Secret Agent Contest For Middle Grade and YA

Every so often (I think every month) over at the Miss Snark blog, there is a Secret Agent Contest for certain genres. This month's contest is for:

Middle Grade fiction, all genres

Young Adult fiction, all genres

Submissions will open on Monday, January 11 at 12:00 PM EST

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

• Submissions will be open for 24 hours or until 50 eligible entries have been received, WHICHEVER COMES FIRST.
• Submissions received before the contest opens will be disqualified.
• Submissions are for COMPLETED MANUSCRIPTS ONLY. If you wouldn't want an agent to read the entire thing, DON'T SEND IT. If an "entire thing" doesn't exist, you shouldn't even be reading these rules.
• Manuscripts THAT HAVE BEEN IN A SECRET AGENT CONTEST DURING THE PAST SIX MONTHS (June-November) will not be accepted.
• You may submit A DIFFERENT MANUSCRIPT if you've participated in any of the 2009 Secret Agent contests.
• Only ONE ENTRY per person per contest. If you send more than one, your subsequent entry(ies) will be deleted. 
• If you are PAST WINNER, please DO NOT ENTER THIS CONTEST. (Unless it's a different manuscript.)
• Submissions are for THE FIRST 250 WORDS of your manuscript. Please do not stop in the middle of a

Your submission for this contest should be formatted as follows:

SCREEN NAME

TITLE
GENRE

(Followed by the excerpt here.)

•  No "chapter one," chapter titles, etc.
• You will receive a confirmation email with your post number. I don't always get through quickly. Don't resend.
• Submissions go to facelesswords(at)gmail.com. They DO NOT GO to my authoressmail address. Those of you who are subscribed to this blog via email will note the latter address as the "from." If you use this address for the contest, I WILL NOT SEE YOUR SUBMISSION.

For more information, visit Miss Snark Blog

Secret Agent Contest At Miss. Snark's First Victim Blog

Miss Snark's First Victim blog is running a Secret Agent: Are You Hooked? Contest for the following genres:

• Young adult fiction (all genres)
• Middle grade fiction (all genres)
• Science Fiction/Fantasy
• Paranormal Romance (NO other romance; only paranormal)

The contest is for completed manuscripts only. See below for rules and guidelines or visit Miss. Snark's First Victim blog.

*(snipped the following from the blog) Submissions for the next Secret Agent contest will open at noon EDT on Monday, September 7. Submissions WILL NOT OPEN until NOON, EDT on Monday, September 7. Early submissions WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. Submissions are for COMPLETED MANUSCRIPTS ONLY. If you wouldn't want an agent to read the entire thing, DON'T SEND IT. If an "entire thing" doesn't exist, you shouldn't even be reading these rules. Manuscripts THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN IN ANY SECRET AGENT CONTEST THIS YEAR will not be accepted. You may submit A DIFFERENT MANUSCRIPT if you've participated in any of the 2009 Secret Agent contests. If you are PAST WINNER, please DO NOT ENTER THIS CONTEST. Submissions are for THE FIRST 250 WORDS of your manuscript. Your submission for this contest should be formatted as follows: SCREEN NAME TITLE GENRE (Followed by the excerpt here.)

• No "chapter one," chapter titles, etc.
• You will receive a confirmation email with your post number. I don't always get through quickly. Don't resend.
• Submissions go to facelesswords(at)gmail.com. They DO NOT GO to my authoressmail address. Those of you who are subscribed to this blog via email will note the latter address as the "from." If you use this address for the contest, I WILL NOT SEE YOUR SUBMISSION.
• Erm, I think that's everything.

This month's contest will include the following genres:

• Young adult fiction (all genres)
• Middle grade fiction (all genres)
• Science Fiction/Fantasy
• Paranormal Romance (NO other romance; only paranormal)

Questions? Leave them in the comment box of this post. For those of you who have never heard of this contest, basically this is how it works. (Snipped from the blog)

There will be a call for submissions. When the call comes, follow the guidelines carefully and submit your excerpt before the deadline. All submissions will then be posted (anonymously) on the blog, and all readers are invited to leave critiques/feedback. Everyone who has entered the contest is expected to crit a minimum of five entries -- it's the mutual backscratch thing.

