest idea?

Thank you for making this contest such a success! You all were truly amazing and kind (I smiled/glowed/beamed every time you guys said you enjoyed the contest). You guys are fantastic :)

"Become an Agent" Voting Guidelines!

For some reason I can't see posts 3—14. Can you guys? If not, go to the side 'Labels' list and click 'Become an Agent Entries'

We are #BecomeAnAgent on Twitter :)

The posts are up! They're up! All 20 of them!!!!!

For those who don't know (and sorry, followers, for blowing up your Blogger dashboard with the entires!) I'm running a contest where writers submit their query letters and in turn, they critique seven other letters. They are only allowed to vote Yes on two of them. They vote as to whether they would request pages or not. So basically, they become an agent :)

And the audience can participate too!!!

Here are the voting guidelines for the entrants (those who are in the contest) and the audience.

For the entrants

• Entrants will have to critique a minimum of seven other queries and can vote Yes on two out of those seven. They must critique at least seven and give a however brief explanation as to why they voted Yes or No.
• Entrants must critique the seven queries which have higher numbers than their post (each post will have a post number). So, if you have post #9, you critique #2 through #8. But, say, if you have #3, you critique numbers 2, 1, then start from the other end, 20, 19, 18, 17, and 16.
• If entrants finish critiquing their seven queries and so amazingly want to critique more, then they have two choices:

1. Give a Yes or No for seven other queries. Two Yes's for the batch. (And, if they want to go on, have two Yes's for the other six queries remaining.
2. If they don't want to explain their No's, entrants can vote Yes on only three more queries out of the rest with no need to give/explain a No vote.

For the audience

• Audience members have only three Yes votes for the whole lot. (With no need to give/explain No's.) However, if the awesome audience does decide to give/explain No's, then just follow the same rules for the entrants.
• The only difference between the audience and the entrant voting procedures is that entrants are required to give a minimum of seven critiques, and explain Yes or No for each one. Audience can give three (or even less) Yes's to whichever queries they want.

There is no need for an elaborate explanation for each vote! You can say, "Yes, loved the premise." or "No, didn't like the character. Make us connect more emotionally to them?" Pretend you are agents and are sifting through your slush pile. Will you give an in depth critique for all of them? But do mention the reasons you voted Yes or No! And explain them enough so the writer can use the feedback to improve. If you want to give an in depth critique, please, do so. That'd be awesome :D

Since there is a maximum amount of Yes's, you can say in explanation of a No: "I would have given this a Yes, but I liked query #89 better. Sorry!" But keep these types of No's to a minimum. This query is about feedback and helping writers make better queries. This type of critique won't help them improve.

And don't vote No just because you don't like the genre. The writer will only query agents interested in their genre (hopefully). So read each query pretending that you like that genre.

The only types of unacceptable No's will be:

1. Genre-based No's. (See above paragraph for explanation.)
2. Cruel, spiteful No's.
3. No's with little-to-no explanation. Be specific! (But no need to do a whole line-by-line critique).

The only types of unacceptable Yes's will be:

1. Yes's obviously based on friendship ("Oh, she's my friend, so I have to give her a yes.") If you are friends with the writer and you truly love their query, then go ahead and vote Yes :D This is on the honor system. We're all adults here, and I trust you guys.
2. Yes's with little-to-no explanation.

Go go go!!!!!!!!!

P.S. I'm going to be out until Sunday night. I'll have a post scheduled for Friday just to check in to see how everything is going, but I won't be able to truly regulate the contest starting Wednesday until Sunday. So behave! And I'll post the winner (one with the most Yes's) on Monday :)

Have fun guys! And be nice! There are some formatting weird things in some posts that I couldn't fix, so I hope you'll forgive me for them :(

Winners of Become an Agent (Query) Contest!

I just came up with the name for this contest (instead of calling it "Query Contest"). Sad. I know. I came up with a catchy name after the contest ended. Grrr.
And, just WOW. I never realized just how amazing the writer's community is and just when I thought I did, I was in for a shocker once again. Everyone was so, so helpful when it came to spreading word about this contest. It was truly amazing. You guys are just fantastic.

All right.

Due to all your amazing efforts, I got double the required entries! That's just amazing. And even MORE amazing: these queries are doggone fantastic, people. I don't envy you having to vote Yes on just a few. If there are any agents lurking around here, take note! These manuscripts will be the future book deals.

