SHERI LARSON'S MEGA GIVEAWAY TO CELEBRATE GETTING AN AGENT

Today I'm so excited to help Sheri Larson, one of our followers, celebrate obtaining representation with Literary Agent Paula Munier. I've been following Sheri's blog, Writers Ally, for a long time and consider her a friend. It makes it even more special to celebrate her milestone on her journey to publication. If you're not following Writers Ally, you can check it out here.

So here's how Sheri's celebrating:

Today, I invite you to celebrate with me!! I've signed with Literary Agent Paula Munier of Talcott Notch Literary! And because our literary community is so freaking fabulous and generous, I'm having a Bigger-Than-A-Shopping-Mall GIVEAWAY!! The giveaway consists of:

•  two separate Rafflecopters with multiple giveaways 
• and one grand prize Rafflecopter giveaway - to enter for the grand prize, you must enter either giveaway #1, #2, or both. 

There's only one mandatory entry. Everything else is up to you!! I know Rafflecopters can be a pain, but it was the only way to organize such a huge giveaway. The giveaway is open until September 27th. WINNERS will be announced on September 28th. (Entrants may win more than one prize!)

Thank you so much for entering, spreading the word, and celebrating with me!!

List of Rocking Participants: Lenny Lee, Colene Murphy, LM Preston, Darby Karchut, Joanne Brothwell, Patti Larsen, Christine Fonseca, Catherine Stine, Jessica Bell, Kelly Hashway, Leigh Moore, Christine Danek, Alex Cavanaugh, Katie Mills, Matthew MacNish, Beverly McClure, Marcy Hatch, Jennifer Million, Nicole Zoltack, Christina Lee, Kris Yankee, JL Spelbring, Sharon Mayhew, Candice Granger, Dianne Salerni, Lisa & Laura Roecker, Elana Johnson, Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi, Susan Kaye Quinn, Lydia Kang, Julie Musil, Natalie Agurrie, Talli Roland, Medeia Sharif, Kelly Polark, Angela Brown, Sarah Fine, Stina Lindenblatt, Lynda Young, Susan Fields, PK Hrezo, Shannon O'Donnell, Shelli Johannes-Wells, Theresa Brown Milstein.

Giveaway #1:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Giveaway #2:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Grand Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And don't forget to enter my other awesome contests for ENDLESSLY, the last book in Kiersten White's series, SEND, a contemporary book about bullying from a teenage boy bully's POV, SKYLARK, a fantastic debut dystopian/fantasy, ENTICE, the second book in Jessica Shirvington's EMBRACE series, and THE PECULIAR, a fantastic middle grade fantasy/steampunk story. The links are at the top of the blog.

Here's what's coming up.

On Monday I'm helping Kat Zhang celebrate her debut with an interview and giveaway of WHAT'S LEFT OF ME, a fantastic dystopian story. I fell in love with this book from page 1. It was so awesome. I can't wait to share it with you.

Next Wednesday, I'm participating in S.R. Johannes' blog tour for her new book UNCONTROLLABLE, a murder mystery set in the Smokey Mountains. UNTRACEABLE, the first book in the series, made the Kindle YA Semi-Finalist for Best Indie Books of 2012. Shelli will be sharing marketing advice and giving away a copy of her book.

The following Monday I'll be sharing THE CROWN OF EMBERS, by Rae Carson. It's the sequel to THE GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS. I can't believe I got it. I'm giving away my ARC. It's a fantastic fantasy series and I'm so excited to have an ARC to share with you.

And don't forget our Tuesday Tips and Casey's Thursday agent spotlights.

Hope to see you Monday!

2000 Follower Awesome Giveaway

Hello everyone. Today Casey and I are so excited to celebrate our 2000 follower milestone. We want to thank you all so much for following us and spreading the word about our blog. As a new blogger, it has been so fun to get to know you all and to watch our blog grow by over 900 followers in the year I've been blogging. Some days just thinking about how much I'm enjoying blogging and how we're growing makes be so happy.

So Casey and I have planned a special giveaway to celebrate. And to say thanks to you all. There's two parts to the giveaway.

