Friday, August 10, 2012

"An Agent's Inbox" Contest Alert

THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR ENTRIES! I’M JUST GIVING YOU A HEADS-UP. THE CONTEXT OPENS NEXT MONDAY, AUGUST 13.

It’s been a while since we did one of these, so here’s a quick refresher. “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, August 13, and then I'll post them next Wednesday, August 15. The entrants and anyone else who wishes to review them may comment until the following Tuesday, August 21, when I'll announce the winners. Those winners will be chosen by The Agent, who will remain nameless for now, and he or she will offer whatever prizes he or she wishes.

The 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 APRIL’S ROUND 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, August 14, 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. EDT (OR 7:00 A.M. PDT). 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 he or she might only pick one. The Agent might offer full requests, or he 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 he or she would a normal batch of queries. Essentially, The Agent will 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, August 13, at 10:00 a.m. EDT! At that time, you may send your entries to kvandolzer(at)gmail(dot)com. Looking forward to it!

The Genres

YA Fiction (all subgenres)
Women’s Fiction
Adult Commercial Fiction
Adult Science Fiction
Adult Fantasy
Adult Cozy Mysteries
Adult Romance

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below!

13 comments:

Robin said...

Yes! I finally have my MS ready to start entering An Agent's Inbox. Thanks for hosting!

Teresa said...

Do you have a preference for what we put in the subject line?

Tracy MacDonald said...

This is awesome! What a great idea. Sadly, my early reader MS doesn't fit the criteria, but I look forward to reading the ones that make it to the contest.

Rachel said...

Yay! Looking forward to it. :)

Krista Van Dolzer said...

Yay, Robin! Good luck!

No preference, Teresa. We're not dealing with a ton of entries, so they're not too hard to keep track of.

Sorry, Tracy! I must admit, I don't often line up agents who represent early readers. Perhaps I should look into that...

Best of luck, Rachel!

Anonymous said...

I'm excited to see all the entries and the agents response to them. Thanks for hosting this Krista!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for organizing this contest!

Just wondering, does upper middle grade count as YA?

Krista Van Dolzer said...

Janealfalor, I love seeing what The Agent has to say, too:)

Anon, that's your call. Bear in mind that I don't let people enter more than one round in a six-month time period, and I'm pretty sure both September's and October's rounds will include MG, so it may be in your best interest to wait. That said, if you do decide to enter this time, I'd just call your manuscript YA instead of upper MG.

Marcia said...

Krista, thank you for this. Mine is MG, so I'm glad for the info that future rounds will include MG.

Krista Van Dolzer said...

Yes, Marcia, definitely come back in September. (And if not September, October!)

Arianna said...

Haha! I'm totally entering but it looks like I'll be working off my iPhone seeing I'll be at camp all week. This should fun! Woot! Woot!

Aldrea Alien said...

Sounds good to me.
Who do we to address the email to?

Krista Van Dolzer said...

More power to you, Arianna. I was never much of a camper... :)

Aldrea, in this case, "Dear Agent" will be fine, since this month's agent is going incognito.