May Pass Or Pages Entry #5

Welcome to our feedback reveal for Pass Or Pages. In this contest, randomly chosen entries were critiqued by our agent panel. We hope it will give everyone a sense of what is going on in an agent's head as they read queries and first pages. We're so grateful to the members of the agent panel who gave their time to provide feedback on these entries. We'd also like to thank the entrants. It's hard to put yourself out there. Thanks for being brave!

Entry #5: WORST VILLAIN EVER (36,000 words)

QUERY

When twelve-year-old George Pruwell finally gets admitted to the Academy of Villainy and Wrongdoing, he has big plans of making his family proud. Unfortunately George is anything but villainous. So to secure a slot in the school's best roster of classes and prove himself worthy of his family's wonderfully terrible villainy [RW1] name, he takes on a nearly impossible assignment: defeat Captain Perfecto, the world's best superhero.

Now, George has to figure out how one too-nice-villain-in-training can defeat the most impressive superhero of all time. And when Perfecto turns out to have some seriously big problems of his own, George must choose to follow his instincts and help the superhero or crush him and become the most villainous Pruwell ever.

The Incredibles meets Despicable Me [RW2] in this 36,000 word story for kids [RW3] who love comics and capes. I'd be delighted if you would consider WORST VILLAIN EVER for publication [RW4] .
--------------
Moe's notes:
[MF] So this sounds absolutely adorable. There are a lot of books with similar premises (either heroes in school or villains in school) so you need to do what you can to make yours stand out as different and unique!

Roseanne's notes:
[RW1] This isn’t really necessary.

[RW2] Great comp titles.
[RW3] MG book for readers
[RW4] Representation, not publication.
[RW] The query looks pretty good. Nice use of specifics without giving too much away, doesn’t read like a synopsis, and gives us the character, conflict, and choice of the story.

Emily's notes:
[EK] This feels like it has been done?

FIRST 250

If the Pruwell family villains were a perfectly groomed head of hair, twelve-year-old George would be the cowlick that kept sticking out no matter how much spit was firmly applied.

In yet another attempt to reverse this unfortunate reality, today George peered out his second-floor window wearing his Mastermind Magnifying Goggles. With those bad boys on, he could see the yellow centers of Ms. Wutherford's daisies all the way across the street. But George was far less interested in the daisies than in what would hopefully be his first successful villainous trick.

He zeroed in on the location of the tripwire stake next to the sidewalk and saw nothing. Excellent. He’d perfected an invisible tripwire using Gloss Over-It to cover Rule Number One of High Villainy: Don’t get caught.

The thought of someone tripping and landing in a glorious pile of limbs and scattered papers should make George smile with anticipation. It was a classic. Any self-respecting villain would be rubbing his hands together. Perhaps even cackling maniacally. Instead, George felt like he had swallowed a dozen white mice from a mad scientist’s laboratory.

Chewing a thumbnail, he turned his gaze north. Mike Kahn was coasting down the sidewalk on his skateboard as he did every night.

--------------
Moe's notes:

[MK] I love the various inventions through out and how much we’ve learned about George in just a few paragraphs. I think there’s something weird going on in paragraph 3 and I can’t tell if there’s a few missing words in there. In spite of that, this sounds like a lot of fun. Please email the first 50 pages and synopsis to MFsubmissions (at) bookendsliterary (dot) com, with the subject OPERATION AWESOME and the submission pasted in the body of the email.

Roseanne's notes:
[RW1] This metaphor isn’t working because it requires too much explanation, and doesn’t really help us visualize that much. And it seems like a different voice than the rest of the text.

[RW2] This voice sounds like an adult, but not on purpose.

[RW3] Again, a little overwrought.

[RW] The story sounds great, but the narrative is overly wordy, even with the narrator’s voice styling, and the metaphors need to be simpler and snappier. I’m also not sure why we are starting in this place, but it might become more obvious after the 250. I would read pages with revisions.

RESULTS

Moe Ferrara: PAGES!
Roseanne Wells: PASS
Emily Keyes: PASS

May Pass Or Pages Entry #4

Welcome to our feedback reveal for Pass Or Pages. In this contest, randomly chosen entries were critiqued by our agent panel. We hope it will give everyone a sense of what is going on in an agent's head as they read queries and first pages. We're so grateful to the members of the agent panel who gave their time to provide feedback on these entries. We'd also like to thank the entrants. It's hard to put yourself out there. Thanks for being brave!

