Baker's Dozen: Adult Winners Tomorrow AND an Offer From Authoress Edits

Tomorrow's the day!  I will be emailing the 25 winners in the Adult Category of the Baker's Dozen Agent Auction some time in the morning.  (Well, my morning.  It may not be yours.)  If you do not receive an email from me (from my facelesswords address), then your entry was not chosen as a winner.

ADVICE:  Add facelesswords(at)gmail.com to your address book TODAY.  An email from me will be less likely to arrive in your spam box.

REQUEST:  Please don't email me (or Jodi) to ask why your entry wasn't chosen.  Jodi's Tuesday post outlined the main reasons for our rejections, so it's likely that the reason yours was a "no" falls into one of those categories.

SPECIAL OFFER FROM AUTHORESS EDITS:

(Please note: This offer is for those of you who entered the Baker's Dozen ONLY.)

I will edit the first 3 pages of your manuscript.  This will include a light line edit and an explanation of why I feel your opening isn't working.

Cost will be $18, payable upon my acceptance of your submission.  Submissions will be read in the order in which they are received.

(Also?  Don't edit your opening prior to sending it to me.  You won't get a valid reason for why the original opening wasn't working if you don't send it to me as is.)

If you do not receive a WINNER! email tomorrow, and would like to take advantage of this special offer, please email me at authoress.edits(at)gmail.com.

IMPORTANT:  I will be requesting your post/entry number in order to verify that you entered the contest.  So please make sure you have that.

Post your questions below!

Common Problems With Beginnings

As you know, Jodi Meadows and I have been wrangling our way through the YA/MG slush for the Baker's Dozen.  Our reasons for saying "no" each year are pretty much the same, and Jodi has done a great job outlining these Problems With Beginnings in this post at PUB CRAWL.

Go there and read it.  Then, if you feel the need to chat about it, feel free to come here and...well, chat about it.

Always learning, always growing.  All of us, together.

Right?  Yes!

(And thank you, dearest Jodi, for this wonderful blog post.)

Friday Fricassee

Well, folks, the entries are in.  The slush reading continues.  And the days creep closer to the Baker's Dozen Agent Auction.

Thank you all for being wonderful during the submissions process.  There weren't any real glitches--just some confusion and questions here and there.  You were all wonderful.

Adult category winners will be emailed on November 15 (one week from today!).  YA/MG category winners will be emailed on November 22.

And, yes, Jodi and I have been having a wonderful time reading the slush together.  I honestly couldn't do it without her.  We are so like-minded (most of the time) that it's true teamwork.  Effortless.

Once, Mr. A walked in to chat with us for a moment (because, yanno, he likes Jodi, too).  When he made his parting comment, Jodi and I replied by saying exactly the same thing at exactly the same time--with exactly the same vocal inflections.

It was beautiful and terrifying.  (Don't you love my melodrama?)  In short, we really are like one person with two brains.  (Or one brain with two people...)

Anyway.  Have a glorious weekend.  See you next week!

YA/MG Submissions for Baker's Dozen THIS WEEK

This is it -- your final warning!  You've got one more day to get your loglines and first pages super-shiny.  Ask your last-minute questions below!

(Please note that the submission windows will be open 4 HOURS EARLIER than originally scheduled.  Hopefully this will make things easier for some of you.)

YA and MG entries (all genres accepted):

TUESDAY'S WINDOW:  5 am to 5 pm EST  (maximum 150 entries)
THURSDAY'S WINDOW:  5 am to 5 pm EST (maximum 150 entries)

Good luck, everyone!

Friday Fricassee

It sounds so clichéd to exclaim about how time flies, but I'm finding it truly mind-boggling that it's November already.  Not just in a holy-cow-the-Baker's-Dozen-is-practically-in-my-face sense, but in a general, how-can-2013-almost-be-over-already sense.

Are you feeling that?

Anyway, I'm happy to report that Jodi and I have had three successful slush-reading fests, and have made our way through the adult entries.  Winners will be emailed on November 15.  (Please understand that I can't email everyone.  If you don't receive an email from me--not the Bot, but me personally--then your entry was not chosen for this year's auction.)

There were just about a hundred entries, which is pretty normal for the adult category.  Slightly fewer than last year, perhaps, but definitely in the ballpark.  I will share Jodi's and my observations about submissions after we've read the YA and MG entries, too.

Just a few things for now:

• Loglines remain a problem.  Too many of them simply don't mention THE STAKES, or even the conflict.  (We always read past this; a bad logline doesn't mean that the excerpt is bad.)  (Having said that:  Agents might NOT read past a bad logline.  So write a good one.)
• Sometimes there was NO logline.  FOLLOW DIRECTIONS, PEOPLE!
• As always, we're seeing creative, where-did-you-come-up-with-this genres.  Or genres that are too specific.  (For instance, you're not going to find a section for "social science fiction" in the bookstore. Just call it SCIENCE FICTION.)   Or a comparison to a known author, listed as a genre.  KNOW YOUR GENRE.

A big thank you to all who entered--for believing in your work (so important!) and for entrusting it to Jodi's and my eyeballs for consideration.  Submissions for YA and MG will be on November 5 and 7.  And I'm extending the submission windows on both days: Submissions will be open at 8:00 am EDT.  That's an extra four hours on the front end.

See you next week!