Blind Speed Dating Event Information!!

PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE POST!!

Blind Speed Dating is going to be HUGE this year! There is so much going on I barely even know where to start. Hmmm....I suppose we'll start with the contest.

Blind Speed Dating Contest:

You must be unagented to submit.
You must have a completed manuscript

The contest consists of two parts: The preliminary round (Bouncer round) and the agent round (Honorary Cupid round). I am accepting a total of 360 entries into the Bouncer round. The Bouncers are all published or soon to be published authors and agent interns. As implied, they're the Bouncers, and you must receive a "You're in!" from one of them in the comments of your first-round entry to make it into the agent round. (They can, but are not required to comment more than this.)

So, 360 entries is a lot to read. That's why I have 15 Bouncers lined up. I will accept 60 entries per submission window, so there will be 6 entry windows. Each window gets its own week on the blog (1/14-2/21). Each submission window is assigned 3 Bouncers. They will each read 20 entries and choose their 3 favorites to proceed. (So 9 chosen a week, 54 total.) You will not know which of the 3 Bouncers will judge your entry as they will be using undercover Bouncer names. It is up to the Bouncer if they want to reveal their identity after the contest is over.

You can choose which group of Bouncers you submit to. If you are buddies with one of our Bouncers, PLEASE don't put them in the uncomfortable position of submitting to them so they'll feel pressure to choose you. Be mindful.

Now, as you can tell from the math, I'm short 3 Bouncers. I'm not completely sure how full the contest will get, so if we are still receiving entries for the last window, arrangements will be made. Also, if we don't fill up, I plan to open to multiple manuscripts. Meaning, if you've already entered one manuscript, you can enter another. But to be more fair, these extra submissions will be judged differently. More on that if we get there.

During the Bouncer round, every single entry will appear as its own post on the blog, and they are ALL OPEN TO PUBLIC COMMENT AND CRITIQUE.

Those that get a "You're in!" from one of the Bouncers, enter the agent round, which will take place 2/25-2/28. During the agent round, the agents become Honorary Cupid's and use undercover names to shoot arrows at the manuscripts they're interested in. There are strict rules about how many arrows they have and when they can use them. It's quite an exciting competition! More info on that soon. Check out last year's BSD event (February '12) to see how it went down.

IMPORTANT! Every entry that enters the Bouncer round must be accompanied by a $10 entry donation. More info below in the "Donation Information" section.

Schedule and Bouncers: 

*More posts with details about our marvelous Bouncers coming soon! But check their links for now. As you'll notice, they're grouped together based on similarities, such as category (MG, YA). And I've got all my interns together.

YOU CANNOT request a certain bouncer. Just choose the group you think might be the best fit for your entry. Yes, these entry window dates and times are when you submit for that specific week and those specific bouncers!

PLEASE read the formatting guidelines below for more info on how to submit.

Bouncer Judging: 1/14 - 1/17 (Entry Window: 1/11 @8pm EST, until full)

• Maggie Hall (Twitter, Website)
• Mary Elizabeth Summer (Twitter, Website)
• Miranda Kenneally (Twitter, Website) 

Bouncer Judging: 1/21 - 1/24 (Entry Window: 1/15 @10am EST, until full)

• Marissa Burt (Twitter, Website)
• Tara Dairman (Twitter, Website)
• MarcyKate Connolly (Twitter, Website) 

Bouncer Judging: 1/28 - 1/31 (Entry Window: 1/18 @8pm EST, until full)

• Jennifer Echols (Twitter, Website)
• Susan Gloss (Twitter, Website)
• Mary Lindsey (Twitter, Website) *NEW*

Bouncer Judging: 2/4 - 2/7 (Entry Window: 1/24 @10am EST, until full)

• Elizabeth Briggs (Twitter, Website)
• Taryn Albright (Twitter, Website)
• John Hansen (Twitter, Website)

Bouncer Judging: 2/11 - 2/14 (Entry Window: 1/29 @8pm EST, until full)

• Gennifer Albin (Twitter, Website)
• Julie Murphy (Twitter, Website)
• Anne Greenwood Brown (Twitter, Website)

Bouncer Judging: 2/18 - 2/21 (Entry Window: 2/1 @8pm EST, until full)

•  TBA

Giveaway!

Once again, everyone who enters the contest will automatically be in the giveaway! More info coming soon.


Auction:

There was a lot of interest in last September's CAGI auction, so I thought I'd do another during Blind Speed Dating. The auction items are graciously donated by wonderful agents and will go up for bidding 2/11-2/15! Stay posted for more and please check out the CAGI auction from last September for examples on how this works.

PLEASE NOTE: winners of the last auction, cannot participate this time around.


Mt. Olympus Writer's Conference:

I am REALLY excited about this part! This is my first time doing this. It's pretty much a virtual conference, and it's partly private since only those invited to the Mt. Olympus blog will be able to view the conference. All participating agents and writers will be invited.

The conference runs from the middle-ish of January to the middle-ish of March. Before it starts, I will post different dates and times that the participating agents have scheduled. Then the writers who are interested can try to book an appointment. There will be more writers interested than appointments available, I'm sure, so stay posted on how to land yourself one of these great appointments.

If you land an appointment, you and the agent will meet on the Mt. Olympus blog. Each appointment will have it's own post there, which will include the agent info, the writer info, and the writer's conference entry (Q + 1st page). Then the back and forth discussion can happen in the comments section between the writer and agent.

There will also be some other informative/fun things on Mt. Olympus during the conference for those participating.

*PLEASE NOTE: Requests may or may not be made due to the appointments. This is up to the agent. But the feedback will be priceless, no doubt.


Agent Info:

More on who the participating agents are and what they're looking for coming soon! Don't worry, I'll have a tentative list before the first submission window opens.


Donation Information:

The funds donated will go to two places. Funds from auctioned/agent-donated items will go to donate books to the local public library here. (As I've mentioned, I just discovered it is quite sad!) And I'm also hoping to do something special for Cupid's Love (my hubby). He's been very supportive, patient, and understanding this past year as I've been very busy here. He deserves a big thank you!

Of course, you do not have to participate in any of these events if you don't want to or can't donate. Not all contests here on CLC have entry fees. Although, this is the biggest and the funnest CLC event of the year. :) Might as well put all this work/time/passion/fun to a good cause, right? :)


Kissing Scene Competition:

More will be revealed on this later, but I do want you to know that you CANNOT enter this competition unless you've entered the Blind Speed Dating contest. This is because it will be another chance for those who have entered to get into the agent round. BUT your kissing scene can be from another, even incomplete, manuscript. Each entry can be up to 350 words. And you may include a short intro at the beginning, placing us in the scene.

There will be judges called Kissing Experts that will choose their favorite kissing scene entries. These finalist entries will go up on the blog for vote. (This may or may not be open to public vote. I hate for it to turn into a popularity contest.) The top three will get a pass into the agent round. If they've already made it through, they'll receive another prize. The winners will be announced on Valentine's Day!

So get those kissing scenes ready!


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!)

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Whew!!! I think that covers it for now! I'm very excited about this and I hope you are too! 

Please understand this will be a TON of work for me and many of the things I'm doing are new. So please have patience with me. I'm sorry if everything doesn't work out the way you think it should or would like it to. I really do try my best to make sure everyone has fun and we get as much success as possible.

Also, please be mindful of how gracious our Bouncers and agents are! We love them! 

Thanks for reading! Leave any questions below....