Entry #4: VAMPIRE MASK (?? words [MF1] [RW1])

QUERY

Piper is a thirteen-year-old vampire. [MF2]

Unless you ask her mom. [RW2] [EK1] To Mom, she’s an adorable thirteen-year-old daughter who was diagnosed with lupus—right after she lost her father to complications from lupus.

But in Piper’s mind, she’s a vegetarian vampire, waiting for her magic powers to come in. [RW3] She can’t go in the sun, she has to watch what she eats, she’s tired and hurting all the time and she can’t hang out on the beach with her friends [RW4] . It leaves her feeling very alone in a sea of sun-kissed people. Thank goodness for her mom and older brother, who refuse to “lose her to the dark side”. [MF3] [RW5]

And then she meets Devon, a homeless boy trying to feed his little sister by dumpster diving. In Piper’s eyes, he’s even weirder than she is, but her curiosity is piqued, and an unlikely friendship is formed. While Piper struggles to hold on to her mask—refusing to admit she has an incurable disease—Devon disappears and her “vampire powers” almost get her killed while she’s trying to find him. It takes the strength of a mother’s love and a brother’s unwavering support to pull her out from behind her “vampire mask” and into the sun once more. [RW6]
--------------
Moe's notes:
[MF1] What's the word count?
[MF2] Vampires. Why did it have to be vampires? /Indiana Jones reference. Not the agent for vampires and I would stop here.

[MF3] I’m having a hard time with these two paragraphs. Her family doesn’t want to lose her to the dark side, but in the paragraph above it feels like her mom doesn’t know she’s a vampire.

[MF] What are the stakes? (No pun intended!) This feels rather quiet to me from the query.

Roseanne's notes:
[RW1] I don’t see the category or the word count.

[RW2] I like this switch. It sets you up to think it’s paranormal, but then it makes it a coping mechanism.
[RW3] This should come after what she can’t do because it’s the result of her “logic” that she’s a vampire.

[RW4] This is repetitive of going out in the sun. If you want to emphasize that she lives in a place where the beach is the culture, then make it it’s own thought. We don’t know where she is geographically, which would also help.

[RW5] Does she want to be lost? This is not clear. Does she think she’s a vampire, or does she want to be one?

[RW6] This is not clear, and I don’t see what she wants or what the stakes are.

Emily's notes:
[EK1] My first thought was “oh no not another vampire book.” But if she’s not actually a vampire, why start with that?

FIRST 250

I remember the day I was reborn into this new life. The day they told me not to go outside because the sun could kill me. That day, my whole life changed.

It was not a change I am [MK1] happy with. [RW1]

"Piper, eat your breakfast."

I blinked at my mom. "Vampires don't do mornings."

Long suffering sigh. "You aren't a vampire."

"Then why can't I go in the sun?" I asked, mushing up my pancakes.

"You can go in the sun. You just have to cover up. Wear that cute floppy hat I bought you."

I pushed away from the table, glaring at my mom. She would never understand me. I resisted the urge to bare my fangs at her and instead I jumped to my feet and stalked out…or at least, I tried to stalk out. But the big black combat boots she bought me yesterday make it very hard to stalk [MK2]. I think they weighed as much as I do, and they made my knees ache.

But.

Vampires wear black. And since I'm sure I'll have to be fighting other vampires soon, [RW2] I must have combat boots.

"Piper!" Crap. My mom had noticed my retreat and my still-full plate left behind on the table.

"I'm going back to sleep." I called as I tried to bound up the stairs. I only fell once.

Do vampires sleep in their combat boots? I was new at this, so I wasn't sure.

--------------
Moe's notes:

[MK1] Don’t switch tenses.
[MK2] Watch your repetitions!

[MK] Sorry, but vampires just aren’t my cup of tea.

Roseanne's notes:
[RW1] This isn’t doing much to draw me in. It’s vague, sounds cliché, and makes it feel like a memory rather than the moment we’re in. And there are much more interesting ways to express a character’s displeasure with change.

[RW2] I’m not sure why she’ll be fighting other vampires? Does she know, or she assumes that’s part of being a vampire?

[RW] The MC sounds very young, more like 10 than 13, but I like the idea of her disassociation with her condition by accepting that she’s a vampire. Please send 30 pages following the guidelines on jdlit.com.