PART I. Here you get to pick your top choice of the books offered and tell us which one you'd like in the comments. We'll pick three lucky winners for this part of the giveaway. I must admit that I had fun picking the books at The Book Depository with Casey because I could pretend I was on a shopping spree. A book buying spree is my favorite.

So here are your choices for PART I:

DON'T BREATH A WORD UNDER THE NEVER SKY CROSSED

DIVERGENT A MILLION SUNS INCARNATE

CINDER THE PLEDGE LIESL & PO

LEGEND THE GIRL OF FIRE & THORNS TOUCH OF POWER

LOLA AND THE THE FUTURE OF US THE UNWANTEDS

AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR

PART 2. Casey and I picked 5 books from our shelves. Most are in new condition, though a couple show signs of love. There will be 5 winners. By commenting you'll automatically be entered in the contest for Part 2. You can mention the book you'd like in the comments and we'll do our best to match the books to the winners. Here's the choices:

So the choices are:

BREAK ACROSS THE UNIVERSE ANGELFIRE (signed)

THE LIGHTENING THIEF DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE (signed)

So we hope you like it. Again, there will be three winners in Part 1 and five winners in Part 2.

All you need to do is be a follower (just click the followbutton if you’re not a follower) and leave a comment by midnight on January 28th. Tell us your choice for Part 1 and if you want, your choice from Part 2. I’ll announce the winner on January 30th. If your e-mail is not on Blogger, please list it in your comment.International entries are welcome.

If you mention this contest on your blog, Twitter, orFacebook, please let us know in the comments and we’ll give you an extra entry.

And because this is a big milestone, we'd love if you'd mention our contest on your blog if you have one. If you're going to do this, just mention that you will in your comments and we'll give you an extra entry. It's on the honor system.

Here's what's coming up. Tomorrow Casey will be doing another great agent spotlight to help you in your search for agents.

Then on Monday, I'm interviewing a panel of 7th graders whose teacher is a follower for my ASK THE EXPERT series. I'll also be doing another book giveaway.

Hope to see you tomorrow and Monday!

YA Scavenger Hunt

Just a fun contest tip before Natalie's fantastic interview goes up in the morning!

A YA Scavenger Hunt, coordinated by Colleen Houck (author of the Tiger series) will take place on Monday, August 1st. More than twenty YA authors will be providing bonus material from their current books or upcoming releases, but you won’t find it on their personal blogs, you’ll have to hop from one to another until you get to the stuff you’re looking for.

The authors participating include Josephine Angelini, Angela Corbett, Andrea Cremer, Kady Cross, Heather Davis, Bree Despain, Clare Dunkle, Marley Gibson, Abbi Glines, Colleen Houck, Tara Hudson, Elana Johnson, Alexandra Monir, Beth Revis, Gregg Olsen, Amy Plum, Lisa and Laura Roecker, Inara Scott, Sophie Jordan, Lani Woodland, Lisa Nowak, and more. Many will be offering prize packages, with a grand prize consisting of signed books from all the authors. The hunt only lasts one day, starting at 12:01 AM August 1st. After 24 hours the posts will be deleted, so be sure not to miss out.

To join the hunt simply select one of the above authors and start at their homepage, then follow the links provided.

CRACK the CODE Winner!

A loud click sounds within the door. Heart drumming, you pull on the handle and the monstrous round door swings open.

10 - 48 - 64

Congrats to Beck Nicholas who successfully CRACKED the CODE at The Bookshelf Muse, winning my 10 pg YA/MG critique. Please contact me at caseymccormickya(at)gmail(dot)com as soon as possible so I can get your prize to you! Thanks everyone for playing along & helping to celebrate a great writing community. :)

P.S. Happy Father's Day to all you great dad's out there!

CRACK the CODE @ The Bookshelf Muse

The Bookshelf Muse is celebrating over 2000 Followers and almost 1/2 million hits and they want to know...CAN YOU CRACK THE CODE?

Let me break it down for you:

• 12 generous writers.


