Please note: THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS. Any entries received before the call is posted will be deleted. The call will be posted on Monday.
1. Please submit the first 250 words of your COMPLETED NOVEL to facelesswords(at)gmail.com. Submissions will open on Monday, November 10, at 9:00 am EDT. Please wait until the call for submissions is posted before submitting your entry.
2. This month's contest will include the following genres: Commercial fiction, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, paranormal romance, mystery, thriller, and literary; also Young Adult, including all subgenres listed above. If your novel does not fall within one of these genres, please do not enter.
3. Entries will be limited to a 24-hour submission window, or 75 submissions -- WHICHEVER COMES FIRST.
4. Submissions must be received IN THE FOLLOWING FORMAT:
Screen Name (PLEASE list this first, as it's easier to swipe the text below without including it)
TITLE:
GENRE:
(Please -- no bold, italics, underlines, or strange fonts)
*Submission in a normal font (NOT Courier, Comic, or anything that is outside the realm of normal in the publishing world), 250 words (your first page)
5. All submissions will receive a confirmation email containing your post number. If you do not receive a confirmation email, I did not receive your submission.
6. I LOVE your personal notes -- I really do. But please refrain from sending a "thank you" email after I've sent your post number.
7. NO ATTACHMENTS. Please send your submission in the body of your email.
8. By entering this contest, you are agreeing to the public posting and critiquing of your work.
9. If you are chosen as a winner of this contest, you will agree to the terms of the prize as laid out by our Secret Agent, or your prize will be subject to forfeiture.
10. If anything is unclear or if I've missed anything, please let me know in the comment box below.
Miss Snark's First Victim
Hmmm, probably going to sit this one out, Authoress.
ReplyDeleteAfter receiving comments that my first few chapters need work, I don't want to submit until I've done just that.
And it's NaNo...
Time crunch!
Sounds like fun!
ReplyDelete:)
I have a feeling people are going to get tired of my novel if this is my third throwdown of the first 250 words.
ReplyDeleteMight have to throw in my second novel this time around.
Question-
ReplyDeleteIf you placed in one of the previous SA contests, are you ineligible from future ones? Or a set number of future ones? How about posting the opening to a different novel from the same author?
drunkenraine -- might as well! So long as it's completed. ;)
ReplyDeletelori -- good question! I've got some basics listed under "What are SECRET AGENT contests" in the sidebar to the left.
Here's what it says about previous winners:
Winners of previous contests may not submit the same manuscript in future contests.
What it DOESN'T say (and SHOULD say) is that winners of previous SA contests may submit A DIFFERENT MANUSCRIPT in subsequent contests.
Pardon my possibly stupid question here, but I entered the last contest. I've edited according to the awesome crits I got back, and would like to enter again, but there wasn't were not a lot of changes that I could make--should I sit this one out, or can I still join in?
ReplyDeleteI have completed manuscript! But its just a draft, and not one I can put forward because its for a different comp. Next year...I'll enter something!
ReplyDeleteI'm in!
ReplyDeleteI hope the agent likes YA Fantasy!
Good luck everyone!
I guess I do have one question:
ReplyDeleteI use italics for my character's thoughts. Will I have to change this if it's in the first 250 words of my manuscript?
Italics don't normally wreak havoc, so that should be fine.
ReplyDeleteIt's the TITLE and GENRE where I don't want italics. I try to keep everything uniform (can we say "anal"?) and changing italics to regular text is one less step I'll have to take when posting.
I know this is probably a stupid question, BUT when you say, "Screen Name (PLEASE list this first, as it's easier to swipe the text below without including it)"
ReplyDeleteDo you mean the author's name, or google username? Maybe something else?
(This is my first time entering ;)
No such thing as a "stupid question" ! (Only stupid people who don't ASK questions.... :D)
ReplyDeleteBy "screen name" I simply mean the name you choose to be identified by here on the blog (when you leave comments). It serves 2 purposes:
1. So I can identify you when you crit the work of others (all entrants are expected to crit a minimum of 5 other entries).
2. So I can identify you in case our Secret Agent choses your submission as a winner.
"Anonymous" doesn't cut it, of course. So just come up with a name you'd like to be identified with.
Ur, with which you'd like to be identified. :)