Thursday, February 2, 2012

Blind Speed Dating AGENT Line-up!!

We are full!! Emails have all been sent! Thanks!


*Please read this ENTIRE post! Thanks!*


Our line-up of heart attack agents includes:

Laura Bradford: Website, Twitter
Vickie Motter: Website, Blog, Twitter
Sarah LaPolla: Website, Blog, Twitter
Meredith Barnes: Website, Blog, Twitter
Sara Crowe: Website, Website, Twitter
Sara Sciuto: Website, Twitter
Weronika Janczuk: Website, Twitter
Halli Melnitsky: Website, Twitter
Molly Ker Hawn: Website, Twitter
Carly Watters: Website, Blog, Twitter
Brooks Sherman: Website, WebsiteTwitter
Victoria Marini: Website, Blog, Twitter 

(Please look up their interests on their websites. And follow their blogs/twitter for any additional info or Twitter Trash Talk - #TTT)

Amazing, right? Just looking at it gets me all nervous, and I'm not even submitting. Deep breaths everyone! It's about to get even more nerve-wracking....

So you should all know at this point you're going to submit (email) your work (Query and first 250) in one of two entry windows. (Friday the 3rd, at noon EST/Saturday the 4th, at 11:00 am EST) MAKE SURE YOUR ENTRY IS FORMATTED CORRECTLY!! More on all that here

Then you will face the judges, who will be using undercover Cupid's Bouncer names. They decide who makes it through the front door to the actual Agent Blind Speed Dating during the week of the 20th. More on that here

Then the agents go undercover (a list of their Honorary Cupid names will be posted) and it gets really crazy exciting! Why? Here's why: 

Well, first of all, not even the agents will know who's who with the undercover names. *evil laughter*

Agents will receive a total of 10 arrows. But not all at once.

They start with 4 arrows on Monday. Then they will receive 2 more arrows each day after that. So, 2 on Tuesday, 2 on Wednesday, and 2 on Thursday. Totaling 10. 

Each partial request is worth 1 of their arrows. (Each entry can only have 2 partial requests!) And fulls are worth 3 arrows. (Using a full steals any partials made on that entry and trumps their own partial, too) 

But here's the thing...*more evil laughing* Fulls cannot be made until the last day, which is Thursday! And partials go up in cost on Wednesday to 2 arrows. 


On Friday everyone is revealed (except me), winners are posted, and arrangements are made for requests.

**Material any agent wants to see but does not win will be available one week after the first agent(s) receive the material.**

Whew! I hope these agents have some great speed and strategy, and I hope I can keep up on it all!

Housekeeping: (Please Read)

*Yes you can enter if you entered in January. Even if you received a request.
*Only one entry per person. First come, first serve. A confirmation should be sent after a few minutes of sending. (I'll do my best) Email to: cupidslitconnection(at)yahoo(dot)com
*Automatic five DO NOT EMAIL ME YOUR ENTRIES YET
*MG, YA, Adult genres (look up the agents interests to see if your work fits somewhere)
*Entries can be 250ish
*Complete, unagented manuscripts only!

As always, ask ANY QUESTIONS below and stay posted for some extra fun things while we go! 

110 comments:

  1. This is awesome! I'm a new follower and I'm very glad I did. Congrats to you on all the followers and all the fun stuff lined up! It's got to be a great feeling to be a literary match-maker.

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  2. Apologies.... I misunderstood the window rule and have sent already....Please disregard and I'll send again tomorrow.

    Thanks

    Chris

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  3. Holy crap, this sounds like so much fun! I can't wait to see the arrows flying :)

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  4. Do I need to shave my legs for this?

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  5. Replies
    1. Literally. (In Rachel Zoe voice.)

      (Not actually literally, of course.)

      SO EXCITED!

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  6. What a lineup! I have honest-to-God butterflies about this.

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    1. Thinking about missing the entry time makes me want to throw up.

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  7. Exactly which circle of Hell will we be going to if we enter a manuscript in this contest while other agents are considering another?

    (I'm guessing the worst one, right? It just sounds like so much FUN!))

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  8. Wow! Talk about an A-list of agents. Roll the red carpet out :)

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  9. Wow. You've outdone yourself, Cupid!

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  10. This is such an amazing line-up! And pretty much all the agents are on my query list. Eeek! :D I'm eagerly awaiting instructions on when the automatic five can send in their entries. Such a great opportunity for us all!

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  11. Oh WOW. I'm just going to go in a corner and wibble for a while...

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  12. I stumbled upon this on QT and I'm so glad I'm following now!!! Holy heck, this sounds insanely fun. Thank you Cupid!

