Monday, March 12, 2012

Submitting to "Surprise Agent Invasion" and Info!

**UPDATED: CONTEST CLOSED TO ENTRIES! Those selected as "victims" will receive an email on Monday, March 26th!!!


Fyi: I will be donating the funds for Helping Hearts for Britta very soon. If you're interested in donating please do so soon. Thank you!*

This month's event is called "Surprise Agent Invasion" and will run from the end of March through the first half of April. I chose this timeline so I would have a couple weeks to prepare for the multi blog contest, "The Writer's Voice", which is coming up in May.

So here's the deal...

MG, YA, and Adult genres welcome. NO picture books and NO non-fiction.

There are two entry windows: TONIGHT (Monday, March 12th) @ 11:00 pm EDT (yes, that has been changed). And TOMORROW morning (Tuesday, March 13th) @ 11:00 am EDT.  Each window will be open until I receive 100 entries each. Totaling 200 entries. If your entry was included in the Bouncer round of BSD last month please do not enter this contest!! If we do not fill up the 200 slots I will open for those who participated last month. (Thank you.)

Email entries to: cupidslitconnection(at)yahoo(dot)com

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE make sure your entry is formatted correctly. Otherwise your entry will be deleted. I am accepting your queries and first 250ish words. Formatting rules are the same as they have always been: SEE BELOW!!!!!

Confirmation emails will be sent to those who make it in shortly after entry being received.

If you make it into one of the windows your entry enters AREA 51 and goes before the CIA. The CIA consists of myself and four of the YA Confidential operatives: Copil, Cambria, Cristin, and Karen. The 200 entries will be split up between the five of us randomly and we will each choose our strongest 10 entries to go up on the blog as "victims" of our "Surprise Agent Invasion" event. Of course, the CIA and AREA 51 are very secretive and confidential so this will all take place behind closed doors and you will NOT know which CIA judge received your entry. And as you'll notice, that is only 50 entries from the 200, so make sure your work is at it's best!!

Those who make it past the CIA and become "victims" will be notified by Cupid via email. The dates of these emails and when the entries will be posted on the blog for the agent invasion will be disclosed at a later date.

When the 50 "victims" are posted they are exposed to any literary agent that decides to show up. Yes, ANY agent can stop by and make ANY requests!!!!!!!! Exciting, right? But what does this mean for you?

Well, I want to warn a couple things. This could totally flop. *nervous laughter* I don't think it will, but it could. I will be notifying agents, but that doesn't mean they have to show up. Also, as I said, this means your work will be open to be seen by ANY agent. Even agents you don't know are looking might be reading your entry and rejecting it without your knowledge. Please decide if you can live with this before entering the contest. ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK. 

The agents who want to make requests will do so in the comment section of that entry with instructions on how to submit. As you can tell, this event won't be so much a competition with the agents since they can request on anything, even those entries already requested on. But the surprise part should be good!

The entries will be up on the blog for 3 weeks! But if an entry gets a request, that request can be sent in immediately. You do not have to wait until the end of the event to send in materials.


FORMATTING your entries: (VERY IMPORTANT!)

When you submit your entry please make it very simple:

No tabs or double spacing. I want it email style. Single spaced. One space between paragraphs. No tabs!

Just the meat of your material. No "Dear so and so", or "I chose you because..." Just the meat of the query and first 250. You may add your credentials at the END of your query--not entry, query. 

Your entry will be like this: (Yes, bolded where bolded)

Title: NAME OF YOUR BOOK
Genre: Genre of your book
Word Count: Word count of your book

Query:

Your query formatted correctly. (per above guidelines)

First 250:

Your first 250 formatted correctly. (per above guidelines)

*Look at February's entries for further example.*

AND!!!!!! SUBJECT of your email should be: TITLE - Your Name

THANK YOU!!!!! for following these specific guidelines. Makes me a very happy Cupid. 

Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!

44 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. I always do that! :) I forget not everyone has my email address memorized like I do.

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  2. Can we enter more than one project?

