Monday, September 26, 2011

Now Accepting Entries

UPDATE: Well, we filled 19 of our 50 slots right off the bat, but if you remember your second-grade math, that means we still have a lot of openings. I've responded to every e-mail sent before 10:45 a.m. EDT, so if you didn't receive a reply, check your spam folder. If you still can't find my reply, feel free to resend your entry.

I'm stepping away from the computer for a few hours and probably won't check my e-mail again until around 2:30 p.m. EDT. Feel free to keep sending entries; you just won't hear back from me until then.

I'm now accepting entries for September’s round of "An Agent's Inbox"! Here's a quick refresher:

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 EITHER OF THE PREVIOUS ROUNDS OF “AN AGENT’S INBOX,” please DO NOT participate in this one. I have a pretty good memory, and I will disqualify previous entries. If the entry slots don’t fill up by Tuesday, September 27, I will allow previous participants to enter, but you need to wait until you see my Tuesday post to do so.

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 50 entries. I won't accept any entries sent before the entry window opens or after the first 50 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 50 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.

The Genres

YA (all subgenres, fiction or nonfiction)
MG (all subgenres, ficiton or nonfiction)

To enter, please send an e-mail with YOUR QUERY and THE FIRST 250 WORDS of your manuscript to kvandolzer(at)gmail(dot)com. And please, please, please remember to PASTE THESE ITEMS IN THE BODY OF THE E-MAIL.

9 comments:

Kim said...

If you don't fill up, can we post a second query for a different book? Thanks.

Krista Van Dolzer said...

Good question, Kimmy. Let me think about that and get back to you.

Janet Johnson said...

Thanks for the opportunity. I think this will be awesome!

Suzanne Warr said...

Didn't see this before, so I just sent mine. My guess is you're already full, but, who knows? Maybe I'll be lucky.

Thanks for offering us another round of agent inbox awesomeness!

Krista Van Dolzer said...

You're welcome, Janet! Good luck!

Suzanne, you're in! I remember seeing your entry! It's never too late to try, right? :)

And Kimmy, I've thought it over, and I've decided I'm not going to allow a writer to submit multiple manuscripts to the same round of "An Agent's Inbox." I think, with very rare exceptions, it's in a writer's best interest to only query one manuscript - her best manuscript - at a time. Like I said, there are exceptions, but for the purposes of this contest, I think we'll stick with one writer, one manuscript.

A.L. Sonnichsen said...

Krista, you are amazing! Have fun with this one!

Amy

Amy Tripp said...

It's killing me that I can't enter, but my MG historical fantasy isn't quite ready. Perhaps next month.

You're so great for doing this!

Krista Van Dolzer said...

Amy, I wouldn't go straight to "amazing." Maybe "crazy" would be a more apt description:) It's a lot of work for me upfront, but then I get to sit back and watch everything unfold. So it is fun by the end.

Other Amy, I know how you feel! I hate having a manuscript that's *almost* ready. It's so tempting. But never fear - next month's round of "An Agent's Inbox" will include MG, too! Hopefully, you can make it in for that one.

Amy Tripp said...

Krista,
Whooo hooo!! LOL. Perhaps I (or my ms) will be fully polished by next month. :)