There's a new contest going on and submissions are open today and tomorrow (to midnight EST tomorrow, Sept 13-going-on-14). I know we have some might talented query writers here in the YA forum, so show them how to do it! Details are in that announcement at the top of each subforum, or, hey, you can read below:
Birol said:Ever wonder if your query letter is capable of grabbing an agent’s attention or what it’s like to read hundreds of queries and decide which ones were sent by authors who had written the next best seller? Ever wonder what it’s like to, well, be an agent?
With the You’re the Agent Contest, it’s your chance to find out first hand. (Okay, not really. There’s much more to being an agent than sorting through submissions, but this is the fun part, right?)
Here’s how it works:
1) Anyone interested in participating should submit their query letter to lori(at)royell(dot)org, preferably as a .doc or .rtf file. Submissions should be sent between 12:01AM Eastern time on Saturday, September 12th and 11:59PM Eastern time on Sunday, September 13th. Remember to include your AW userid in the body of the e-mail.
2) Hardy volunteers will format and post all of the submissions for review.
3) Once all the submissions are posted, voting will be open to the general public. Any registered member of AW can read the queries and vote for their favorites. Voting will be by PM to individuals to be announced at the appropriate time.
4) The ten contestants who receive the most votes will advance to the next round. The authors of the Top10 query letters will then submit the 1st 10 pages of their manuscripts. Only the Top 10 will proceed to this level.
5) Repeat steps 2 and 3.
6) Only three contestants will advance to the next round. The Final Three will, after a brief opportunity to give a final polish to their query and 1st ten pages, submit said query and opening pages to a special judge to be described later. This final judge will select the winner from the Final Three.
And, yes, there will be prizes. Right now, for the winner, we have:
• $20 for a one-month subscription to Publishers Marketplace
• A line crit of your 1st three chapters
• A book tote goodie bag
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