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    1. No only one entry per person. But feel free to enter a different one in a later contest. :)

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  3. Dear Cupid,

    If we were lucky enough to be a part of the February contest, may we submit a DIFFERENT project for consideration this time around?

    Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. No. Not unless we don't fill spots and I call for february entrants. :) Good question.

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  4. I hope I can get a spot. I've been looking forward to this!

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  5. Dear Cupid,
    Can novellas be entered?
    This sounds fun!
    TQ

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    1. I suppose, if there are agents out there looking for novellas. :)

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  6. This may sound dumb, but is EDT the same as EST? Otherwise, I'm lost...

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    Replies
    1. I'm guessing this is a typo since we just came off of standard time. :) I'm planning to submit mine at 11 PM EDT. ;)

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    2. Yes, it is the same. EDT is for summertime months.

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    3. A nitpick, but Daylight time started on March 11 and will continue until November 4, when we go back to REAL time again. (I'm a proofreader and this is something I correct all the time!)

      Though I'd be damn happy if daylight time just went away permanently.

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  7. I hope everyone has a great time and learns as much as I did from February's contest!!! Cupid you are so creative with your fun ideas!

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  8. I had a great time competing in February's contest! Good luck to everyone who enters this contest! It sounds like fun.

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  9. This sounds so fun! You have the best contests, Cupid. Good luck to the entrants!

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  10. i've tweaked! ready to try again! thanks!

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  11. Oh this time zone stuff is so confusing. I still haven't set all my clocks forward! :)

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  12. I'm so excited! Less than twenty minutes away :)

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    Replies
    1. Okay. Good. Than I did get the time thing correct. I had to look it up on Google!

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  13. Sent...hope it worked.

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  14. Well, taking the plunge again. *holds her breath*

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  15. Thanks, Cupid, for these fun contests! FYI: I accidentally sent my first email with a couple of accidental attachments (it's been one of *those* days...). Once I realized it, I resent without the attachments. :) Katie

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  16. Sent at 11:00:00. Here's to hoping! :) Thanks, Cupid!

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  17. Sent. Hopefully I timed it right this time. I have the absolute worst luck with this kind of thing! Good luck to everyone! :)

    Thanks again

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  18. Sent at 8:00pm my time. :) Of course at 7:59pm my daughter comes out crying that she bumped her head. But, I still got it out! Hope it went through.

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  19. Thank you so much for having it at an Australian friendly time!

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  20. Woo! I got in the second round. Thanks, Cupid. I can't wait to see if I make the cut. So exciting!

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  21. My first contest as I just finished my wip. Looking forward to all I might learn in this process :) Thanks for having these fun, yet educational contests. Critiques are the best gifts for a writer :) (I'll accept agent requests as well:)

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  22. Looking forward to it! Thanks for the great opportunity!

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  23. Cupid, this blog of yours is an absolute blast! Thanks for hosting these creative contests, and for making opportunities arise. Woot!

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  24. Thanks for this opportunity, Cupid! I really hope the second round is still open, because I just sent my email. Time zone differences made 11 AM into 7 AM for me, and I slept straight through my alarm! Either way, this is a great contest, and I hope it's a success. =)

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  25. Are you stil accepting submissions???

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  26. *cracks knuckles*

    Bring on the queries!!!

    Thanks so much for asking us to join the CIA. I'm excited to start reading the entries. :)

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  27. Oh cool op once again, Cupid. I did last month's but it'll be fun to sit back and watch this one... kinda like presenting at the Oscars but not nominated. lol (the actors always say it's so much better) :D

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  28. Aww darn. Missed it because I had no internet for the week. -_- Ah well, good luck to everyone who got through! ^_^

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  29. Any idea when the entries that are moving on to the next round will be posted?

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  30. Hey Cupid,

    do you happen to have a tentative date for when the entries will be posted?

    Thanks!

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  31. Sorry, I have been away!!

    Those entries selected to be "victims" will be emailed on Monday, March 26th!!!

    Good luck everyone!

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  32. Have the emails all gone out yet? If I haven't heard anything, do I assume I didn't make it?
    Thanks!

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