I emailed the entrants yesterday, and the general consensus was to allow all 20 entries to be a part of this contest. Yay!! So instead of 10 queries going up on Monday, all 20 will go up.

If I you got an email with the subject "Contest Information (!!!)" you are in! Email me if you didn't get the email but think you got your query in on time.

What does this increase in number mean in terms of voting?

For the entrants

• Entrants will have to critique a minimum of seven other queries and can vote Yes on two out of those seven. They must critique at least seven and give a however brief explanation as to why they voted Yes or No.
• Entrants must critique the seven queries above their post (each post will have a post number). So, if you have post #9, you critique #2 through #8. But, say, if you have #3, you critique numbers 2, 1, then from the bottom, 20, 19, 18, 17, and 16.
• If entrants finish critiquing their seven queries and so amazingly want to critique more, then they have two choices:

1. Give a Yes or No for seven other queries and have two Yes's for the batch of seven. (And, if they want to go on, have two Yes's for the other six queries remaining (20 - 7 -7 = 6).
2. Give only a Yes for two more queries out of the entire rest of the entries (no need to give/explain a No vote).

• So, basically, if you give a Yes and No vote for all 20, you have 6 Yes's in total.

For the audience

• Audience members have only three Yes votes for the whole lot! (With no need to give/explain No's.) However, if the awesome audience does decide to give/explain No's, then just follow the same rules for the entrants.
• The only difference between the audience and the entrant voting procedures is that entrants are required to give a minimum of seven critiques and explain Yes or No for each one.

There is no need for an elaborate explanation for each vote! Pretend you are agents and are sifting through your slush pile. Will you give an in depth critique for all of them? But if you want to give an in depth critique, please, do so. That'd be awesome :D

Queries will go up on Monday.

Entrants: If you feel like doing one last revision over the weekend, send me your revised query by Sunday 9pm EST and make sure I reply in a few hours (so you know I got the revision).

Thank you guys so much for spreading the word for this contest!

Are you excited for Monday? (You shouldn't be. It's going to be incredibly tough to vote Yes on only a few of these amazing queries.)

Any questions?

This is My 100th Post!! (& Contest Update)

 This is my 100th published post! Wooo!!!!

It's weird, hitting this benchmark of blogging, in less than a year of blogging, too! I'm happy with where it's gone so far, but I neeeeed your feedback.

Do you like the design? I'm thinking of making the background of each post a more solid, creamy white instead of the transparent blue I have now. Would that look good? Anything you'd like to see more of? More contests? Thank you guys for helping me reach 100!

On to the contest!

Read up on the contest at this link and this link if you don't know about it yet. Make sure you fulfill the requirements and adhere to the format before you submit :)

YOU HAVE JUST ONE DAY LEFT! Contest will end tomorrow,

I've got asked one question that I'm sure a lot of people were thinking. This contest has no prize, right? So what's the point? THANK YOU for asking that question! I'd love to explain it.

I did seriously think about having a 'prize' for the winners. Maybe they'll move on to a first 250-word round next week. Maybe they'll get a partial critique. Whatever. But I didn't like the combination of 'winning' and 'critiquing'. This contest - for lack of a better word - is about critiquing. It's about feedback.

One thing to keep in mind is that even people without entries in the contest can critique the queries. I feel that if there was a prize, entrants with the most Twitter-followers or writerly friends would call on their friends to look at their queries - and, of course, get more YES's and win. Let's be honest - I would do that as well. But this tactic is not fair to an excellent writer with just one follower on Twitter.

Since there is no prize, there is no incentive to win. This is all about feedback and seeing if your query works or not.

Keep in mind, as the entrants can only give one YES vote for every five queries they critique, this contest will be brutal. Don't come in here expecting all YES's! Please! I can almost guarantee that you won't get it (I've read a bunch of amazing submissions already). I'm scared that people will be offended or hurt by this contest. That would suck really badly.

It would be great if you came in here on Monday (when the queries go up) expecting feedback to make your query stronger. Think of this as a workshop, not a contest.

Anyhow, GO GO GO! You have until Thursday (tomorrow!) 9pm EST to send in your query.

