March 2016 Pass or Pages Details

Operation Awesome is excited about the next round of #PassOrPages, coming in March!

And what, you might be asking, is #PassOrPages? It's a query contest we hold every other month, for a specific age category and genre that we change each time. A handful of agents provide feedback on the selected anonymous queries and first 250 pages. Our minimum requirement from the agents is to tell us where they stopped reading and why, although in our last contest, the agents went above and beyond and provided more feedback. (And a big thank you is in order for that! We all know how busy agents are.)

The January edition was a success, with four agents participating to give feedback on five randomly chosen entries in the adult mystery genre. You can look at what they had to say starting here, and you can read a little bit more about the contest and rules here.

The details for the upcoming round are as follows:

Starts: Monday, March 14, 2016, at 6 a.m. Eastern
Ends: Wednesday, March 16, 2016 at 6 p.m. Eastern
Category/Genre: YA Contemporary
How To Enter: Fill out the entry form on the contest post when it goes live
What Is Required: Your query (no bio or customization), your first 250 words, a complete and polished MS

We are not putting a limit on the entries accepted. As with last time, we'll be randomly selecting 5 entries to forward on to all the participating agents for feedback. We will not proofread them or change them in any way (except to remove bio information, if you forgot to do so before entering).

WE HIGHLY SUGGEST THAT YOU POLISH YOUR QUERY AHEAD OF TIME. Please no first drafts. The agents are expecting query-ready queries. But keep in mind that this contest is for people looking for feedback on their query letter and first page. It would be ideal for someone who has already workshopped their query and is about to start the query process or who has already begun but isn't getting requests for more pages.

Also, your manuscript should be polished and query-ready, too. Agents do have the option of requesting more--up to the full--so be prepared to send it.

We'll be doing the announcement as to which agents will be participating on March 7. See you then!