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.
Last week I entered a "First Kiss" critique on Miss Snark's First Victim. For those of you who don't know who Miss Snark, aka "Authoress" is, let me tell you. She is an anonymous blogger/YA & MG science fiction and fantasy writer. Her website is an amazing resource for aspiring authors that constantly hosts contests and critiques.
The "First Kiss" critique was open to the first 40 people who entered their 300 word or less "first kiss" scene from their manuscript. I was one of the first 40 (#23 to be exact) and I quickly submitted my 25 word lead-in to the scene in my manuscript that is the first real kiss between my two main characters. (They had an almost kiss that I considered using but decided against since I wanted more heat in the submission)
On Tuesday Authoress posted the entries and asked that each of us give at least 5 critiques letting those who entered know what we thought of their scene. We could say what worked or didn't work and give constructive criticism on how to fix any problems. Or we could just say how wonderful the scene was!
I read through all the entries and was blown away by the talent out there. I was nervous to have my scene read by so many (because her website has A LOT of followers) but I was also hopeful that it would lead to a good ego boost or at least an improvement on my writing.
Well, it did both! Yay!
Click on the link below to check out my scene and the critiques I received. If you want to read more entries just click back to Miss Snark's home page and scroll down.
http://www.misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com/2013/05/first-kiss-23.html
Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to comment below.