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  13. With all this heavy breathing I'm ready for Valentine's Day!

    Now I'm nervous! Good luck everyone and thanks Cupid for the amazing opportunity.

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  14. So fun!! I can't wait to see the undercover names, mwa ha ha!!! :D

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  15. I didn't quite see if you covered this but how many from the 100 entries make it through from the judging round? Or is it up to the judges? (for example what if they like all do all get through to agent round?)

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  16. Right! There is no set number! Eeeeeee!

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  18. Um...one of those agents has my full right now. Not sure if that should affect my submission or not? In any case, this is an amazing line-up. Thanks for the opportunity!

    What is the automatic five? You mention them on many posts but I have no idea what that means. ???

    *just curious*

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    1. In the December 15th blog entry (http://cupidslitconnection.blogspot.com/2011/12/lets-get-this-started.html) the first five people who followed the blog and left a comment were automatically in the agent round of February's contest.

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  19. Hi, I was wondering if I could submit the same book I did last time, though with a different query letter. It was one of the 25 entries selected, though I didn't get requests.

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    1. Hi Rebecca,

      Yes you can, see the section titled:

      Housekeeping: (Please Read)


      *Yes you can enter if you entered in January. Even if you received a request.

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  20. So, so, so, so, so, so cool. And i love cupid. (but i'm partial to hearts and valentine's) Fun times tomorrow, that's for sure.

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  21. Too excited - can't sleep :)

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  22. This is awesome!! You mention correct formatting but I don't see specifics listed under housekeeping... what formatting do you require?

    Can't wait!! :)

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    1. Ah the comments were hiding the formatting - found it, sorted, thanks!

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  23. Love is in the air! I can't wait:)

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  24. you are a cherub! thanks for this motivation!

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  25. So looking forward to this. Can you see me smiling? :)

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  26. This is going to be a blast! :) Thanks, Cupid!

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  27. I, like many others, found out about this via query tracker. I am prepped with a liter of tea and not leaving my computer until 12:01!

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  28. One of these agents has my full right now....can I still enter the contest?

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  29. I don't know if it's too late to ask, but can we submit under a pseudonym or do we have to use our real names?

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  30. Damnit. I thought I should wait for you to update and say it was ok to send, but it's already too late. -_-

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  31. I think mine was sent twice :( I hit send at 11:00, and it didn't show up in my "sent" box right away. So I sent it again in a panic. I think both went through. I hope this doesn't disqualify me. Who knows if either one was in the top 50 anyway...

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  32. Not fair; I was in with a patient and couldn't hit "send" until I was done with them.

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    1. I imagine that a lot of people scheduled their emails to be sent... Outlook and maybe some other programs have the option to delay sending of an email, to be sent at a specific time even if you're away from your computer. So that's probably how it filled up so quickly, if I had to guess.

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    2. I don't know how to schedule emails, but I drafted mine this morning and waited (not so) patiently to hit send as soon as 10:59 gave way to 11:00. Everything else at the office went on hold until then, haha.

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  33. How long should we wait for a confirmation email before admitting we missed it? I hope I didn't send mine before noon your time, it said 10am on my clock!

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    1. Excellent question, Darci. When my computer's clock turned to 9:00 AM PST, I counted "one" then hit send. I was about to go drown my sorrows with a chocolate croissant, but maybe there's still a chance :)

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  34. Goodness! Hopefully waiting for a minute or two AFTER the computer said 12:00 to be sure I didn't hit "send" too early, didn't end up costing me a spot. :o(

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  35. If the 50 slots filled up within seconds, you are getting WAY popular Cupid!!!

    Maybe individual genres can be broken down for your next contest... Seems like the Feb contest is for anything and everything. I did not get to participate in last month's contest because my genre is not MG or YA...

    :/

    P.S. I am the 'alternate' from the initial 5. If one of the 5 does not participate in this contest, PLEASE count me in (I'm worried I didn't make the first 50!)

    Thanks Cupid...

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  36. I went by the world clock online since I'm a whole 7 hours ahead of EST :/ How long till we know we *didn't* make the first 50 ?

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  37. So, will you post an update after notifying the first 50, so we know when to stop madly refreshing our inboxes, checking for a response from you? :)

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  39. I just barely got a confirmation I made it in (thanks cupid!) so hang tight because I think she's still going through the fifty. I'm sure she'll announce when she's done.

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  40. I got my confirmation at 10:38. I hit send the second my clock turned 10am - my time. I had an EST clock pulled up and did a count down. I'm a little weird.

