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Thursday, June 28, 2012

It's coming! July Mystery Agent

Sunday, July 1, is our June Mystery Agent Contest, and this one is a bit different -- a first line contest!

Our Mystery Agent for July is looking for middle grade and YA novels, especially contemporary, historical, fantasy, and reinvented fairy tale.


Reminders:

  • Entries should be for completed manuscripts only.
  • You can enter one entry for one novel -- if you make a mistake, just delete your entry and repost.
  • Yes, you are eligible to enter even if you've won MA contests in the past.
  • The first 50 qualifying entries will be accepted -- don't pay attention to the comment numbers. We will close the contest when we've reached our limit.
  • If the rules are not followed, your pitch will be disqualified. Please carefully read the guidelines and follow them
  • Entries should include:
Author
Title
Genre
First Sentence

Anyone can enter as long as your novel falls under the genres our MA is looking for. If this particular MA doesn't rep your genre, no worries -- we hold these contests often and try to find agents with diverse tastes so there will be a contest in the future for your particular genre.

The contest will go live Sunday, July 1 at 10 am ET / 9 CT / 8 MT / 7 PT

Come back July 1 to enter! And good luck!

(And for those who wait, the winners of the June Mystery Agent contest will be posted soon.)

Update: The July Mystery Agent contest is closed. Please don't enter the July Mystery Agent contest via this post. Our M.A contests can be entered via a post that goes live the day of the contest (1st of each month). Thank you.

24 comments:

  1. Sounds fantastic! Can't wait to see more details and see the June MA reveal. :)

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  2. I don't write YA, but I'll pass along your post.

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  3. So, just to be clear, we only give the first line of our manuscript, not of the query, right?

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  4. Yes, it's the first line of your book -- something a little different to mix it up!

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. Hi! I'd like to enter the contest but my first three sentences are all one word sentences. Can we enter the number of words in our manuscript that would make up a normal sentence? Or am I being high maintenance? Sorry!

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  7. I'm excited for this contest! :-)

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  8. I have a question similar to Andrea's---my first line is two short sentences that technically could be one sentence if they were punctuated differently. Am I only allowed to submit the first sentence (8 words)? Or can I submit the entire first line (13 words)? Thanks!

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  9. Sounds awesome! I'm excited to enter! Thanks for hosting it!

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  10. Andrea and Ari, I think we need to stick to the first sentence thing because otherwise the rules are too confusing! You could use a variant to the version in your manuscript to fit the contest -- you might even like it better!

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  11. Author: Katherine Locke
    Title: The Possibilities of Keeping a City
    Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
    First Sentence: The first thing you need to know is that if you hear anyone calling me a hero, I’m not a hero because heroes aren’t usually kids with magic, tattoos, and talking cats.

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    Replies
    1. I swear it's 10am EST when I sent this?

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  12. Author: Amanda Foody
    Title: RELIC
    Genre: YA Fantasy
    First Line: I've died this way before.

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  13. Kelly Allan; Fade Into You; Contemporary; Blood thumped in my veins as I fled.

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  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  15. Author: Mindy Alyse Weiss
    Title: Mom Wars
    Genre: MG, contemporary
    First Sentence: Hope bubbles float around me as I wait to hear Mom’s surprise.

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    Replies
    1. Oops...just realized that there's another thread for this. It looks like I just made it there on time! I hope everyone else here jumps over to this thread: http://operationawesome6.blogspot.com/2012/07/july-mystery-agent-contest.html

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  16. REALLY? I got up early to get in this, posted at 10:01, and I DIDN"T GET IN THE CONTEST???
    Epic sadness....... :(

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  17. Oh, Amanda and Writingwithcats, I'm so sorry. We always put up a separate post. I'll check with my fellow judges about including these...

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    1. Please consider including it. I snuck on at work to do this and was here in time. Not fair if the entry post isn't up in time.

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    2. Sorry, Katie = WritingWithCats. I was on my phone earlier.

      Original post didn't mention there'd be another post and this is my first MA. Please consider including it.

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  18. Dale S. Rogers
    The Caribbean Code
    Contemporary MG
    Dee Robinson tried to grip the van’s cushions, since there was no seat belt or anything to hold onto.

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  19. Hi Amanda and Katie. You can email me at kellyandrews92 / yahoo -- I tried to find contact for you but I couldn't!

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