CONTEST CLOSED! Thanks to all who participated :)
Good morning, Writers!
You know what I love about writers? They can just fork over a one-sentence pitch just like that.
*snaps fingers*
No? Well, in that case, check out Nathan Bransford's one-line pitch talk.
Now all you need is a polished children's manuscript, either picture book, middle grade, or young adult. Oh, you have one? Perfect!
Go forth and enter (in the comments)!
Here is what our fabulous MA is on the lookout for:
Picture Books
Middle Grade
Young Adult
Specifically, our MA is seeking the following:
For MG and YA: currently seeking mysteries, historical, or contemporary with mystery elements
For PB: seeking manuscripts that have a voice, aka an author who is putting forward a sense of place, personality, and storytelling. Voice, voice, voice!
This contest is open to veterans and newbies alike - so long as you have a complete and query-ready manuscript on your hands within the genres of interest, our guest agent would love to hear from you.
Contest goes live 9 AM central time and remains open until all entry spots are filled. The first 50 entries we receive will go on to our MA. Remember, this is a one-sentence pitch. Cheating with grammar doesn't count. Meaning that you can't have 3 sentences with commas between them. The sentence needs to work.
The official contest rules:
1) Entries must be one-line pitches. The length of the pitch is up to you, but remember, it's only one sentence.
2) Entries must be for completed manuscripts. No NaNo projects, and no unfinished drafts, please!
3) Entries must be left in the comments section of today's post (please don't email us your entries!). We'll close the contest once we've reached our limit.
4) You can only enter once today (only one project). If you participated or won previous MA contests, you can enter this one as well!
4) Please include TITLE and GENRE, followed by your one-line pitch.
5) The contest will close when we receive 50 entries.
6) The winner will receive a FULL manuscript request!
7) If the rules aren't followed, your entry will be disqualified.
That's it! Now go and submit that awesome one-line pitch!!
Good luck to everyone! (It is lucky shamrock season.)
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| Artist at deviant art |
57 comments:
SHARD - YA Sci-Fi
When 15-year-old Kaia discovers she can control one of the atomic elements, she joins The Shifters, a covert unit who fight to stop terrorists and save the world - or, at least, that's what they're told.
Name: Chris Smith and Holly Cagney
Title: FIRE, LIGHTS AND SLEEPLESS NIGHTS
Genre: YA contemporary
Julian helps Tess hunt for their hometown’s arsonist-at-large to lure her off his trail, but as the nights wear on, sparks between them fly.
Marilla's Monster vine
Picture Book
Marilla, a shy country witch with a green thumb (and face!), needs friends like a werewolf needs a moon to howl at and when she enters her Monster Vine in the Broomview Garden Show she hopes she’ll wind up with more friends than a hairy troll has fleas, but first she’ll have to stop her out-of-control vine from wrecking the town, snatching up all the witches and trying to find friends for her.
Title: Triskeleon
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
An ancient book transports awkward teen Marnie to the magical realm of Anderli, where she learns she’s a descendant of the time-manipulating Momenta and must trust in her newfound powers to reverse Anderli’s destruction.
SNAPPSY THE ALLIGATOR (DID NOT ASK TO BE IN THIS BOOK)
Picture Book
Snappsy the alligator was having a perfectly ordinary day, until the rude narrator started making stuff up.
TITLE: Beanblossom Versus Bombastic Bandits
GENRE: MG Mystery
If twelve-year-old Jacob Beanblossom finds hidden treasure before two grownup crooks do, he'll collect a hefty reward and start middle school being known as the boy who recovered a long-lost fortune instead of the kid who could fart on command.
Title: MIGHTY MIKE AND THE ALIEN PEZ DISPENSER
Genre: MG Sci-fi/Adventure
Eleven-year-old Mike can only escape bully Brutus when daydreaming of becoming super-hero Mighty Mike until he meets a little blue alien and agrees to test candies from an Alien Pez Dispenser, each of which give him a different super (or not-so-super) power.
AUSSIE OUTSIDER
YA Mystery
When sixteen-year-old Rory moves from California to a Dr. Pepper can-size island to live with her dad, someone doesn't want her there, and unless she discovers why, her new home could be six feet under the ground.
Title: CIRQUE
Genre: Upper MG historical fiction
While the building French Revolution threatens her way of life and her life itself, 14-year-old Comtesse Juliette de la Marche is concerned only with finding her missing diplomat father, a quest that takes her from the center ring of London’s first circus to the edge of the guillotine’s blade.
Title: Dot Reaper
Pitch: Lord of the Flies meets X-Men in this contemporary YA fantasy about fifteen-year-old Maxine Protega’s descent into rage and vengeance as a magical civil war rips her family and her world apart.
Title: THREE WISHES
Genre: YA Fantasy
Genie will need a master if she wants to keep the new body she got when she turned 17 ½; but finding Master Right isn’t easy--and she wants to make her own wishes come true.
Title: However Improbable
Genre: YA Alt History Mystery
Pitch: When Marigny is drawn for a contest to marry an Empire heir, she quickly falls for a rival player and must use her Sherlock senses to save him from a scheme rigged to doom them both.