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  41. Yes!! Made it in!! Awesomeness! :D :D :D First step success, now to sneak past them wily bouncers...

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  42. Cupid, if you would, please post when you've sent all 50 confirmations.

    Thanks.

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  43. The good news for those of us who don't make the cut today: with 50 of our fellow contestants not submitting...we should have a whole TWO seconds tomorrow before it's full. ;o)

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  44. Before tomorrow can you please clarify exactly what the subject line is supposed to be? When you say Title, is it the title of our book then our name? Or the title of the contest then our our name?

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    1. Thanks for the clarification. I did it right the first time. I will have try again tomorrow. Thank you for this great opportunity!

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  45. Just wondering...

    I know the agents are using aliases, but do we writers also get fancy cupid names?

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    1. haha I don't think so. The entries will be nameless on the blog. :D

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  46. First, THANK YOU Cupid for running such an amazing contest. Such great exposure to so many fantastic agents.

    Because of this great, almost unparalleled opportunity, would it be possible to not cap the entries? Or perhaps give a time window that is longer than one second and whoever sends the material within that short time period (perhaps only ten minutes or so) would be accepted?

    I do understand this makes extra work for our bouncers, but 150 writers sent there work at the same time. We all really want this opportunity because you have created something amazing here. It would very appreciated to have a fair shot to at least get to the bouncers.

    It's your contest. You're the boss :) Just something I was wondering.

    Again, THANK YOU so much! Truly appreciative of your time and efforts to put this together. You are creating a fantastic site here with meaningful contests. Thank you!

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    1. Things are being considered.

      The problem is it is A LOT of work for our Bouncers who are already being very generous with their time. And it is A LOT of work to get these entries from email to the blog and all pretty, too. I'm already really overwhelmed with 100. Hopefully, these will be easier this time with the proper formatting.

      I'm really excited to do this for everyone and really, REALLY wish everyone could be included. I was not expecting things to fill so fast. :D

      But like I said, things are being considered. We'll see.

      Thanks!

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    2. Oh, and there will be fun in the future, too!

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    3. Thanks for the response Cupid! I can't even begin to imagine how crazy busy you guys are. Again, thank you so much for even doing this.

      And like you said, if not this one, they'll be others. :)

      Thanks again!

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  47. regarding letting everyone know after the confirmations were sent: Saw your Tweet! Thank you :)

    Great/fantastic contest. Thanks for the opportunity.

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  48. Wow! I'm usually pretty quick on the trigger! I hit send at 12:00 est! But I guess so did at least 50 others!

    Thanks for the second window tomorrow!

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  49. Aww, missed trying for this window due to a darn power cut. 'Twas an hour and a half before it came back on.
    Ah, the joys of technology.

    Congrats on those that made it through.

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  50. I can't help noticing that all the judges, agents, commenters etc are of the female persuasion. Is the contest only open to women? As an African-American male I can't help but wondering what the resonse to that kind of uniformity would be if it were all white, Anglo- Saxon men on the selection and agenting panels. Just saying. Rather disappointing in this day and age.

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    1. Brooks Sherman is not female. :) And I tried to get more male agents. If you knew how hard it is to line up these agents you'd understand how I can't be picky about stuff like that.

      The females definitely outnumber the males out there in this business, though. Keep your eyes open for things to come. Maybe we can do something special for the boys. :)

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    2. Oh, and NO it is not just for women.

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  51. I just wanted to say this is an amazing opportunity for writers. I wish I'd found this blog two months ago! (I follow the Bent Agency's blog, which linked to this one, in case you were curious). Thank you for all of the time and effort you must put into this. I can't wait to see not only how this contest goes, but what your future contests will be like. :)

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  52. Cupid, you rock!

    You've done something bordering on the extraordinary here. I can't say that I've seen anything quite like this. When I do simple contests on my blog, I want to ram my head into the nearest granite countertop. To pull off something of this magnitude tells me that you are superhuman. I'm sure of it.

    Thank you for the opportunity!

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  53. Unfortunately I had to take my daughter to work this morning just at the that time. I agree with Chocolate. Whereas I'm not a man, I write for boys. Sometimes its a little overwhelming. It's hard to find agents that want boy books though. I've had this discussion with a lot of mothers. Their boys aren't reading because boys don't read stories about girl protagonists. Very few boy books out there. Just saying. Good luck everyone. Don't mean to criticize your contest at all. What you do is a fantastic opportunity for writers.

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  54. How have I not known about this before now. What an amazing opportunity! Thank you!

