- PRIZES:
- First place: Critique of Full Manuscript
- Second Place: Critique of the first 50 pages
There will be a call for submissions. When the call comes, follow the guidelines carefully and submit before the deadline. All submissions will then be posted (anonymously) on the blog, and all readers are invited to leave critiques/feedback. Everyone who has entered the contest is expected to crit a minimum of five entries (and I'm not talking about "Oh this is good, I really like it." The biggest point of this contest is for the critiques. Get as detailed with them as possible. If it's good and you can't see a way to make it better, don't comment. Just go onto another that you can help with. However, IF you really like it, write a comment telling me you'd like to see this query + first 250 move onto the next round).
Our Secret Agent may or may not join the panel of critters (that is, you) and leave feedback for entries (through me). Then I will narrow down the list to the best twenty-five entries(using a number of factors, including your "votes"). When the contest has ended, the Secret Agent will choose a winner.
That's it in a nutshell!
Here are the basic guidelines for each Secret Agent contest:
- All excerpts submitted to the Secret Agent contest must be a query letter (no more than a page long) and the first 250 words of your COMPLETED manuscript.(VERY IMPORTANT! The manuscript MUST be completed.)
- Your submission must include your screen name and the title, genre, and word count of your novel.
- By emailing your submission to me, you are giving implicit permission to have your work posted and publicly critiqued.
- No submissions will be accepted prior to the opening of the contest. The maximum number of entries per contest is 25 submissions.
- Winners of previous contests may not submit the same manuscript in future contests.
- All contest entrants are required to critique a minimum of five other entries.
- NO ATTACHMENTS are accepted. Your query and 250 submission must be pasted into the body of your email
- Make the subject of your email Secret Agent Contest
- You will receive a confirmation email. (It may not be right away, but if you've made it into the first 25, you will get an email stating I received it and what number you were.)
- I will not make changes to your query or first 250 after you've sent it, so please make sure it's the best it can be before you send it.
- Address the agent as Secret agent.
- Put your query first, separate using the stars (***) and then place your first 250.
- Email address is secretagentcontest@gmail.com
