So for this week's critique: SEND ME THE SCENE IN WHICH YOUR PROTAGONIST AND HIS/HER LOVE INTEREST HAVE THEIR FIRST KISS!
Submission Guidelines:
- Submissions will open at NOON EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME today.
- Submissions will remain open until midnight or 50 entries have been received.
- Send your submission to authoress.submissions(at)gmail.com. Please remember that NO OTHER ADDRESS WILL WORK. So if you send your submission to one of my other addresses, it will not be submitted to the contest.
- The maximum word count is 250. If your submission is too long, it will be rejected.
- Please bear in mind that this site is rated PG-13. As such, please don't send a kiss scene if it leans too close to erotica, or leads directly to sex. The focus is FIRST KISS.
- The scene can be tender or passionate, tentative or volatile.
- Please format your submission in the following manner:
TITLE: type it here
GENRE: type it here
Type a BRIEF lead-in to your kiss scene here. Emphasis on BRIEF! Like, if they're on a ship, say so. If she's a zombie, say so. Don't give us their entire backgrounds; just a setting. (Remember, everything you type counts toward your word count.)
Type your entry here.
(And remember, to be on the safe side, remove any signature tags from the bottom of your email.)
Ask questions below! I'll try to get to them before submissions open.
I think it should be a rule that The Authoress is allowed to participate in EVERY secret agent contest!
ReplyDeleteI don't have that many manuscripts. :D
ReplyDelete*loff* *hugs* *my favorite person today*
Hi Authoress. I've not entered a contest since your new, fancy automated system. My question is this: will the screen name, title and genre above the actual 250 words count towards my word count?
ReplyDeleteNope, they don't count, so long as you format them the way I told you to! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to seem stupid, but do we actually type SCREEN NAME: etc. or just type our name ?
ReplyDeleteYou actually type it exactly as above.
ReplyDeleteSCREEN NAME: Poppyseed
etc.
If you don't have the words SCREEN NAME, etc., the program won't know you've got them up there, and it will reject your submission.
Thank you!
ReplyDeleteWhy do I always have to be at work when these things are happening??
ReplyDelete(And no, I'm not goofing off at work right now. I'm not even here. You never saw me.)
I missed the last in-house crit, so glad I have a chance at this one!
ReplyDeleteOoh, awesome idea. I love reading first kiss scenes. I don't have anything to enter right now but I can't wait to read them all!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun idea! If this goes well, do it again soon. I have a second manuscript I'd love to submit for First Kiss too.
ReplyDeleteOhhh, first kiss scenes. SWEET! Can't wait to see the entries!
ReplyDeleteThis is gonna be tough to critique.
ReplyDeleteMy respiration and heartbeat are increasing even with the thought of reading all these entries, but I'll plow my way through 'em.
ReOWWWrrrrrr. hubba, hubba
Hi Authoress,
ReplyDeleteThe evil bot says my entry is 255 words but it really is only 250. What should I do?
Hi Authoress,
ReplyDeleteThe evil bot (mentioned above) says my word count is zero! What should I do?
The bot never lies! :) Check for sig line in your email; if you have one, delete it.
ReplyDeleteCheck to make sure you have a colon after SCREEN NAME et al.
And recheck your word count.
Amanda, if it said "o" it can't read your text. Try resending in plain text.
Wow. My wordcounter must be so different from yours. Mine told me it was 248 and it was rejected as having 298!
ReplyDeletePlease let more words if we are allowed to set the scene. My entry was 246 words, but with my "brief" explanation, it came out to 257, so it was rejected. I took out the explanation and it went through. Whew!
ReplyDeleteWord is saying it's at exactly 250. I have no signature and my top stuff is formatted exactly how you have it. I tried a second time but it came back with the same email. I even hit the space bar a few times to separate the top stuff from the formal 250. I'll try again.
ReplyDeleteTry resending as plain text, as that is often the easiest fix. with formatting, etc., there are often "characters" and things you can't see (like, if you cut/pasted from a rich doc) and the bot will count those. Plain text is "what you see is what you get".
ReplyDeleteLet me know if that solves the problem.
the first contest using your new system seemed to work without a hitch.
ReplyDeleteThis time, following the same instructions, I am getting a refusal.
Might have to bow out of this one.
Hurray! It worked this time. Looking forward to reading the entries!
ReplyDeleteI cut my down, tried again and am having the same problem.
ReplyDeleteThat's the trick, Authoress!!!! Sending it as a plain text. You are a genius -- for many reasons. I'm in. Thanks a bunch. I really look forward to reading everyone's entries.
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm not a genius; I've got Michael in g-chat! LOL
ReplyDeleteHuntress--what message did your rejection email contain?
(beating head with shoe, exclaiming, You idiot)
ReplyDeleteplaintextplaintextplaintext.
Okey, Dokey, it works great :)
LOL Well, okay then. :P
ReplyDeleteMichael says you're all using really buggy email clients. :D
sending it in rich text, it said I did not include screen name, title, genre at the top.
ReplyDeletePlain text is the key. I will keep my shoe close by next time.
Authoress, if we get no reply, does that mean our entry's been accepted?
ReplyDeleteI had same problem as Huntress- it said I didn't include the genre, etc. I typed the entire thing in by hand as a regular email- no cut and paste and sent again.