• A formidable steel vault packed with prizes.


• A time locked sensor.


• And you...with a code.

Will The Bookshelf Muse's Prize Vault open for you? Stop by and find out!

Here's a HINT to help you win it: Something Borrowed, Something ____?

Winner of the HtRYN Scholarship

The Winner of Holly Lisle's "How to Revise Your Novel" course, offered by Katharina Gerlach is...

Callie Kingston.

Congratulations, Callie!!

Please contact Katharina Gerlach at winner_at_tapio-de.org (replace _at_ with @) to claim your prize. If Cat doesn't hear from you within a few days, I''ll select another winner.

Everyone else, I'm out of tips at the moment. Consider sending one in for the coming weeks. If I think up a good one today, I'll post. Happy Tuesday!

Win a Scholarship to HtRYN

Hey everyone! Cat Gerlach is offering a scholarship to Holly Lisle's How to Revise Your Novel course, which normally costs around $250. This is a really awesome opportunity! If you enter, please follow her blog and serial novel below. Here are the details!

This contest is held by Katharina Gerlach, who writes fantasy and historical novels for all ages, both in English and German.

Win a Scholarship to HtRYN

As every author knows, writing the first draft is only the beginning of the journey. The real work lies in revision. I (Katharina Gerlach, writer from Germany) found Holly Lisle's "How to Revise Your Novel" (aka HtRYN) most helpful (see my rant on this blog since I'm not going to repeat it).

While there is no guarantee that you will be able to get your stories published (after all talent plays a major role too, and it can't be taught), your novels and short stories will at least become significantly better. The success of other graduates is encouraging. A course graduate just signed a three book deal with a British publisher, and others have won contests or published short stories. Some are slowly building a successful platform of faithful readers by selling quality e-books, and the latest novel I revised with Holly's methods attracted the interest of one of the major publishing houses in Germany (result still pending).

So, why do I offer a full scholarship for her course? The answer is simple. On my journey to publication, I've met so many helpful writers on this blog and on others that I want to give something back to the writing community. If you want to participate, leave a comment. I will choose a random winner in four days (April 26th) with the details on how to claim the price.

If you are interested in my progress, I'd be delighted if you followed my blog or my free, illustrated Fantasy novel "The Witches of Greenwitch" and spread the love.

WriteOnCon Nov Event and More

Hey guys!

How was you weekend? Did you do anything for Halloween? The fam and I baked cookies and rice krispie treats, carved pumpkins, and went trick or treating. The kids are four and nearly two this year, so it's starting to get real fun for them. It was a nice weekend.

Info on the November WriteOnCon monthly event is up! On November 15th at 9 pm EST, we'll have Stephen Barbara of Foundry Literary + Media and his client Leila Sales, author of MOSTLY GOOD GIRLS, on the blog for a chat about the author-agent relationship. Please, start thinking up questions and plan to join us!

Also, you have just a bit more time to hop over to Ishta Mercurio's blog for a chance to win DUST CITY by Robert Paul. Her contest ends at midnight tonight so get over there! All you have to do is follow her blog and leave a comment naming your favorite fairytale.

Are there any contests or blog posts you'd like to plug? Leave them in the comments when you tell me how your weekend was!

This and That

Hey all! I have a few things to share...

SA Larsen at Writer's Ally is holding a Halloween-themed short story contest. It runs until October 29th and she has some GREAT prizes such as:

• A SIGNED copy of WE HEAR THE DEAD by author Dianne Salerni.
• A 'PIMP MY SCENE' critique by Stephen M. Giles, author of THE ADVENTURES.
• SWAG from New York Times Bestselling Author Kiersten White, author of Paranormalcy.
• FIRST FIVE PAGE critique by Terry Lynn Johnson, author of DOGSLED DREAMS.
• FIRST CHAPTER critique by Susan Kaye Quinn, author of LIFE, LIBERTY, and PURSUIT.
• A QUERY critique by the author of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, Beth Revis.
• A FIRST FIVE PAGE critique by Helen Ellis, author of THE TURNING: What Curiosity Kills.
  

