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Monday, January 12, 2009

Call For Submissions: Can you hook a SECRET AGENT?

Submissions are officially open.

The guidelines:

1. Please submit the first 250 words of your COMPLETED NOVEL to facelesswords(at)gmail.com.

2. 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.)

(Also -- please, NO CENTER-JUSTIFYING!)

*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)

3. This month's contest will include the following genres: Children's Literature. This includes YA and MG. No picture books. If your novel does not fall within one of these genres, please do not enter.

4. Entries will be limited to a 24-hour submission window, or 50 submissions -- WHICHEVER COMES FIRST.

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.

If we reach our 50 submission limit before 24 hours have ended, I will let you know. Otherwise, submissions will close tomorrow (Tuesday) at 9:00 am EST.
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30 comments:

  1. John ZeleznikJanuary 12, 2009 at 10:13 AM

    Dumb question-how long should we wait for an email? I havent' received a confirmation and don't want to spam your email!

    ReplyDelete
  2. NayuleskaJanuary 12, 2009 at 10:15 AM

    Not subbing, but I'm cheering from the sidelines :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 12, 2009 at 10:34 AM

    Hi Authoress,
    I'm wondering the same thing as John. So, John, I don't think it's a dumb question.
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  4. facelessJanuary 12, 2009 at 10:36 AM

    hi, I've received 2 entrants to your appeal - both of them have used the wrong email address.

    Could you make it clearer?

    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJanuary 12, 2009 at 10:40 AM

    I'm going to send mine in, but I have a question about the rules. My first page has 300 words. Do I have to shave off 50 words or is it ok since it is one page?

    ReplyDelete
  6. John ZeleznikJanuary 12, 2009 at 10:44 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. UnknownJanuary 12, 2009 at 10:51 AM

    *does happy dance* I am so thrilled about this!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. StinaJanuary 12, 2009 at 10:51 AM

    Don't worry John. Unless it's lost in cyberspace (which means mine's out there with yours), the authoress is probably busy with her other responsibilities. It isn't an instantaneous confirmation. My understanding is she has to do it manually.

    ReplyDelete
  9. John ZeleznikJanuary 12, 2009 at 11:00 AM

    I don't want to spam the account. I sent it to the one in the guidelines and haven't gotten a response yet! I'm just going to shut up and try to relax! Sorry!

    ReplyDelete
  10. MichelleJanuary 12, 2009 at 11:02 AM

    Help, I sent one and I didn't get a response email. Should I send it again? I'm using a different email.

    ReplyDelete
  11. MichelleJanuary 12, 2009 at 11:06 AM

    Sorry, didn't mean to freak. Just got it.

    ReplyDelete
  12. AuthoressJanuary 12, 2009 at 11:09 AM

    It's okay, peeps; your subs are coming through just fine (unless you typed the wrong email address!).

    I'm sending confirmations and creating posts at the same time, so the response time is going to be a little slower.

    Y'all make me nervous! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  13. Julie ButcherJanuary 12, 2009 at 11:10 AM

    yayyyyyy!

    ReplyDelete
  14. AuthoressJanuary 12, 2009 at 11:11 AM

    Anon: Yep, it needs to be shaved. It's okay if you end up with 253 or 249 words, but 300 is too many. Gotta keep this as uniform as possible!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Michelle D. ArgyleJanuary 12, 2009 at 11:14 AM

    I'm cheering you all on! I don't have any YA or MG to submit. :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. AnonymousJanuary 12, 2009 at 11:16 AM

    Thanks, Authoress. I feel much better now, even without the confirmation email. I didn't mean to make you nervous. It's just that I live in China and it's midnight here and I kinda wanted to go to bed knowing that my submission had arrived safely ... yawn. I think I'm just going to stop obsessing and go to bed!

    ReplyDelete
  17. JaruciaJanuary 12, 2009 at 11:28 AM

    My fingers (and brain) weren't working right when I sent my sub in at 6am PST...got back from the gym an 1.5hr later and saw I'd forgotten the final 's' from the email.

    What a dork.

    Hope second time is the charm :)

    Thanks again for organizing this. It's much appreciated!

    ReplyDelete
  18. StinaJanuary 12, 2009 at 11:28 AM

    If you're all nervous now waiting for confirmations, wait till you send out queries and requested manuscripts. Then you'll be going crazy for several months. It's worse than being a teenage girl waiting for that dream guy to call, email, texted you.

    Good luck everyone. I look forward to reading all your entries.

    ReplyDelete
  19. AnonymousJanuary 12, 2009 at 11:43 AM

    Hello everyone!

    I submitted the last secret agent contest and it was an awesome experience!

    I entered in this one too!

    I can't wait to start reading all the entries!
    ;P

    ReplyDelete
  20. AnonymousJanuary 12, 2009 at 11:47 AM

    I subbed almost an hour ago and haven't received confirmation. Should I resub? Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  21. AuthoressJanuary 12, 2009 at 11:49 AM

    I'm about 2 hours behind. So if you subbed an hour ago, I didn't get to yours yet.

    ReplyDelete
  22. AnonymousJanuary 12, 2009 at 11:58 AM

    I sent in an entry for my sister, Melody Peugh, since she is in the hospital. She told me she had talked to you and it was okay to do that. However, I didn't know anything about a screen name, so I didn't include that. I actuall submitted it twice, because I didn't put the title or genre on the first one. If I need to do anything else to keep her from being disqualified, please let me know.

    ReplyDelete
  23. John ZeleznikJanuary 12, 2009 at 12:01 PM

    I sent mine several times to the one listed and I still haven't gotten a confirmation. The first one I sent at 9:17 am and I KNOW I sent it to the right email! Arrgh I'm panicking!

    ReplyDelete
  24. AuthoressJanuary 12, 2009 at 12:14 PM

    Michael, your sister's entry is good to go. I just haven't gotten to it yet. :)

    John, are you sure you sent it to the right address? facelesswords(at)gmail.com. Please check! (I'll give you grace :D)

    ReplyDelete
  25. AuthoressJanuary 12, 2009 at 12:28 PM

    John -- mystery solved. Because you kept re-sending, Gmail kept bumping you back to a later time stamp. I simply haven't gotten to it yet -- but would have by now if you had only sent it once! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  26. John ZeleznikJanuary 12, 2009 at 1:02 PM

    See, I'm a panicky jerkwad...I'll stop now. I hope I made the 50!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Heather ZundelJanuary 13, 2009 at 8:54 AM

    This is like Christmas all over again!

    ReplyDelete
  28. AnonymousJanuary 19, 2009 at 11:07 PM

    Amy - Where in China do you live? I realize you might not get this message at all, but I'm curious. My daughter is from Nanchang and my novel is set in China as well, so I'm just curious. :)

    Lilianamama

    ReplyDelete
  29. facelessFebruary 23, 2009 at 5:42 PM

    Can you please make it clearer what your email is? I keep getting submissions addressed to me and I'm getting bored with telling people they've got it wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  30. AuthoressFebruary 23, 2009 at 5:46 PM

    Faceless,

    My email address is clearly displayed on my sidebar, my profile, and in every call for submissions. While it is most kind of you to alert people of their error, you are under no obligation to do so. I am sorry for the disturbance.

    ReplyDelete