Wednesday, May 2, 2012

"The Writer's Voice" Submission Guidelines

THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR ENTRIES! I'M JUST GIVING YOU A HEADS-UP. THE CONTEST OPENS TOMORROW, MAY 3.

“The Writer’s Voice” is a multi-blog, multi-agent contest hosted by Cupid of Cupid’s Literary Connection, Brenda Drake of Brenda Drake Writes, Monica B.W. of Love YA, and me. We’re basing it on NBC’s singing reality show The Voice, so the four of us will serve as coaches and select projects for our teams based on their queries and first pages.

Here’s the timeline:

May 3
Everyone submits their entries
May 3-10
We select our team members from “The Writer’s Voice” Blogfest
May 10-17
We coach our team members, helping them polish their entries
May 17
We post our team members’ entries on our blogs
May 21
Agents vote for their favorites

Since submissions will open tomorrow, here are a few more details as to how that will work:

The Genres

To enter “The Writer’s Voice,” 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 following genres:

Adult Fantasy
Adult Science Fiction
Adult Romance
YA fiction (all subgenres)
MG fiction (all subgenres)

Submission Windows

We’ll accept entries in two time slots. The first submission window will open at 9:00 a.m. EDT on Thursday, May 3, and will close once we receive 75 entries. The second submission window will open at 9:00 p.m. EDT on the same day and will close once we receive another 75 entries.

The Widget

We’ll accept submissions via one of Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets, which we’ll post on all four of our blogs on May 3. The widget will appear on our blogs at the same time and will sync with the other copies that appear on the other three blogs. So if Bobbie Sue goes to Cupid’s blog and signs up for the number five slot over there, she’ll show up in the number five slot on Brenda’s, Monica’s, and Krista’s blogs, too. In other words, it doesn’t matter which blog you use to sign up; the widget that appears on one of them is the same widget that appears on all of them.

Please note that WE’RE ONLY ACCEPTING 75 ENTRIES IN THE FIRST SUBMISSION WINDOW even though we’re programming the widget to accept 150 entries total, so if more than 75 people sign up tomorrow morning, WE WILL DELETE THE ADDITIONAL ENTRIES and ask those people to try again in the second submission window.

Posting Your Entry and Sending It to Us

Securing a slot in the widget is your confirmation that you’re in the contest. Once you’ve secured that slot (or in other words, once you’ve signed up for the blogfest), you’ll post THE PLOT SUMMARY FROM YOUR QUERY and THE FIRST 250 WORDS of your manuscript on your blog. Then you’ll send your query, first 250 words, and A LINK TO YOUR BLOG POST in the body of an e-mail to TheWritersVoiceContest(at)gmail(dot)com, with your blogfest number, title, and genre in the subject line.

In summary, you must follow these three steps to enter:

1. Sign up for the blogfest/secure a slot in the widget during one of the submission windows listed above.
2. Post the plot summary from your query and the first 250 words of your manuscript on your blog.
3. Send your plot summary, first 250 words, and a link to your blog post to TheWritersVoiceContest(at)gmail(dot)com, with your blogfest number, title, and genre in the subject line.

If you make it into the blogfest, please post your entry and send it to our e-mail address as quickly as possible. We just want to have plenty of time to review all the entries. Also, the e-mail address will send you an automated response to let you know we received your entry, so keep an eye out for that.

We think that about covers it. If you have any questions about the rest of the process, please refer to our last post about the contest. And if you have any last-minute questions about tomorrow’s submissions, feel free to ask them in the comments below.

17 comments:

Julie DeGuia said...

What a fun contest! Wish I had something completed to enter... good luck to those who do!

Betsy said...

Hi Krista! I second Julie - what a fun contest! On the off chance I were to make it in, how terrible would it be if my blog contained a few entries possibly not appropriate for a MG and YA audience? It's sprinkled with a few "bad" words, for a start. Other question: I created my blog just to enter this contest, but then I kind of took off with it. Now I don't want to throw off my theme with the contest entry, so I created an extra tab entitled "contest entry". Will that work? Thanks so much! You are so awesome and I love lurking around your blog contests!

Krista Van Dolzer said...

Julie, if you'll have a manuscript ready in another six months, you ought to check out the Miss Snark's First Victim blog. Authoress hosts an agent auction every November/December, and they're tons of fun, too.

Betsy, we're not terribly concerned about your blog content; it's just your query and first page we're interested in:) And the extra tab should be fine. As long as you enable comments on that page (and send us a direct link to it in your e-mail), we'll make it work!

Carrie-Anne said...

Just to make sure I'm reading the instructions right, we only need to post the synopsis paragraphs of the query, and not the bio or personalization paragraphs? I assume we still need to indicate the title and genre.

Krista Van Dolzer said...

Yes, Carrie-Anne, just the synopsis paragraphs of the query. You'll include the title and genre in the subject line of the e-mail you send to TheWritersVoiceContest(at)gmail(dot)com, but you may include it in your blogfest post, too, if you choose.

Cortney Pearson said...

Thanks, Krista! So excited!! :D

Heather Hawke said...

I'm sorry I'm not a blogger for this contest, but someone has to be in the peanut gallery. Eventually, I hope to be in a group blog kind of situation. I am in awe of individuals who can keep it up. Good luck to everyone entering.

Betsy said...

Thank you!

Krista Van Dolzer said...

I am, too, Cortney!

Well, Heather, if you decide to join the blogosphere at some point in the future, you'll have to let us know.

No problem, Betsy!

tlbodine said...

Ahhh, so exciting! I'm debating if I want to pull an all-nighter or try to wake up super early to join in the fun (or just wait til the evening round and try my luck). I'm on a "vampire schedule" and tend to go to bed about 3 hours before the contest starts in the morning....

Write Life said...

What if no one turns their chairs around? Bites nails!!
Fun...and scary!!
And why do I strangely feel the strongest desire to sing?! This contest could prove disastrous for those around me. I'm off to belt out my query to the tune of Queen's, 'We are the champions!' I'm obviously getting punchy!

Matthew MacNish said...

This sounds so awesome, I think I'll get in on it. Thanks, Krista!

And like Betsy, I'll probably create a separate page, so that it doesn't upstage my regular posts.

Kristen Wixted said...

I'm in too! See you out there, Matt, and everyone else.
:)

Krista Van Dolzer said...

Thanks for your support, all! If you didn't make it in this window, please come back tonight at 9:00 p.m. EDT (or 6:00 p.m. PDT)!

misstante said...

krista, i tried to sign up at spot 149, but it wouldn't let me. i will try again tonight, but wondered if i was doing something wrong. i just click on the 'you're next' link and submit my blog link? thanks so much for everything you do!!! it's FABULOUS!!

Krista Van Dolzer said...

Misstante, we only accepted 75 entries this morning, so the widget won't let anyone else sign up. Please come back tonight at 9:00 p.m. EDT and try again!

Stacey Trombley said...

Question. I sent in my email but didn't get an automated response back. Should I wait a little longer? (it's been two hours since I sent it) Or resend?