(If you haven't read the first Blind Speed Dating post, please do so by clicking here. It's a doozy but it's important you read it all so you know when to submit and what the heck is going on. :)
Are you ready?
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Are you sure?
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Right now?
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Okay, okay. Here they are!!!! (Please note: I swiped the categories and genres they're interested in from their websites, and I only included those pertaining to the contest. For more info, click on their links.)
Please welcome......
Sarah LaPolla (Curtis Brown Ltd.)
Interests: “Sarah
represents both adult and YA fiction. For adult books, she is looking for
literary fiction, urban fantasy, magical realism, dark/psychological mystery,
and literary horror. On the YA side, she welcomes all genres and is drawn to
unique voices and strong, complex characters.”
***
Carly Watters (P.S. Literary Agency)
Interests: "Carly is
actively looking for Literary and Commercial Fiction, World Literature, Women's
Fiction, Literary Thrillers, high-concept YA."
***
Sara Sciuto (Full Circle Literary, LLC)
Interests: "Sara is very actively building her
list with a focus on middle grade and young adult, in particular, dystopian,
science fiction, fantasy, gothic/thriller/horror, historical, and unique
paranormal. She also enjoys contemporary stories with a strong, authentic voice
(but no chick-lit, please). She has a particular soft spot for gritty
narratives, anything with international or regional locales, period settings,
and anything with artistic themes."
***
Annie Bomke (Annie Bomke Literary Agency)
Interests: "...she is most passionate about character-driven literary fiction, [and] thrillers..."
***
Laura Bradford (Bradford Literary Agency)
Interests: "She continues to actively build her client list
and is currently seeking work in the following genres: Romance (historical,
romantic suspense, paranormal, category, contemporary, erotic), urban fantasy,
women’s fiction, mystery, thrillers and young adult..."
***
Jessica Sinsheimer (Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency)
Interests: "Always on the lookout for new writers, she is most excited about
finding literary, women’s, and Young Adult fiction" & "I do rep middle grade!" - Literary Rambles
***
Pam van Hylckama Vlieg (Larsen Pomada Literary Agents)
Interests: "High
concept young adult in any genre. Middle grade in these genres: fantasy,
science fiction, dystopian, paranormal, literary. Romance in these categories:
historical, fantasy, and erotica. New genres:
commercial science fiction,
fantasy, and literary fiction. New Adult in all categories will be considered.
I am now open to
submissions in upmarket women’s fiction and historical fiction. I’m looking for
books with particularly well-developed characters and strong authorial voice.
In historical fiction in particular I am particularly interested in books that
bring the setting to life and that maintain balance between historical accuracy
and strong plot choices. I am also very interested in mystery, fantasy, and
occasionally romance approaches to these genres as well."
***
Gina Panettieri (Talcott Notch Literary Services, LLC)
Interests: "With fiction, I love quirky, edgy characters. Send me women's
fiction, paranormal, urban fantasy, horror, science fiction, historical,
mystery, thrillers and suspense."
***
Ali McDonald (The Rights Factory)
Interests: "Ali specializes in children's
literature of all kinds...chapter books...to middle grade and young adult
fiction."
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Andrea Somberg (Harvey Klinger, Inc.)
Interests: "...literary, commercial, womens fiction, romance, thrillers, mystery, paranormal,
fantasy, science fiction, young adult, middle grade."
***
Eek! I'm so excited to have all these great agents participating this year!!
*NEW INFO:
This is how they play! Hold on to your seats! :D
*NEW INFO:
This is how they play! Hold on to your seats! :D
The agents go undercover (a list of their Honorary Cupid names will be posted) and it gets really crazy exciting! Why? Here's why:
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.
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.**
Crazy fun, right? :)
Submission Info:
All the submission scheduling and judging info is in the first Blind Speed Dating post here.
The first window is tomorrow evening (1/11) @ 8pm EST, until full (60)!!! And these entries go up next Monday!
These are our judges (Bouncers) for the first window: (Click on their names to read their interviews)
And check out the other Bouncers' interviews too:
Marissa Burt
Mary Lindsey (Interview coming soon!!)
Mary Lindsey (Interview coming soon!!)
How to Submit:
FOLLOW ALL FORMATTING GUIDELINES (below). Then send your entry into CupidsLitConnection(at)yahoo(dot)com as close to the opening time as possible (not sure how fast we'll fill up). Please be patient while you wait for your confirmation email. It is NOT automatic.
After you receive your confirmation, please come here to the blog to donate the $10, using the paypal donate button on the top right hand of the screen. This part is mandatory, so please try your best to have your donation in by noon EST on the next day, Saturday. (More on the donation fee is here in the first post.)
FORMATTING: VERY, VERY, VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!!!
You guys know how much I enforce my formatting guidelines. These aren't to pick on you, torture you, or even to make it easier to read through. This is so that I don't pull quite as much hair out when I am moving the entries onto the blog. Cuz you know, when you do hundreds of entries....THAT'S A LOT!!!
PLEASE READ AND FOLLOW ALL OF THESE GUIDELINES!!!!
When you submit your entry please make it very simple:
PLEASE no tabs or double spacing. I want it email style. Single spaced. One space between paragraphs. No tabs! (This is my biggest enemy!)
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 SIMPLE credentials at the END of your query.
Your entry will be like this: (Yes, bolded where bolded)
Title: NAME OF YOUR BOOK (Yes, CAPS there!!!)
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 our very own Mary Elizabeth's "Surprise Agent Invasion"entry for further example.
The SUBJECT of your email should be: TITLE - Your Name (This is important! If I have to go back and find your original email, this is almost IMPOSSIBLE without this info in the subject!)
THANK YOU!!!!! for following these specific guidelines. Makes me very happy!
(Email entries to CupidsLitConnection@yahoo.com and PLEASE FOLLOW ALL DIRECTIONS GIVEN HERE!)
I'm totally on-board with donating money to help a library. I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of giving $10 (for a total of $3,600) towards a gift (not that he doesn't deserve one). Is my understanding correct that the auction proceeds go to the library and the entrance donation goes towards the gift? Thanks! Please understand I don't think there's anything wrong with a fee to enter a contest. Putting this on is a ton of work.
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous, :)
DeleteAt this point, I'm not sure the amount of proceeds the auction and conference will collect. First, I want to make sure the donation of books is enough to be a great donation. We all probably know how fast the cost of books can climb. Which is why I didn't draw a definite line after that. Also, not sure how full the contest will actually get.
And yeah, "a ton of work" doesn't even begin to describe how much goes into planning something like this, over the last month and the next two, on top of everything that's already gone into this blog.
Of course, if anyone does not feel comfortable donating the ten dollars, they do not have to enter. There will be some other great things going on this year. Although, probably not contests like this since they've been done so much lately. Planning some new things that I'm really excited about.
Thanks for the question. :)
Wow. Sounds like a lot of fun And a lot of work.
ReplyDeleteWish I was prepared. -next time! :)