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  55. Personal tip for submitting: Don't drink too much coffee in the minutes leading up to the deadline. *shakes head*

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  57. Oh, so frustrating. I was using an internet clock countdown and hit send right when it turned to 11:00. But when I looked at my sent email in yahoo, the time stamp said 10:59. SIGH.

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    1. Gmail did the SAME thing to me.

      Oh the humanity. :o(

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  58. Susan...I had the same problem! Time.gov said 11:00 but my email said 10:59.

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  59. Me too! The same happened to me! Cupid, are we still in? Please???

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  60. I probably missed it today too. My daughter asked me a question, just as the clock hit 11:00 and I clicked "send" - only to realize that in acknowledging my daughter, I let the mouse slip and I clicked *beside* the send button - so it took an extra 2 or 3 seconds to actually send. Still, I'm gonna keep hoping until they update to say it's all full :)

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  61. Did the contest even start? I sent at 11:00 but the blog title still says "Opening soon..."

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  62. You guys were smart hitting it slightly too early. You beat those of us who waited until exactly 11 am. It still takes several seconds for it to make it to the recipient's inbox.

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    1. I didn't send early - I had my finger on the mouse button aimed right at the send button, and the second it turned to 11, I hit send! But hopefully it gets stamped at 11 on their end!

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    2. There's no advantage to hitting send early, because the time stamp on the email will be whatever it says on the sender's computer.

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  63. Wow that was immensely stressful!!! LOL! But the cyber gods were smiling upon me and I made it. WOOT! Uber exited .... *off to bite nails til next week*

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  64. I sent mine at exactly noon on Friday the 3rd, but I never got a confirmation email. Does that mean I didn't make it?

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    1. I sent mine today right at 11:00 but haven't heard anything yet. Some email servers take up to 5 minutes to deliver to the recipient. The selection should really be based on the time sent stamp, not the received time, to be fair, but I don't think Cupid expected this kind of response. Something to really consider in the future.

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    2. But so many people sent their emails at 11:00 on the dot, wouldn't be surprised if most if not all of the emails were sent within the first minute.

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    3. It seemed like a fun idea, but I wouldn't suggest running future contests like this (and I definitely won't even bother trying to participate), as it's only going to get worse as more people follow. Writing contests should be about quality, not about luck and who has a faster email server. There's already too much luck involved in trying to get published.

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  65. OK, so another question: on Cupid's Twitter she says many entries were not properly formatted. Were they disqualified? If so, will they be notified that's why? Just wondering.

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    1. I don't think they'll be notified at all. Only those who made it in received emails yesterday.

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  66. Did anyone receive an email yet that they made the cut from the 11:00 am window this morning? I haven't received one yet, but I'm still hopeful!

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  67. Those of us who didn't make it can still query these agents individually, right? I'd really like my work to get in front of them.

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  68. I want you all to know I want this to be as fair as possible. But I can only control so much. :(

    I do want this based on quality, which is why I have the judges in round one. 100 entries is A LOT of entries to read through and post to the blog. It's going to take A LOT of my time or I would accept every single one of you. Trust me. (And I only do this for YOU and so we can have fun!)

    There will be TONS more contests in the future where who can submit will be more selective, and only certain genres will be included, so PLEASE stay posted.

    Let's just have fun with this! I know what it's like not to get that email or not be fast enough on the trigger. There is always next time!

    Thanks everyone! Love hearing from you all!

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  69. Wow. That's madness. I sent my email as soon as my computer clock turned 11am (or 10am for me) and I didn't make it in. Did I do something wrong or did the contest really fill up in a matter of seconds?

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    1. Now that I've read through the comments, it looks like, yes it did fill up in a nanosecond. At least you know you did a good job getting the word out. And you only announced a few days ago! Maybe future contests could have more genre restrictions so we're not all battling at the same time and no repeat contestants for 6 months. Just ideas. :) Thanks for the cool contest.

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    2. It was 5am here when the contest opened and, after hearing how fast it filled while factoring in a slow dial-up connection ... I knew I'd no hope anyhow so I'm waiting for a more selective contest, though I'm curious who got through on this one.

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    3. Sorry guys! It was pure madness. But don't worry. There will be more and things will be more selective in the future. But this was kind of my big bang opening contest, and I didn't want to exclude anyone.

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  70. Amazing! Can't wait to see the results! Good job Cupid! This is a fabulous idea. Even tho I sat this one out I find it exciting. What a great way to get people querying!

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  71. What does it mean if my submission as of 2/6/2012 has no comments?

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  72. The judges have until the end of Thursday to make their selections. They may not be done reading all the entries yet.

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