Tonight's the night! Agent-judged contest will open tonight at 9 PM EST. Details below.
EVERYBODY WINS!
Agent Kathleen Ortiz of Lowenstein Associates will be judging our next contest. Here are the deets:
- Opens Tuesday June 1, 2010 at 9:00 PM EST
- Only 100 entries will be accepted
- Genres: Young Adult and Middle Grade only (next month's contest will be adult only.)
- You must be a follower of the QueryTracker blog, widget at right.
To enter the contest:
- You must have a free QueryTracker membership
- You must submit a one-sentence pitch (helpful links below) and your first chapter
- Your submission will be accepted on the submission form (won't be available until the contest opens)
- DO NOT EMAIL YOUR SUBMISSION DIRECTLY TO THE AGENT. You will be disqualified if you do.
This contest is not for whiners! It is only open to those who are willing to receive honest feedback. Ms. Ortiz will:
- Treat every entry as a partial submission (therefore you must only enter if you, in Ms. Ortiz's words "for the LOVE OF GODIVA," have a completed MS)
- Read every entry TO THE POINT SHE WOULD NORMALLY STOP READING on a partial submission
- She will tell you why she stopped reading
- She will request more of the manuscript only if it is something she would normally request.
Helpful links on pitching at Elana Johnson's blog.
Literary agent Laura Rennert helps you build your pitch.
Literary agent Rachelle Gardner reveals the secrets of a great pitch.
Also, read a word about pitches and what makes them work by last month's judge, Chris Richman.
Good luck! And let us know if you have any questions.
13 comments:
I have a question, I'm still writing my novel, I'm on the second chapter, can I still enter it? I have a total word-count.
Thanks so much, I'll be so to enter!
Sorry Kirthi, completed manuscripts only.
How will we know if we made it into the top 100 entries? Thanks!
Wow! I tried to enter at exactly 9:00, and the contest was already full!
Susan, if the form accepted your entry, then you're in.
Lara, sorry you didn't make it in. It only took about 2 minutes to fill.
I'm sure Ms. Ortiz would have taken more if she could, but reading 100 chapters is going to be quite a load.
Oh, no problem at all! Congratulations on such a successful contest :-) I'll keep my eyes open for the next one.
This contest sounds wonderful. I didn't enter, but I'd love to see Ms. Ortiz's comments on the entries to see what worked for her and what didn't. Are they going to be posted for all to see?
Thanks!
I don't think so, Sheila. If someone wants to volunteer to have their chapter and comments posted, that would be fine. But, we won't force anyone to reveal their chapters on a public forum.
Gotcha. Thanks for answering. And good luck to all who got in!
Patrick: If we did make it into the top 100, can you explain the next step of the process? Does Ms. Ortiz contact us through email with her responses?
Thanks!
Lori
LS, The agent will email her critique back to you directly. But please be patient, there is a lot of work involved and it will probably take some time, especially when you consider her already heavy workload.
I would also like to ask everyone to not email the agent for status checks, she's working on them as fast as she can. If you feel enough time has passed and you haven't heard anything, please contact us at QueryTracker first.
Thanks very much, Patrick.
LS
Ms. Ortiz has posted some information about how she will be judging the contest and when to expect replies. Go to her blog at http://kortizzle.blogspot.com/2010/06/query-tracker-contest-update.html
Post a Comment