11th Free “Dear Lucky Agent” Contest (Middle Grade Fiction)
Welcome to the 11th (free!) “Dear Lucky Agent” Contest on the GLA blog. This is a recurring online contest with agent judges and super-cool prizes. Here’s the deal: With every contest, the details are essentially the same, but the niche itself changes—meaning each contest is focused around a specific category or two. So if you’re writing middle grade fiction novel, this 11th contest is for you! (The contest is live through Aug. 27, 2012.)
2016 Update: Sara is no longer agenting. Do not read out to her.
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Welcome to the 11th (free!) “Dear Lucky Agent” Contest on the GLA blog. This is a recurring online contest with agent judges and super-cool prizes. Here’s the deal: With every contest, the details are essentially the same, but the niche itself changes—meaning each contest is focused around a specific category or two. So if you’re writing middle grade fiction (see exactly what this term means below) novel, this 11th contest is for you! (The contest is live through Aug. 27, 2012.)
WHY YOU SHOULD GET EXCITED
After a recent “Dear Lucky Agent” contest, the agent judge, Tamar Rydzinski (The Laura Dail Literary Agency), signed one of the three contest winners. After Tamar signed the writer, she went on to sell two of that writer’s books! How cool! That’s why these contests are not to missed if you have an eligible submission.
HOW TO SUBMIT
E-mail entries to newluckyagent2@gmail.com. Please paste everything. No attachments.
WHAT TO SUBMIT
The first 150-200 words of your unpublished, book-length work of middle grade fiction. You must include a contact e-mail address with your entry and use your real name. Also, submit the title of the work and a logline (one-sentence description of the work) with your entry.
Please note: To be eligible to submit, you must do the following: Mention and link to this contest twice through any social media—blogs, Twitter, Facebook. Please provide social media link(s) and notes with your entry so the judge and I can verify eligibility. Some previous entrants could not be considered because they skipped this step!
WHAT IS MIDDLE GRADE FICTION?
Middle grade fiction is fiction for kids 8-12. It is NOT young adult, which is aimed at an older audience and can deal with more mature themes.
CONTEST DETAILS
- This contest will be live for approximately 14 days—from Aug. 13, 2012 through the end of Monday, Aug. 27, 2012, PST. Winners notified by e-mail within three weeks of end of contest. Winners announced on the blog thereafter.
- To enter, submit the first 150-200 words of your book. Shorter or longer entries will not be considered. Keep it within word count range please.
- This contest is solely for completed book-length works of middle grade fiction.
- You can submit as many times as you wish. You can submit even if you submitted to other contests in the past, but please note that past winners cannot win again.
- The contest is open to everyone of all ages, save those employees, officers and directors of GLA’s publisher, F+W Media.
- By e-mailing your entry, you are submitting an entry for consideration in this contest and thereby agreeing to the terms written here as well as any terms possibly added by me in the “Comments” section of this blog post. (If you have questions or concerns, write me personally at chuck.sambuchino (at) fwmedia.com. The Gmail account above is for submissions, not questions.)
PRIZES!!!
Top 3 winners all get: 1) A critique of the first 10 double-spaced pages of your work, by your agent judge. 2) A free one-year subscription to WritersMarket.com.
MEET YOUR (AWESOME) AGENT JUDGE!
Sara Sciuto is a new member of Full Circle Literary. A graduate of the University of California, San Diego, Sara also completed literature coursework at NYU. Before joining Full Circle, she gained valuable experience working on film and foreign rights with the Taryn Fagerness Agency. Her great passions in life are travel and good food - and good books, of course, but that goes without saying! While she's always cultivating new obsessions, her latest are photography and sailing. Find her on Twitter. She specializes in books for children. Below find four children's novels that her agency, Full Circle Literary, has repped:
Learn more about Dancing Home by Alma Flor Ada.
Learn more about Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez.
Learn more about The Code Busters Club 1, by Penny Warner.
Learn more about Border Town: Crossing the Line (start of a series), by Malin Alegria.
Chuck Sambuchino is a former editor with the Writer's Digest writing community and author of several books, including How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack and Create Your Writer Platform.