Title: Mother Earth’s Lullaby
Genre: Picture Book
When Mother Earth bids goodnight and casts her shafts of silver light, everyone feels safe and snug all wrapped up in nature’s hug.
Muleskinner. Upper MG historical fiction with paranormal elements.
A twelve-year-old mule driver on the Ohio Canal is "adopted" by a mysterious dog that encourages the orphan to uncover his past, fight for his freedom, and reunite his family.
Title: TREE OF MANY COLORS
Genre: Historical
Ten-year-old Jimmy wants a normal life, but hard times follows him around like an old hound dog, and he steps in trouble like he steps in mud puddles, with bare feet.
Title: Savannah's Grace
Genre: Contempt YA
Pitch: Savannah knows her father harbors a secret; what she doesn't know is she's it.
Title: Calvin’s Friend
Genre: Picture Book (400 words)
Tag along on Calvin the curious puppy‘s morning walk, as he and his boy spot ten backyard animals on their way to Calvin’s mystery friend’s house.
Title: Mother Earth’s Lullaby
Genre: Picture Book
When Mother Earth bids goodnight and casts her shafts of silver light, everyone feels safe and snug all wrapped up in nature’s hug.
Title: CHASING CHARLIE
Genre: MG Mystery
Twelve year old Maeve’s create-a-mystery game in a nearby cemetery turns real for her and her sisters when a series of puzzling clues leads them on a race across Long Island to dig up a millionaire’s stolen treasure.
Title: HOW NOT TO GIVE YOUR HIPPOPOTAMUS A BATH
Genre: PB
When it's time to give that hippopotamus a bath, don't let him do a bellyflop unless you want a suds-surfing, garden hose-tangling, pizza-chomping, still-dirty animal on the loose.
Title: A SHADOW STORY
Genre: YA Victorian Fantasy
Seeking a connection to a mother who died under mysterious circumstances, Victorian teen Lividia Blackwell discovers long-buried family secrets that reunite her with her guardian Boogeyman, and pit her against an evil Sandman bent on destroying her family.
Lost on the Skeleton Coast
Middle Grade
It’s not a good idea to be lost in the Namib Desert. But that’s exactly what happens to ten and eleven year old brother and sister, Andy and Olivia, from Chicago, on a dig with their Uncle Blake (U.B.), a famous archaeologist.
Title: Surprise Murmur
Genre: PB
A starling alights on the bow of William's boat during a paddle on the loch before flying skyward and turning into a flock of wonder.
Title: THE STORYTELLER
Genre: MG Historical (set in early 1990s)
Elena retreats into her imagination rather than face the fact that her father is dying of AIDS, until Ang, an elderly African American woman with her own difficult past befriends her.
Title: LILLY PETUNIA WASHINGTON PRESIDENTIAL PI
Genre: MG Contemporary
When Lilly Washington finds a mysterious diary circa 1870, she embarks on an adventure to discover an unfound time capsule that could uncover secrets from the Civil War - that is, if she isn’t expelled first.
Nancy, this contest is for one-sentence pitches only - please resubmit for your entry to qualify. Thank you!
Title: Seeing Shadows
Genre: YA Mystery (with Paranormal element)
When seventeen-year-old Skylar discovers she can see visions within shadows she wants no part of it, but when a vision reveals a classmate was murdered and that her long-time crush may be involved, she’ll have to deliberately step into some shadows to find the truth or be the next victim.
Title: KNIGHT PETER AND SPARKY
Genre: Picture Book
Small, short Knight Peter sets out on a quest to prove his bravery, but when he comes across a dragon, he trembles in his armor--like always.
Title: Nowhere To Hide
Genre: YA Suspense
When the police fail to find any evidence of the murder that Penny Haywood claims to have witnessed, strange things start happening to those people closest to her.
Title: Catstronaut
Genre: picture book
Upon learning that the moon is made of cheese, Ned the cat must embark on a cosmic mouse-finding mission.
Title: BROTHAS TORN
Genre: YA Mystery
Sixteen-year-old Dhamell is determined to prove his dad isn’t guilty of murdering his half-brother’s mom, even if he has to face a serial killer and deceive his half-brother, who doesn’t believe their father is innocent.
Title: Big Sister, Big Monster
Genre: Picture Book
Lucy's attempts to be the perfect big sister flop, leading to monster-sized frustration -- and turning her into the exact opposite of who she wants to be.
Title: The Protected One
Genre: YA Steampunk Suspense
After she witnessed her sister's murder, Macy is whisked away to the Alaskan Klondike as part of the Witness Protection Program, only to find she's been followed, and he's after more than her steam powered dog sled.
Title: The Summer I Started a Business, Solved a Mystery, and Showed Up on Cajun Pawn Stars
Genre: MG contemporary
Twelve-year-old Haley’s got a good thing going smuggling contraband inside Southside Gardens Nursing Home, but things take a dangerous turn when she teams up with two seniors and discovers there’s a connection between a recent bank robbery and the resident in Room 30B.