ReplyDeleteKrista -- No!! You will always get a response. Check your spam folder. Wait a few minutes to see if your response has been delayed.
ReplyDeleteWoot! That worked, but I was rushing worried that i wouldn't make first 50. I hope its not loaded with typos.
ReplyDeleteAnd there's the reply: accepted! *wipes brow* Phew!
ReplyDeleteOnce again, sorry to be stupid, but what is the diff between rich text and plain text? Or how do I know which i'm typing in?
ReplyDeleteYour email should give you an option, along with all the other options you may have (font, etc.). In gmail it's at the top of the box you type your email message in.
ReplyDeleteThis is probably a stupid question, but I've never entered any of these contests...what is our screen name? Like our name here on the blogs?
ReplyDeleteYes, whatever you go by when you leave comments here. Your screen name will not be shown on the actual post.
ReplyDeleteFinally got accepted! It took four tries, but in the end all it took was typing it manually in plain text. ;) Now I'll put aside thoughts of email formatting and focus on the elusive art of writing a good first kiss scene. Thanks for another great critiquing idea, Authoress!
ReplyDeleteWHEW! Accepted! I was so afraid I wouldn't make the first fifty. I didn't type a lead-in though because I was so close on word count. Hopefully the entry speaks for itself. ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the contest, Authoress!!! I think this is the first YA kiss I've written, so I'm anxious to see what people think.
Is this for YA only?
ReplyDeleteAll genres except erotica.
ReplyDeleteHow do you take out a signature line? I use hotmail and it automatically puts something there.
ReplyDeleteYes, hotmail is evil and should be avoided. :D
ReplyDeleteI think Michael has fixed it so that the dumb hotmail sig doesn't mess you up. Give it a try.
Ok, let me try it again. It already rejected me once as being fifty words over what I thought I had.
ReplyDeleteOHMYSWEETGOODNESS. I think your bot works for the Secret Service. On my sixth attempt, I was able to get in. Wooo hooo! I really thought I wasn't going to make it. It's symbolic of the journey to get published, don't you think? If you get rejected, try try again. :)
ReplyDeleteWow. That's deep.
Don't worry too much about the signature line. Most of them will be removed automagically.
ReplyDeleteIf you aren't paying for hotmail, it's actually against their usage policy to remove the advert sigs. :(
Ok, it made it in. Good to know that the sig line will be removed. I'd hate for that to be the tantalizing cliffhanger to my scene...
ReplyDeleteI'm having trouble, too. Sent right after noon. Didn't get any reply. Just sent again and still nothing. But I did get my notification that the e-mail address had received it. So there's hope?
ReplyDeleteI have tried sending something to authoress.submissions(at)gmail.com. and my computer keeps saying there is something wrong with the address. How else could I address this submission?
ReplyDeleteI've tried twice, but this is what I'm getting in reply:
ReplyDeleteDear Henya,
I'm sorry; your entry has been disqualified for the following reason: It looks like you tried to reply to the contest address. Unfortunately, this is only for automated submissions.
I KNOW I sent it to the right address.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYay! I made it. Tip for people who are having problems: I made it in only when I took out any spaces after the colon.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to be back on this site. I can't figure out how to post as my former identity, Blodwyn, but I'll go under my name. Can't wait to read all of these!
Henya, You may not have an RE: in the subject line, or the bot thinks it is a reply email. Resend without an RE: in your subject line.
ReplyDeleteHi Authoress,
ReplyDeleteI goofed on my first submission (post 43)and didn't get the entire scene into my email. SO, I sent you my corrected version (post 45). Can you please delete my first entry, pretty please? Sorry for the user error.
Urgh. I will ask my fearless bot master how to proceed. :P
ReplyDeleteHuh. Saved it in plain text, but it didn't go through in plain text, because I got an e-mail. I redid it in Word as plain text and copied and pasted. I hope it works.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Well, I got a confirm on the number, but then an e-mail from Michael saying to reformat as plain text, and then a confirm as an alternate - probably am an alternate? :( Oh well, I will enjoy reading the others!
ReplyDeleteMaybe too late for the party, but thank you as always for these fun breaks in my day!
ReplyDeleteYes, thanks authoress! Is it wrong to be excited when your kid is sick so you can stay home from work and enter your awesome contests?
ReplyDeleteI'll probably be too late, but I'll try.
ReplyDeleteProbably way too late, but I'll give it a go! :)
ReplyDeleteAww, It is probaly too late, since Elizabeth was an alternate and she posted at 3 o'clock. :(
ReplyDeleteThe new system absolutely cuts out anyone out of the timezone given. Mine came back of course. And in the end I just assume I won't make it so won't submit. By the time I get even to my email, all the slots are already taken. It's such a disappointing exercise.
ReplyDeleteZP
Do you mean the time window? Because I'm in another time zone and it worked out ok. Let's all be really nice to Authoress to hosting these when she really could probably do other things like go get a pedicure...
ReplyDeleteIf you are in a different time zone, you can go to this site:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zeitzonen.de/eastern_standard_time_est_-_connecticut_delaware_district_of_columbia_flori.html (its all one long string)
It's an all German site, but the time beside the flag is the current Eastern Standard Time (EST). Then, you'll know when to post.
oh man, i didn't get to my email 'til today. at least i'll enjoy reading the others...
ReplyDelete