One question to you guys:

If there are a LOT of submissions, would you be okay if I bumped up the number of queries that get accepted? From 10, as it was before, to, say, 15 or 20? If so, instead of mandatorily critiquing five other queries, you'll have to do six or seven.

All votes will be accompanied by a short explanation of the vote - the voting guidelines and rules, along with the queries, will go up Monday.

I will inform those that got into the contest by email, as well as by posting the titles of their manuscripts on this blog on Friday.

Happy 100th post! And hope you guys get your queries in!

Become an Agent (Query Contest) Has BEGUN!!! Some Guidelines

CONTEST HAS ENDED :( But keep an eye on this blog; I might run this contest again!


You have from now until Thursday night, 9PM EST to send in your queries to SC_Author(at)yahoo(dot)com!!!! GO GO GO! Actually, read number 2 on the list below before you do.

The basic gist of it is that contestants can vote YES on only one out of five queries in the 'slush pile' that is my blog. Contestant with the most YES's wins. And non-contestants can participate too! They just have one YES for every ten queries. Also, there must be some explanation as to why each person gave a YES or a NO.

Clicky click this link if you don't know what I'm talking about (because you'll want to!). This contest is going to be fun!!!

Here is the format for your emails:

Again, send it to SC_Author(at)yahoo(dot)com as:

In the subject line put "Query Contest Submission" at least. That's all I need :D

In the actual body, put it like how I have below (so I can easily copy-and-paste from email to Blogger :D)

Bolded where bolded, italicized where italicized, with all the words included (so keep in 'Title', 'Genre', 'Word Count', etc. but, of course, put in your own personal details.)

Title: My Awesome Title!
Genre: My Awesome Genre!
Word Count: My not-so-awesome word count that I'd rather not tell anyone!

Then just slap in the meat of your query under the title, genre, and word count. Throw in your bio too, because agents DO look at that when they receive queries and it DOES make an impact. I want this contest to be as realistic to what agents see as possible.

But I will delete any names or stuff, because the agent (sadly) won't know who you are. This way, if you have some friend-bloggers who get in the contest as well, hopefully, they won't be influenced as much. And all critiques will not be personal in any way. All critiques will only be on the query.

I'm counting on you guys not to tell people which is your query :) Doing so will only harm you, and I have faith in all of you that you want this contest to be constructive. But feel free to spread the word about this contest! More on the not-telling-people thing on next Monday's post, when the actual entries go up.

Some brief clearer-upper points of conduct:

1. You can submit a query for at most two novels. The winners will be picked randomly by Random.org, so it's possible that both or none of your queries will get in. If there are a lot of entrants (*fingers crossed*) I will choose only one of your two queries to be considered (so mark, in the subject line "Query Contest Submission #1" or "#2" as to which is your most favorite).
2. Queries must be in by Thursday at 9pm EST. But, as this is a lottery, you don't gain anything by sending in your query before that deadline. All queries in by the deadline have an equal chance to get in. (Although I'll be freaking out if I get no queries by Thursday, 8:59 pm.)
3. You have to be following this blog to participate in the contest.
4. HAVE FUN! PLEASE PLEASE HAVE FUN! Oh. And hope this helps you, too :D

Guidelines on voting, critiquing, and everything else will go up next Monday when the queries go up. Not much, just things I want to touch upon before the voting begins.

One little confession:

I'm scared, SO scared, that writers will take it personally if their query gets a lot of NO's.

This contest was inspired by the Authoress's Public Slushpile contest which I partook in --  I got more than 40 no's and about 5 yes's. That contest was...oh, wow! Almost exactly a year ago -- March 21, 2012 -- but I still think that contest was one of the most helpful I've been in. I was devastated by the feedback, but it would have been worse if I went out and queried with that horrendous query. That contest was amazing.

Hopefully, this contest will be the same for you guys. I hope you enjoy, truly! And don't take it personally: each contestant has only one YES to give per five queries. Yours might be great, but another might be better.

Don't enter this contest if all you want is YES's. This contest is meant to help you grow and strengthen your query :D

(By the way, for my mom's birthday last Friday, we went to a new sushi place! I have fallen in love with mochi. That stuff is the bomb. And, Sunday night, my sister and I went and made a nice dinner for her :D)

YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME! Hope you enjoy! And I can't wait to read all your amazing queries! Put that query in the gym and get it in shape!

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.)