Next, the lovely Caroline Starr Rose e-mailed to let me know that the Class of 2k11 will be launching a monthly e-newsletter for booksellers, librarians, and teachers, etc. in November. They'll be featuring their books and offering opportunities for subscribers to win free copies. If you're interested, head over to the Class of 2K11 site to learn more and sign up!

I've also been meaning to plug Martina and Marisa over at Adventures in Children's Publishing. Their blog has grown into a fabulous resource for children's writers. I'm particularly fond of their Friday "Best Articles This Week for Writers" posts. They're extremely comprehensive and, well, amazing. If you find it hard to follow a ton of blogs, scan through this list each Friday for the best of each week.

What have you all been up to? Any blog posts or contests you want to plug? Make sure you stop back by on Wednesday. I'll be posting an interview with NIGHTSHADE CITY author Hilary Wagner.

Have a great Monday and thank you so much for all the Birthday wishes on Facebook, here, and Twitter!

So Many Giveaways!

I trust you've been stalking the WriteOnCon blog this morning?  Why wouldn't you be?  There are some amazing giveaways happening courtesy of the awesome that is The Elevensies.  It's spectacular.  ARCS, pre-orders, critiques, swag!  Stuff that isn't coming out for months.  You can be among the first to get your hands on this stuff.  And a post goes up Every. Hour. during today and tomorrow.  Details HERE. 

But before you run off to see what the latest giveaway is, feel free to enter MY giveaway, which is for an ARC of EXTRAORDINARY by Nancy Werlin and a hardcover of WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON by John Green and David Levithan.  There will be two winners, one book to each.

 

EXTRAORDINARY:

Phoebe finds herself drawn to Mallory, the strange and secretive new kid in school, and the two girls become as close as sisters . . . until Mallory's magnetic older brother, Ryland, shows up during their junior year. Ryland has an immediate, exciting hold on Phoebe but a dangerous hold, for she begins to question her feelings about her best friend and, worse, about herself.

Soon she'll discover the shocking truth about Ryland and Mallory: that these two are visitors from the faerie realm who have come to collect on an age-old debt. Generations ago, the faerie queen promised Pheobe's ancestor five extraordinary sons in exchange for the sacrifice of one ordinary female heir. But in hundreds of years there hasn't been a single ordinary girl in the family, and now the faeries are dying. Could Phoebe be the first ordinary one? Could she save the faeries, or is she special enough to save herself?

WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON:

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens--both named Will Grayson--are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history's most fabulous high school musical.

Hilarious, poignant, and deeply insightful, John Green and David Levithan's collaborative novel is brimming with a double helping of the heart and humor that have won both them legions of faithful fans.

And it's not just me.  All the WriteOnCon Founders are holding extra contests on their blogs to spread the word and just give more.  Yes, more chances to win!  Make sure you check out the others:

Jamie Harrington

Elana Johnson

Shannon Messenger

Lisa and Laura Roecker

 

To enter, please leave a comment on this post by Sunday, September 26 at midnight with a way for me to get in touch (if your contact info isn't easy to find).  Please include info/links if you take advantage of the extra-entry opportunities.  My particular contest is open to the U.S. and Canada only, but if you're international and want to enter on behalf of my local library, please do!

Extra entries for the following: 

  +2 for tweeting about this contest
+2 for posting or linking this contest on your blog/website/facebook
+10 for donating to the WriteOnCon website (over on the right side of the WriteOnCon site, down under the follow widget)

Okay, that last one.  I know!  WriteOnCon is something we designed to be totally and completely free for everyone, so we hate asking for money.  Like, at all.  But, unfortunately, the only way we can avoid another Error 403 disaster is to have way better web hosting, and sadly, that doesn’t come for free.

So, yes, we have to pay to keep WriteOnCon 2011 EPIC. But we want to make a few things clear:

-You DO NOT have to donate to enter (or win) any of these contests
-You DO NOT have to donate to participate in the live events
-You DO NOT have to donate to attend our next conference
-IF you decide to donate, we’re only recommending something small, like $5.00

So it’s completely up to you if you want to donate. If you can—THANK YOU, and we wanted to reward you with extra contest entries. If you can’t—no worries. Absolutely none!