Our Secret Agent will join the panel of critters (that is, you) and will leave feedback for every entry. When the contest has ended, the Secret Agent will choose a winner or winners. That's it in a nutshell!

Check the side bar on the blog for a list of Agents who have participated in the past. One of the good things about this contest is, it's a great way to get your MS in front of an Agent. Even if you don't win you could receive a request for your ms. So get that manuscript polished! To learn more about this contest, visit the Secret Agent Contest Info Page. Happy Writing!

Miss Snark's Secret Agent Contest

*Below info snipped from Miss Snark's First Victim Blog Please note: THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS. Anything emailed prior to the opening of the submission window will be deleted. Without further unwarranted tangents: 1. The call will be for the first 250 words of your COMPLETED, EDITED novel. 2. This month's genres are limited to the following: Suspense, mystery, thriller YA and MG mystery/thriller, adventure (no SF/F) 3. I will take the first 50 submissions. Period. The "24 hour window" is a thing of the past, as submissions generally fill up in less than 2 hours. Granted, this is a narrower genre pool. I'm not sure how many mystery and thriller writers will come out of the woodwork for this round, but I'm sure you're out there! Just make sure you submit something polished. 4. Format of submissions (same as ever): SCREEN NAME TITLE GENRE Excerpt 5. Submission email address: facelesswords(at)gmail.com. DO NOT SEND YOUR SUBMISSION TO MY AUTHORESSMAIL address. Email subscribers pay special attention to this, please. Your email subscription comes from the authoressmail account, which is not the submissions address. Full submission guidelines will be posted when submissions open on Monday. PLEASE NOTE: There will be a new time for the start of submissions! This is an experiment, as we're dealing with so many time zones. (Bear in mind that, while I'm sure you'd like to be awake when submissions open, it's imperative that I am awake, too, so I can, yanno, run the contest. In short, I can't accommodate everybody, much as I'd like to.) Submissions will open at 8:00 PM EDT on Monday, March 16. That's 1:00 AM Tuesday morning, London time. For the rest of you, go HERE to determine the start time in your time zone. I'm not sure if this will work for me, since it robs me of Monday afternoon for creating posts. But let's give it a whirl and see what happens. If I drop from exhaustion, you can revive me by sending all sorts of gourmet goodies wrapped in pink cellophane. Please drop your questions in the box!

Miss Snark's Monthly Secret Agent Contests?

Wow, you learn something new every day. :) Did you guys know about this? I didn't, until today. If you didn't know about Miss Snarks SECRET AGENT CONTESTS either, here's the scoop (I pinched the info from the blog). What are SECRET AGENT contests? By far the most popular event on Miss Snark's First Victim, the Secret Agent: Are You Hooked? contests run monthly (more or less) and include a literary agent on the "critique panel" whose identity remains secret until the close of the contest. Here's how it works: There will be a call for submissions. When the call comes, follow the guidelines carefully and submit your excerpt before the deadline. All submissions will then be posted (anonymously) on the blog, and all readers are invited to leave critiques/feedback. Everyone who has entered the contest is expected to crit a minimum of five entries -- it's the mutual backscratch thing. Our Secret Agent will join the panel of critters (that is, you) and will leave feedback for every entry. When the contest has ended, the Secret Agent will choose a winner or winners. That's it in a nutshell! All excerpts submitted to a Secret Agent: Are You Hooked? contest must be the first 250 pages of your COMPLETED manuscript. Winners of previous contests may not submit the same manuscript in future contests. Previous "Secret Agents" can be found in the labels section of the sidebar under "Unveiling." Questions about the Secret Agent contests can be emailed to Authoress at facelesswords(at)gmail.com. *I suggest signing up for Miss Snark's daily post's by email. There's lot's of great info on the blog, too. Links are below. Miss Snark What Are Secret Agent Contests?