“The Writer’s Voice” is a
multi-blog, multi-agent contest hosted by Brenda
Drake, Elizabeth Briggs., Kimberly P. Chase,
and me. We’re basing it on NBC’s singing reality show The Voice, so the
four of us will serve as coaches and select projects for our teams based on
their queries and first pages.
And you know what? This year, we’re
adding GUEST COACHES! One per each coach. And let me tell you, I’m really
excited about this, because the lovely Stacey H. Lee will be my guest coach
this year and she’ll be helping me make some of the difficult decisions!
So go ahead and stalk her now! Here’s
Stacey’s Twitter account, and
her website!
Here’s the timeline:
Here’s the timeline:
May 1
May 2
|
Everybody enters the Rafflecopter lottery
The lottery winners sign up on the widget
|
May 2-10
|
We select our team members from “The Writer’s
Voice” Blogfest
|
May 10-19
|
We coach our team members, helping them polish
their entries
|
May 19
|
We post our team members’ entries on our blogs
|
May 22
|
Agents vote for their favorites
|
Submissions
To enter, your manuscript must meet two conditions: First, it must be COMPLETE, POLISHED, AND READY TO QUERY, and second, it must be in one of the following genres*:
Adult Historical
Adult Fantasy
Adult Science Fiction
Adult Romance
YA fiction (all genres)
MG fiction (all genres)
To determine who gets to participate in the blogfest, we’ll hold a single-entry Rafflecopter lottery on Thursday, May 1. The lottery will remain open for 12 hours, from 9:00 a.m. EDT to 9:00 p.m. EDT, at which point the Rafflecopter will select 150 random winners. Those winners will then sign up for the blogfest on one of Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets the next day, May 2. Once you sign up on the widget, you’ll post YOUR QUERY and THE FIRST 250 WORDS of your manuscript on your blog.
In summary, you must follow these three steps to enter:
1. Enter the Rafflecopter lottery on May 1 during the submission window listed above.
MG fiction (all genres)
To determine who gets to participate in the blogfest, we’ll hold a single-entry Rafflecopter lottery on Thursday, May 1. The lottery will remain open for 12 hours, from 9:00 a.m. EDT to 9:00 p.m. EDT, at which point the Rafflecopter will select 150 random winners. Those winners will then sign up for the blogfest on one of Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets the next day, May 2. Once you sign up on the widget, you’ll post YOUR QUERY and THE FIRST 250 WORDS of your manuscript on your blog.
In summary, you must follow these three steps to enter:
1. Enter the Rafflecopter lottery on May 1 during the submission window listed above.
2. Sign up on the widget on May 2
if you win the lottery.
3. Post your query and the first 250 words of your manuscript on your blog.
Selections
We’re building our teams via “The Writer’s Voice” Blogfest, so YOU MUST HAVE A BLOG TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS CONTEST. We don’t care if you’ve had it for five years or five minutes; we just want to be able to fight over you in public:)
We coaches will review the entries and leave a comment on your post that says something like, “I want you!” If more than one of us wants you on her team, you’ll have to pick which coach you want to work with.
Coaching
We’ll select our 8 team members by May 10, then spend the next week and a half helping them put a final polish on their entries. You won’t have to take all of our suggestions, of course; we just want to help you make your entry the best that it can be before the agents get a look at it.
Voting
On May 19, we’ll post our team members’ queries and first pages on our blogs so that the agents can review them. Here are the awesome agents who’ll be voting on your entries:
Mollie Glick of Foundry Literary + Media
3. Post your query and the first 250 words of your manuscript on your blog.
Selections
We’re building our teams via “The Writer’s Voice” Blogfest, so YOU MUST HAVE A BLOG TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS CONTEST. We don’t care if you’ve had it for five years or five minutes; we just want to be able to fight over you in public:)
We coaches will review the entries and leave a comment on your post that says something like, “I want you!” If more than one of us wants you on her team, you’ll have to pick which coach you want to work with.
Coaching
We’ll select our 8 team members by May 10, then spend the next week and a half helping them put a final polish on their entries. You won’t have to take all of our suggestions, of course; we just want to help you make your entry the best that it can be before the agents get a look at it.
Voting
On May 19, we’ll post our team members’ queries and first pages on our blogs so that the agents can review them. Here are the awesome agents who’ll be voting on your entries:
Mollie Glick of Foundry Literary + Media
The agents will vote for their favorites on May 22. Each vote will count as a partial or full request depending on how many votes the entry receives. If an entry receives 1 or 2 votes, those votes will count as partial requests. If an entry receives 3 or more votes, those votes will count as full requests.
Voting will stay open until 9:00 a.m. EDT on May 23, at which point we’ll determine which coach’s team received the most votes. That coach will win bragging rights for time immemorial, and everyone who received requests will be able to submit their materials to all the agents who voted for them. These votes represent serious interest in your project, so PLEASE DON’T ACCEPT AN OFFER OF REPRESENTATION BEFORE GIVING “THE WRITER’S VOICE” AGENTS AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A COMPETING OFFER.
So get those queries and first pages polished up, then meet us back here on Thursday, May 1, between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. EDT. We can’t wait to read your entries! (And of course, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below.)
*As you probably noticed, we’re not
including any new adult genres. We have to base the genres on the agents’
interests, and most of the agents participating this year aren’t looking for NA
at the moment.
** Thanks to @Chris_and_Holly for designing this year's The Writer's Voice badge!