 

Let me know if you have any questions and really, truly make sure you stop by the WriteOnCon site to see what's up to win.

Query Critique Contest

Hey everyone, one of our most active critiquers during WriteOnCon, Ishta Mercurio, is having a query critique contest at her blog, Musings of a Restless Mind.  She did a fabulous job in the forums, so I'm suprised to see so few entrants in her contest.  I'm hoping to send a few more her way.  It ends TOMORROW, 8/20, at midnight so you better get over there quick!

Ishta's work has appeared in KNOW: the Science Magazine for Curious Kids, and she's gotten a lot of positive feed back on her queries.  Natalie Fischer pointed her query out as a good example of a picture book query during WriteOnCon, and one of the YA queries she critiqued in the practice forum caught the attention of one of the agents during the actual event (revised!).

It's a great opportunity to get an extra opinion and set of eyes on your query.  Thanks for checking it out!

Friday Randomness

I made some great progress on my revisions today. There were even about seven seconds that I felt the potential of the story.

In other news:

Tyler was kind enough to give me the fabulous idea of spotlighting the agents that will be doing breakout sessions at the SCBWI Summer Conference in LA this August. So look forward to spotlights on Daniel Lazar (Writer's House), Steven Malk (Writer's House), Jen Rofe (Andrea Brown), Marietta Zacker (Nancy Gallt Lit), Sarah Davies (Greenhouse Lit), Jamie Weiss (Andrea Brown), Kelly Sonnack (Andrea Brown), and Stephen Fraser (Jennifer De Chiara Lit) in the upcoming weeks (not necessarily in that order).

Sherry Dale Rogers over at her blog, Excuse me, does this blog make my butt look big? (or Splatt Way of Life), is holding a contest. It's a simple contest that won't tax your brain (well, it might if you've been writing or revising for a few hours) and you can win a $50 Amazon gift card. Woot!

I'd also like to point your attention to Rhonda Stapleton's blog, Just Your Average Crazy Writer. She put up Chapter One of her upcoming debut novel Stupid Cupid. Yay! Rhonda is also having a contest for a $10 bookstore gift card. All you have to do is tell her romantic or not-so-romantic stories. Isn't that fun?

ETA: Rhonda has also been doing a fabulous blog tour of 2009 debut authors on her blog - make sure to check out those posts, too!

QueryTracker still has its 2nd Anniversary Celebration going on.

Check out the The Worst Review Ever blog to remind yourself how subjective this business can be. You might even gain some perspective on your own (or future) reviews.

Catch up on all the fabulous posts that have been going up on Agent Rachelle Gardner's blog (each word is a seperate link, BTW).

And so much more that I'm probably forgetting.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Query Tracker Turns Two - Contests!

Query Tracker is having a two-year anniversary celebration. There will be contests! There will be prizes! There will be wieners, I mean winners! Annnnnd... the grand prize is a free web site by Purple Squirrel Web Design. You're paying attention now, aren't you?

See THIS HERE POST over at Mindless Musings for details on getting entered (you'll need to leave a comment or e-mail Elana, so take note), as well as the carnival page on Query Tracker for continued details as the celebration commences.

You've got to have a post up (like this one) by May 23rd for an extra entry - good luck!

Linktastic!

Beth Revis posted a ton of great links yesterday (including some recent contests!), which reminded me I've been meaning to do the same. Some of them may be repeats, but if they are, they must be worth it, right? ; )

The Bridget Zinn fundraiser and auction was brought to my attention by this post over at Market My Words. Now I'm seeing it all over! A lot of authors/writers are pitching in. What a great community we have. Comment on Sheli's blog post, check out the auction, donate, and/or buy a signed copy of HOP! PLOP! by Corey Schwartz!

Keri Mikulski has her Yay for YA Summer Give Away up. Win some books!

