Contests

I wanted to inform my fellow YA writers out there of some contests that might be of interest. I heard about these from following other writers/authors blogs and from twitter. Here we go:

Query Kombat is a March-madness-style tournament that pits writers' query + first 250 words up against each other in brackets. The "winner" of a bracket is determined by the hosts: SC Write, Michelle4laughs, and Writer's Outworld. Agents will be browsing the semi-finals and mentoring kombatants and requesting material. Even though there will only be one winner, this is a great opportunity to get your manuscript out there, get some feedback, and hopefully score an agent! The submission window opened on Monday and closes on Friday (or when they receive 225 entries). As of right now, I don't think they have received those 225 so there's still time to enter. Good Luck!

#pitmad: This is a Twitter pitch party. On May 28th from 8am to 8pm EDT agents will be browsing this twitter hashtag and telling pitchers what they're interested in. All you have to do is pitch your manuscript using the pitmad hashtag. Make it good because you can't go over 140 characters. If an agent in interested they will either favorite your tweet pitch or @ you. Here's a link to author Brenda Drake's blog for more info: http://brenleedrake.blogspot.com/

Adventures in YA & Children's Publishing:  This blog has a "First 5 pages" workshop they hold the first Saturday of every month. Agents will mentor you on your work and site browsers can comment/critique as well. Click on the "Contests and Workshops" tab to find out more.

Miss Snark's First Victim: Miss Snark, AKA Authoress, holds several critiques and contests throughout the year. Click on the "Crits and Contests" link to learn more. Many writer's have found agents through her website.



Well, there you have it. This isn't a comprehensive list so as I find out more, I will let you know. Feel free to suggest any you know about in the comments section below.