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Monday, February 23, 2015

First Five Sentences: Call For Submissions

Last month's First Five round was fairly popular, so I'm offering another round this week.

Here are the submission guidelines:
  • Submissions will open at NOON EST on Tuesday, February 24.
  • The first 25 entries will be accepted.  Then the contest will close. (This is NOT a lottery!  It's first come, first served.)
  • Agented and unagented authors are welcomed to submit.
  • WIPs and finished manuscripts are both welcomed.
  • Please use the web form HERE to enter.
  • Submit your title, genre, and the first 5 sentences of your manuscript. Word limit is 125.
  • Don't try to squeeze in more than 5 sentences by creating run-on sentences.  I WILL KNOW.  And I will disqualify your entry. (No, really. I will.  NO RUN-ON SENTENCES!)
  • This critique is open to all genres except erotica and erotic romance. 
  • Entries will post on Wednesday for public critique.
Critique will focus on whether your first 5 sentences "feel like" your genre, and whether they draw the reader into the story by providing an appropriate, clear setting.

If you have any questions, please post them below.

12 comments:

  1. You say all genres - does that include PBs? This is one contest that won't actually give away the entire book, so I wondered if picture books were eligible.

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  2. Can we enter two if we critique double of the other entries?

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    1. No, Emily. The bot is set up to accept only one entry per. The last one filled up really fast, so in the interest of fairness, it's best to allow just one entry each. If this continues to be popular, though, I will run it regularly!

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  3. A regular run would be awesome. I was ready at the second the window opened and didn't get in last time. Thanks Authoress.

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  4. Holy, wow! I hit submit at the exact second and I'm #17. Whew! Good luck to everyone--wish you all could make it! But wow, did it fill fast.

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  5. How did it fill by 12:01? Wow! Can't wait to read the critiques.

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  6. Holy, moley, that was Fast! Now I see how some of those concerts sell out in a matter of minutes. Good luck to everyone, and have FUN!

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  7. Wowzy wow wow! When I pushed send at 10:00 (12:00 EST), an error message came up saying I didn't enter in the body of the form. I had followed the directions to paste it, but it didn't work. Had to type it in. Hit send again at 10:05 (12:05 EST) and entry rejected as contest was full. Bummer. Maybe next time I'll make it in.

    I'm anxious to read the submissions. May all the comments authors receive be helpful and kind.

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    Replies
    1. When you first paste in it shows character count as 0 but if yu then hit a space bar, backspace, etc, it will count the number of characters

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  8. Missed the window. Bummer. I wish this could be a regular run too.

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