Have you read Pj Hoover's book, THE EMERALD TABLET? The first chapter of the second book in the series, THE NAVEL OF THE WORLD, is posted HERE as a teaser on Buried in the Slush. THE NAVEL OF THE WORLD comes out in October - can't wait!

Here's one you might have read, seeing as it was posted a couple months ago, but if you haven't, it's a great read - Q&A With Four Young Agents.

Avoiding Red-Flag Mistakes on Your First Page - great list!

The QueryTracker blog on The Dreaded Pitch. Time-worthy reading.

Agent Rachelle Gardner on Antatomy of a Winning Query and Getting THE CALL. Anyone else get butterflies just reading that? Anyway, her post reminded me of Ginger Clark's guest blog on How to Handle an Offer of Representation over on Nathan's blog from a couple years ago. Still great reading. Check it out!

Agent Janet Reid on Social Interactions with Agents.

Agent Jenny Bent on The Agent who Knew Too Much.

Kathy Temean, illustrator and New Jersey SCBWI Regional Advisor, has started a great new blog called Writing and Illustrating for children. (Link via Corey's blog. Thanks!)

Check out the blog Boys Blogging Books where a group of teen boys are reviewing books and sharing what they like. Great for those of you writing "boy" books, yea?

Aannd, Through the Tollbooth is blogging about author branding all week. The first post Author Branding - The Thing That Makes Us Go Hmmmm suggests a great way to consider what your shadow brand is: Your brand is what people say about you when you leave the room. Hmmm. I wonder....

Woo! That's a wrap. I just looked over Beth's list again and she has a bunch of other great stuff, so check that out for even more!

Cynthea Liu - Library Lovin' Challenge

Have you already left your comment for Cynthea Liu's Library Lovin' Challenge? If not, get on over there! Cynthea is donating 10 cents up to $100 to the Briarglen Elementary School Library. If we can get up to 1000 comments, she'll double it! You don't even have to say anything intelligent (unless you want to). Just say something - it's that easy!

She is also running a really fun contest called Red Light Green Light that correlates with the Library Lovin' Challenge. It's really awesome and quite ingenious. RLGL will only move to the next round if we can get 400 comments by Sunday (one per person), 05/03/09, and to keep it going we've gotta keep the comments coming in. So spread the word and get in on the fun - it benefits the Briarglen Elementary School Library and can benefit your writing, too!

And that's not all I have to say about Ms. Liu. Have you checked out her web site for kidlit writers? Writing for Children and Teens? She has AMAZING posts, contests, critiques, etc. Just look at this list of top articles. She even has a Crash Course and book. I've spent quite a bit of time reading through a bunch of her articles and it's been worth every second.

Check it out and please spread the word. Thanks!

Lit Soup's Birthday and Contest

First off, today is the 3rd Birthday of agent Jenny Rae Rappaport's blog, Lit Soup. She's celebrating by having a microfiction contest!

The rules: here.
The "magic" word and contest thread: here.
And make sure to stop by this post and say Happy Birthday to the blog!

***

Setting that bit of fun aside, what do you think of the new layout? Be honest. Too dark? Did you like the old one better? I'd really like to know!

Katherine Patterson Prize for YA and Children's Writing

Hello!

I wanted to point everyone's attention to Cynthia Leitich Smith's blog, Cynsations, where she has announced the inaugural Katherine Patterson Prize for YA and Children's Writers in Hunger Mountain.

Hunger Mountain, the arts journal of Vermont College of Fine Arts, is launching a new online arts journal this summer, which will include YA and children's literature.

The prize, $1000 and publication in Hunger Mountain, as well as two honorable mentions who will receive $100 each, is open to writers of middle-grade fiction, YA, and picture books for fiction not under contract or consideration. Newbery Award-winning author Katherine Paterson will judge, which is a prize all in its own.

The deadline to enter is June 30th. For details see this post at Cynsations, and visit the LiveJournal posting if you have any questions.

Agent for a Day

Yesterday I participated in Nathan Branford's "Be an Agent for a Day" contest. It was a BLAST and it's going to be open until Saturday, so if you haven't participated you still have time. It was really eye-opening.

