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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

September Secret Agent Early Info

Please note: This is NOT the call for submissions! The contest will open next Monday, September 9.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES (please read carefully):

*There are TWO WAYS to enter: a) via email to authoress.submissions(at)gmail.com OR via web form at msfv.thoughbin.org
* THIS IS NOT A LOTTERY: The submission window will be open from NOON to 6:00 PM EDT. and will close when 50 entries have been chosen or 6:00 PM arrives, whichever comes first.
* 2 alternates will also be accepted, for a total of 52 entries.
* PLEASE NOTE: You are responsible for figuring out your own time zone. "Time Zone differences" are NOT a reason for not getting your entry in.
* Submissions received before the contest opens will be rejected.
* Submissions are for COMPLETED MANUSCRIPTS ONLY. If you wouldn't want an agent to read the entire thing, DON'T SEND IT. If an "entire thing" doesn't exist, you shouldn't even be reading these rules.
* Manuscripts THAT HAVE BEEN IN A SECRET AGENT CONTEST DURING THE PAST SIX MONTHS (March-August) will not be accepted.
* You may submit A DIFFERENT MANUSCRIPT if you've participated in any previous Secret Agent contests.
* Only ONE ENTRY per person per contest. If you send more than one, your subsequent entry(ies) will be rejected.
* If you WON A CONTEST WITHIN THE PAST 12 MONTHS (i.e., offered any kind of prize from a Secret Agent), please DO NOT ENTER THIS CONTEST. (Unless it's a different manuscript.)
* Submissions are for THE FIRST 250 WORDS of your manuscript. Please do not stop in the middle of a

GO HERE to submit via our web form.

If you choose to submit via email, your submission for this contest should be formatted EXACTLY as follows:

SCREEN NAME: Your Screen Name Here
TITLE: Your Title Here
GENRE: Your Genre Here

(Followed by the excerpt here.)

* No "chapter one," chapter titles, etc.
* You will receive a confirmation email with your lottery number.
* Submissions go to authoress.submissions(at)gmail.com. They DO NOT GO to my facelesswords address. Or any other address.
*It doesn't matter what you put in the subject line. The only thing you MUST NOT do is to use "RE:" The bot will think you are attempting to respond to an email, and will reject you.

As always, there is no fee to enter the Secret Agent contest.

This month's contest will include the following genres:

  • speculative fiction
  • urban fantasy
  • mystery
  • romance: historical, contemporary, paranormal


14 comments:

  1. Does mystery include thriller?

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  2. If you intend to participate in next month's Operation Awesome secret agent contest, does exclude you from submitting to this month's Miss Snark contest (assuming that you don't return with this same MS to this contest in the future)? I'm sorry if I'm obtuse. Just not sure how far the reach of "any secret agent contest" goes.

    Thank you.

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  3. Tracy -- MSFV is not in any way affliated with OA's Mystery Agent contests, so no worries.

    Anon -- Technically, no.

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  4. Thanks, Authoress! Time to spruce up a pitch. . .

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  5. The entries are for adult, and not YA or MG, I presume?
    Thank you!

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  6. For those of us who are new, does "don't stop in the middle of a sentence" mean stop at the sentence before 250 or 250 words + the end of that sentence? Thanks!

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  7. Karen -- Yes, adult.

    Aria -- The word count is 255 to accommodate ending sentences. You can stop at any point up to 255 words.

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  8. Curses! No YA. Good luck to all of you fabulous adult writers!

    Next time gadget.

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  9. Looking forward to the entries! Wish they were up today, I have some downtime.

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  10. Perfect agent profile, but I can't enter this month because I was in the March SA. I'll just have to make sure he/she is on my query list. Good luck to everyone who enters!

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  11. If you were in a SA in the last six months but you didn't get requests, can you enter again?

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  12. No YA :-(. Is anyone still accepting ya pnr? Getting depressed!

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  13. Yay! I'm so excited to see UF and Paranormal Romance on this list - I feel like loads of the recent ones have been for young adult, and only adult things that I don't write. It also works out great in that I've just finished revisions. I'll be putting some finishing touches on the first page this weekend, then. :)

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