Title: Doug, The Unlikely Dancer
Genre: Picture Book
Six-year-old Doug practices in his bedroom, the backyard, and the grocery store for a chance to show the world he's a dancer--even if he is fat.
Drained- YA Fantasy
Sixteen-year-old Alysse Norton wants to win a four year dance scholarship to the Seattle Performing Arts Center, but she must first battle her new math teacher, Mr. Grimly, a Goblin in human skin, who has awakened unknown fey magic deep within her genes, and is slowly sucking her life and magic away, leaving her drained and unable to dance.
Dorine- dorwh at aol dot com
Title: THE PENDANTS
Genre: YA historical
Pitch: When hostile strangers invade her band’s territory, headwoman's daughter Nahia has an unexpected chance to choose her own destiny – but only if she can betray her mother and sister, and abandon her people to an uncertain fate.
Title: Liar's Bench
Genre: Upper YA Historical
Kentucky, 1972: 17-yr-old Mudas finds out that cockfights and whores may be today's sins, but suspects they tie into yesterday's sorrows—her mama’s
death and the hundred-year-old lynching of her boyfriend's great-great grandmother.
Title: BULLY BUSTERS: THE RUMPIE EPIDEMIC
Genre: MG Contemporary
Diseased nanobots are taking over the minds of the girls at Middle Brook Elementary, and it’s up to the Bully Busters to stop them.
How will 15-year old Kelly Henderstein cope with the upheaval of her post-divorce family, a desperately needed but awful hospital cafeteria job with its unexpected volunteering as the hospital mascot Chico Bear-all while trying not to clash with a young patient as angry as she is?
Title: BETTER LIVES
Genre: YA Science Fiction
17 year-old prep school student Marc is abducted and replaced by aliens to avert a future where he’s the president who starts WWIII.
Title: THE WITNESS
Genre: MG horror
Twelve-year-old Ryder's never been able to change the future he sees, but when he has visions of his mom's murder, he'll risk his life to stop it.
Title: THE RIVER REMEMBERS
Genre: YA Supernatural Mystery
When 16-year-old Emma’s best friend drowns, she must master her unwanted ability to manipulate emotions to find out what really happened before she's the next victim of the ruthless creature responsible.
Title: The Templars: Innitiation
Genre: YA Action / Adventure / Heist
When Alex's dad is abducted during her first real mission as his apprentice, she must design her own operation to rescue him.
Title: The Sky Throne
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
When teenaged Zeus, the future king of the Greek gods, is attacked, in order to retaliate, he must access the power of Ouranos' Sky Throne, but doing so could kill him.
Title: The Sky Throne
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
When teenaged Zeus, the future king of the Greek gods, is attacked, in order to retaliate, he must access the power of Ouranos' Sky Throne, but doing so could kill him.
Title: Nezumi's Children
Genre: YA Fantasy
Abandoned by the humans they once worshiped as gods, the rats of Rocco's Pet Emporium must face the oncoming disaster alone and learn to survive on their own; unfortunately, they're not the only rats in the territory, and the Wild Ones don't plan on sharing.
Title: MOON RIVER
Genre: YA contemporary
A stalker, a stranger, a family secret: making out with your cousin has its pitfalls.
I had trouble adding my entry the first time--sorry if it appeared twice!
Title: The Sky Throne
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
When teenaged Zeus, the future king of the Greek gods, is attacked, in order to retaliate, he must access the power of Ouranos' Sky Throne, but doing so could kill him.
Not sure if you're at 50 comments or not?
Title: The Somewhat Manly Scrapbook of LumberStan's Big Woods Adventure
Genre: Humorous Historical Middle Grade
The only thing standing between twelve-year-old Stan and the 1896 river drive is his little, ornery, and bossy Granny.
Alison makes 46. Four more slots open!
title: Tori-Tess and the Hairy Mess
Genre: PB Humorous/quirky
When a young cowpoke aims to be the best cowgirl this side of the Mississippi, she has to do three things: Save her favorite cow, Bacon, show the head cowboy she can rope as good as any body else, and most important of all... tame her curlier than wool, wilder than a boar, longer-than-the-Oregan trail hair!
Title: Baby Bug Tries to Yawn
Genre: PB
Baby bug struggles to yawn even after his mama winds him down,but after he peers outside to see birds nestling in a line, squirrels stretching on a limb, and kittens yawning jagged jaws he finds their tranquil actions to be very contagious.
Thanks so much!
Title: Hope Is My Name
PB
Carrying an armful of her jasmine garlands, Amal goes to Tahrir Square with her father, where faced with soldiers and tank cannons, she learns first hand the power of hope.
Title: Scrapbook of a Tomboy Princess
Genre: Chapter Book
With the help of her pink high heels (stuffed with Kleenex), her rock star wig, and her best friend Jimmy, Cozette must figure out who’s haunting the spooky house on the corner before her first ever campout or risk being stolen right out of her sleeping bag by the scary librarian found lurking on her street, or the bearded mailman caught digging in the graveyard.
Contest Closed! Thanks everyone!
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