We are pleased to announce yet another contest. Literary agent Anna Webman of Curtis Brown Ltd. wants to see your stuff! She has generously agreed to peruse the first five pages plus a synopsis of your YA novel. What a great opportunity! Here are all the details:
- This contest is for completed Young Adult novels only. (All the genres that fall under the YA umbrella.)
- The contest will open this Tuesday, November 10th, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. (That's 6:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.)
- You will need to submit the following: Your first five pages AND a single-spaced one-page synopsis.
- A free membership on the QueryTracker main site is required.
- Submissions will be accepted through the official form on the QT main site ONLY.
- Only one entry per person will be accepted.
- Due to the high word count of the materials being submitted, we will be capping the number of entries at 70.
So now you're probably thinking (gasp!) not the dreaded synopsis! Never fear, Heather has two fantastic posts that will help you make yours shine:
Watch for a special post Tuesday morning with a link to the submission page, and then a post Tuesday evening announcing the contest's opening.
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments of this post. Good luck!
Suzy
34 comments:
Woohoo! Super excited!
Very excited for this, but I have a question. There's been some argument about this elsewhere: for a one page synopsis, is that one page single-spaced or one page double-spaced?
I'd always heard single, but now hearing otherwise.
Thanks!
How Great!
Great question, Selestial. The synopsis should be one page single-spaced.
Cool. Thank you very much!
Bummer! But an awesome opportunity for YA writers!
Love to play, but no YA novel. I'll keep checking back for an announcement about a MG novel contest!
Bummer! But an awesome opportunity for YA writers!
Love to play, but no YA novel. I'll keep checking back for an announcement about a MG novel contest!
What a great contest. I even have a finished YA but it's urban fantasy and I just looked her up and saw she reps realistic fiction. Best of luck to everyone :)
Great news, Kristi. Anna says she is open to any and all YA.
Oooh, so close, but it's still a few more weeks before my book's ready to query. The temptation's there, but I think I'll devour some halloween candy instead. Good luck everyone who makes it in!
Thanks Suzette - now I just have to decide if I can finish the revisions I want to do in the next day :) Decisions, decisions...
LOL, Stina. Pass some chocolate this way!
The contest doesn't open until Tuesday of next week, so that should give the rest of you time to get your material ready.
I'm so excited - these contests are really, really fun.
Can't wait! Chewing nails over getting my 4 page synopsis down to one, though. Eeek! Looking foward to reading your provided links. Good luck to all who enter!
What a great opportunity!
If your submission is chosen, when will the full manuscript be requested? I have a complete ms but wanted to polish it, and I just need to know how much time I have!
Hi Kimy,
To answer your question, Anna has asked for two weeks to judge the entries. (How cool is it that she's willing to look at so much material?!?) So you should have plenty of time to do a polish.
I have a question.
My sister and I have cowritten a novel. Would we be able to enter or is it limited to single authors?
This contest sounds awesome!
Yay for co-authoring with your sister! My sister and I are doing the same - and loving it.
Yes, you absolutely can still enter the contest. You'll have to enter it under either your QT account or hers, or create a joint account, if you wish. You'll be prompted to enter an email addy, so you will have to choose which one to use... but definitely do enter. Let me know if you have further questions.
suzettesaxton@querytracker.net
Will the announcement and link be posted here on this blog or on twitter, or both, or somewhere else? (Did that sound a little neurotic. Meds are wearing off.)
~Paige :)
I think all writers are a little neurotic when it comes to submissions. ;) The link will be posted here on this blog on Tuesday morning. An announcement about the link will follow on Twitter.
I am just wondering-- how is this different from just querying her regularly? (apart from the fact that we'll be competing against at least 69 others vs against however many queries she reads in a day)
This sounds like an wonderful opportunity. I'm not finished with my novel, and won't be in time for this contest. I have a question though. I've only written adult inspirational fiction so far. My current novel is a supernatural thriller and the main characters are in high school. Would that bring this into the YA category, or should I keep something like that for adult fiction? My children are all under 5, so I've not really dealt with what the literary field conciders YA. Thanks for all the help that will come!
Sorry, I forgot how to say you can send me your advice. To get a better idea of the novel in question you can read the excerpt for it from my website as well. You can contact me through my webpage... www.authorphilipkledzik.books.officelive.com
Thanks again!
Philip Kledzik
"Painted Rooms"
Groosemoose, a contest gives you an opportunity to have your material read and considered, whereas with querying there is no guarantee your work will even be looked at. Plus, contests are fun! Even for agents. They like getting a spreadsheet full of writing samples because it is different for them than the usual grind. I know many authors who have had a boost in their careers because of contests, whether in the form of an offer of representation or feedback that led to them getting an offer shortly thereafter.
Authorphilipkledzik, only you can decide if you should market your book as YA. Most likely it is YA because of the age of your characters, but sometimes very literary books about teens are sold successfully as adult fiction. My best advice would be to go to the library and check out the most popular YA titles and read them to see how yours compares. Best of luck!
Will your contest submission be posted online for others to read or will it just go directly to Anna Webman?
Only Anna will see your submission. We will announce the winners by name, but not be posting any of their work. :)
So good to know about the urban fantasy! I've been done for over a year now, and the editing has been so much fun. I'm now ready to let people see it. This will be exciting!
I have just finished a YA novel, but it is the first in what I hope will be a series, is that acceptable for this contest? Or does it have to be a stand-alone book? Thanks!
You are welcome to submit a novel that is the first in a series.
Hi, I'm a fairly new member of QT and would like to participate in Ms. Webman's contest. If I understand correctly, there should have been a blog post up earlier this morning (I'm on PST time) that shared a link to a submissions page. Has that post gone up yet, or has there been a delay of some kind? I haven't yet seen it but perhaps I am looking in the wrong area of the QT site or QT blog?
Thanks so much!
~Cheri
Dear Suzette,
Thanks for sponsoring the contest. I'm a member of QT and went to the main site to discover where the mentioned form is located in advance of the 'start time' but can't find it. Is it there, or will it appear tomorrow at 9 pm?
Thanks for your help!
Laurel
This may seem like a silly question. Though it’s already been established that the synopsis should be single-spaced, what about the first 5 pages? I know that they would typically be double-spaced, but my book is told in the first person by a teenaged girl. The intro (which takes up the first 5 pages exactly) does not reflect that, so I tend to send the first 7-8 pages with this explanation.
Sorry guys – the contest ended last night. But you are welcome to send a traditional query to Anna and tell her the QTblog sent you.
To see the newest blog posts on this blog, and hopefully avoid confusion in the future, use this addy: http:querytracker.blogspot.com.
And keep an eye on the blog – we will be having more contests in the future!
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