My thoughts...

It was as hard as I expected it to be. I've read enough agent blogs to know what I was getting into, and yes, comparatively, we had it easier than a real agent would with a real slush pile. I knew it would be time-consuming, especially with the extra speculation of which queries were published books, and I knew it would be subjective based on what I like and actually read. It was.

So why was it eye opening if I expected all this already?

A few reasons.

1) I tried to offer at least one comment of personal feedback on each one but as I was working through them it got harder and harder. It wasn't that I didn't want to put the time into it, it was more often how difficult it was to pinpoint and/or word exactly what didn't work for me. In a lot of cases, I couldn't do so without having to sit there for 20 minutes to figure it out. And with tens of queries coming in on the hour, an agent can't let that 20 minutes go unless the query is really worth investing that time in and in most cases I imagine it isn't. Form reject. Problems solved.

2) This little competition didn't include reading partials, fulls, taking phone calls, writing proposals, and working with clients and editors. While I didn't have a problem with form rejections before, I really don't now. It makes sense. I can even understand why some agents don't respond at all unless interested. Sure, it may only take a few seconds to slap a form rejection in an e-mail, but if you're a busy agent who is continually swamped, those seconds could add up fast with the amount of queries that come in. Personally, if I were an agent, I would make a point to take the time for at least a form rejection - business etiquette, courtesy and all that - but at least I can better understand why some don't.

3) It was insanely easy to pinpoint the rookies. I often knew whether or not I was interested in a query within the first two sentences. Voice really did lend a lot to a query. Awkward phrasing and clunky, disjointed paragraphs were extremely common turn-offs.

4) It was hard to look for the published queries when I was really only interested in the queries for YA novels, which lends insight into why agents generally only represent what they are passionate about. When I start querying, I think I'm going to focus on agents who primarily (or only) represent children's/juvenile fiction. Having done this, I don't think I'd feel entirely confident in someone who represents a ton of genres.

5) I've heard several agents say something along the lines of: "I'm looking for a reason to reject your query." I understood this in essentials, but now I really, really understand it. If you have a handful of partials and fulls to read, client manuscripts you're offering edits on, published books you want to read, proposals to write, clients and editors to work with, and a never-ending stream of queries flooding you inbox, you're going to be loathe to take on any more reading material in any fashion unless you absolutely cannot say no to a query, which is exactly what we writers need to strive for. Make your query irresistible. If anything about your query is so-so, keep at it. Get it critiqued and critiqed again. Read article after article on crafting a perfect query. Don't let your eagerness work against you. You can't afford to - they really are looking for a reason to say no unless they can't, unless you give them something to be really excited about.

Overall it was an amazing experience and opportunity. As I continue on this journey, I think I'll continually come back to this experiment in my mind and apply it to things I read, experiences I go through, and queries I write. I really think I've gained something by taking the time to view the other side.

Huge thank you to Nathan and everyone that participated. I can't wait to see the results.

Lindsey Leavitt Contest: Get Lucky!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Lindsey Leavitt is having a Lucky You! Contest on her blog in honor of all things lucky and unlucky, so get over there and try to luck-out!

What's the deal? Tell her about a time you got lucky (keep it PG!) and why it was important or awesome or...whichever.

She's giving away four books and a Lindsey critique on whatever you like. Fun!

Good luck!!

Bookshelf Muse: Contest Extension

I meant to blog about this earlier, but I guess that didn't work out. Better late then never, they say!

Anywho, The Bookshelf Muse is having a contest for their followers. They are looking for 1-2 sentence book blurbs from either a completed novel or a work-in-progress. The key is to hook them with your blurb. The prize? One of three double critiques on your first chapter or first 3000 words (whichever comes first.)

This is a great opportunity to get feedback on your writing! So, if you're a follower of The Bookshelf Muse, get over there and give it a go. If you're not a follower, you should be! Their thesauri are fabulous and they'll be doing more follower-only competitions in the future.

They've extended the contest to March 20th in order to get more entries, so you've got four more days to enter.

Good luck!