THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR ENTRIES! I'M JUST GIVING YOU A
HEADS-UP. THE CONTEST OPENS NEXT MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14.
“An Agent's Inbox” is exactly what it sounds like--next week, I'm turning the
blog into an agent's inbox, a public one. We'll get to see 20 queries along
with their first pages, and we'll get to hear what a bona fide agent thinks of
each one.
The queries and first pages will be yours, of course. I'll accept your entries
this Monday, November 14, and then I'll post them next Wednesday, November 16.
The entrants and anyone else who wishes to review them may comment until the
following Tuesday, November 22, when I'll announce the winners.
Those winners will be chosen by The Agent, and this month,
The Agent is Taylor Martindale* of Full Circle Literary!
Rules
1. To enter, your manuscript must meet two conditions: First, it must be
COMPLETE, POLISHED, AND READY TO QUERY, and second, it must be in one of the
genres The Agent represents (which are listed at the bottom of this post).
2. IF YOU PARTICIPATED IN ANY OF THE PREVIOUS ROUNDS OF “AN AGENT’S INBOX,”
please DO NOT participate in this one UNLESS YOU HAVE A NEW MANUSCRIPT that
meets the criteria listed above. I have a pretty good memory, and I will
disqualify previous entries. If the entry slots don’t fill up by Tuesday, November
15, I may allow previous participants to enter, but I’m not going to make that
decision right now.
3. All entries must include A QUERY and THE FIRST 250 WORDS of your manuscript.
You must paste these items IN THE BODY OF YOUR E-MAIL; otherwise, I'll
disqualify it.
4. THE ENTRY WINDOW OPENS AT 10:00 A.M. EST (OR 7:00 A.M. PST). Once the entry
window opens, I'll accept the first 20 entries. I won't accept any entries sent
before the entry window opens or after the first 20 slots fill up.
5. If your entry makes it in, I'll send you a confirmation e-mail with a post
number. If your entry doesn't make it in, I'll still send you an e-mail, but it
won't have a post number.
6. If your entry makes it in, YOU MUST COMMENT ON AT LEAST 3 OTHER ENTRIES.
The Prizes The Agent will select both the winners and the
prizes. The Agent might pick 20 winners, or she might only pick one. The Agent
might offer full requests, or she might only ask to see another page. It all
depends on how good the entries are.
Please keep in mind that THIS CONTEST ISN'T FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. I've encouraged
The Agent to treat the entries exactly as she would a normal batch of queries.
Essentially, she’ll be answering the question, "How much of the entry did
you read, and if you didn't read it all, why did you stop?" I think this
process will be instructive for all of us, but if you enter, you need to be
prepared to hear exactly what The Agent thinks of your query and first page.
So get those queries and first pages polished up, then meet us back here on
Monday, November 14, at 10:00 a.m. EST! At that time, you may send your entries
to kvandolzer(at)gmail(dot)com. Looking forward to it!
The Genres
YA fiction (all subgenres)
MG fiction (all subgenres)
Women’s fiction (historical, multicultural, and book club)
If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below!
*I know this probably goes without saying, but if you’re
thinking about entering, you should probably treat this round a little
differently because you already know who The Agent is. Feel free to do a little
research and include personalization in your queries. Also, if Ms. Martindale has
already rejected your query, YOU PROBABLY DON’T WANT TO ENTER UNLESS YOU’VE
MADE SIGNIFICANT CHANGES TO YOUR QUERY AND/OR MANUSCRIPT. I’m not going to say
you can’t enter (mostly because I have no way to police it), but you--and
she--are going to get a lot more out of this contest if you enter something The
Agent hasn’t seen before.
13 comments:
Can't wait! Thanks Krista and Taylor.
I can't wait, either, Elizabeth!
Are you taking next month off, or will there be a December Agent's Inbox?
Taylor is so, so, so, so cool! Lucky person who wins this round!
Krista, you are cool too for spending your time doing this!
Amy
Myrna, I will be hosting a December round, tentatively scheduled for the week before Christmas. I'm planning to take a massive blogging break after New Year's, what with the baby coming and all, so I wanted to get one more round in before that break.
Taylor IS so cool, isn't she, Amy? Thanks for stopping by!
Yay, I'm excited too. Thanks a bunch!!
No problem, Cortney!
Very cool, Krista! I wish I had my mg finished, so I could enter. (Too bad picture books and chapter books are on the list this time.)
I'm looking forward to reading the entries. :)
Krista: I'd love to join in on this, but alas, I have to work on Monday. I'm sure you will have your 20 by the time I get home from work tomorrow night. Have you ever considered opening these up later, or on weekends?
Krista, what a great opportunity. I might just join in. :-)
Sharon, I believe December's round will also include MG, so if you can have that manuscript ready to go within the next month, you could enter that one.
Jennifer, that's not a bad idea. Maybe we'll try that sometime. (And do check back here this evening, just to see where we're at. I've never filled a contest within the first couple of hours, so there's a chance you'll still have a shot later tonight.)
Jenny, looking forward to receiving your entry!
Thanks, Krista, but it was closed by the time I got home. Oh, Well. I'm totally here if you can do one later!
Jennifer, I'll try something different next month, either a Saturday submission or multiple submission windows. Thanks for letting me know this was a conflict for you.
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