RESULTS

Moe Ferrara: PASS
Roseanne Wells: PAGES!
Emily Keyes: PASS

May Pass Or Pages Entry #3

Welcome to our feedback reveal for Pass Or Pages. In this contest, randomly chosen entries were critiqued by our agent panel. We hope it will give everyone a sense of what is going on in an agent's head as they read queries and first pages. We're so grateful to the members of the agent panel who gave their time to provide feedback on these entries. We'd also like to thank the entrants. It's hard to put yourself out there. Thanks for being brave!

Entry #3: THE TIME TRAVELERS’ INSTITUTE (48,000 words)

QUERY

Thirteen-year-old Lexi has straight A’s, one friend, and socially-induced stomach cramps [RW1]. When a series of vivid, violent daydreams overtakes her in public, she’s sure she’ll die from embarrassment – if her parents don’t institutionalize her first. Instead, her mom hands her a top-secret [MF1] orientation manual from the Time Travelers' Institute (TTI), the organization that will guide Lexi in her new work [RW2] of stabilizing timelines as her consciousness jumps into the minds of her ancestors. But when TTI can’t lock onto Lexi’s jumps, they realize she isn’t Traveling to the past, but to the future — a rare and dangerous anomaly known as “Leaping.”

Now, even the brains at TTI won’t help Lexi figure out her mission [RW3] for fear of causing a catastrophic ripple through time. The last known Leaper, Adam, was killed on the job decades earlier. So when Lexi meets Adam’s teenaged consciousness [RW4] during her next Leap, she embraces him as a friend, an advisor, and a totally unfulfillable first crush.

Together, Lexi and Adam work out that their mission is to stop Jonas Washburn, the man who sparks an oppressive movement that will destroy much of North American civilization. Lexi knows Adam will fail to stop the child Jonas, so now it’s up to her to stop the grown man. [RW5] From spying on white supremacists to dating Jonas’ (possibly murderous) son, Lexi's never ventured so far from her comfort zone. And if she messes up, she’ll lose a lot more than Adam — TTI itself will never exist, changing the entire course of the future… and the past.

The Time Travelers’ Institute is an upper middle grade [MF2] [RW6] work of speculative fiction, complete at 48,000 [RW7] words.
--------------
Moe's notes:
[MF1] Why does her mom have it? Does she come from a line of time travellers?

[MF2] Just be careful this doesn’t wind up skewing more toward YA.
[MF] I have a thing for time travel, but when you’re dealing with time travel in a query, make sure everything is as clear as possible. Try and streamline your query a bit more and you’ll have a strong one.

Roseanne's notes:
[RW1] I’m not sure how all of these are connected, and I wouldn’t want to be put in the same sentence as my friend’s stomach cramps.
[RW2] This set up sounds very familiar.
[RW3] When did she get a mission?
[RW4] When did they meet, in what time frame? Is he in her present or in her future?
[RW5] This logic doesn’t make sense, if Adam is Leaping into the future, why does he have to stop the child instead of Lexi? Why is she stopping the adult?
[RW6] This feels much more like YA than MG, even upper MG. Aging the MC up would make more sense than calling it MG.
[RW7] This does not seem long enough to keep track of all of these threads.

FIRST 250

The first time I Traveled [RW1], I was in the back seat of my mom’s old Volkswagen on a gloomy February afternoon. Using my fleecy hat as a pillow against the chilly window, I was hiding from the group of popular kids waiting at the curb. We hadn’t made it out of the school parking lot before I drifted off.

A deafening thump jolted me awake. I jerked upright and slammed my head into a roof of wood and rusty metal. Scraps of sunlight flickered through holes in rotting beams, illuminating the clouds of dust circling my throbbing head. Everything was vibrating hard, like I was in some kind of old vehicle [RW2].

“Alex!”

I jumped again as a middle-aged woman, face smudged with dirt, leaned forward out of the shadows beside me. Her eyes were wide with concern. We went over another bump and she caught herself on my knee, calloused hand scraping my bare skin. I looked down to find I was wearing ragged grey shorts fit for the heat of summer.

“Alex!” she repeated, “Are you alright?”

I sputtered and struggled to respond to her simple question. Nobody ever called me Alex, just Lexi or Alexis.

“Wha… who are you?” I croaked.

She gasped, and I groped around for something familiar, something to give me a clue as to what was going on.

I found nothing.

I bounced and trembled. My vision blurred and my stomach gave an ominous groan.

--------------
Moe's notes:

[MK] While opening with a scene like this can be tricky and runs the risk of being a bit cliché, there’s something about this that intrigues me. I will say that I want to feel Lexi’s confusion a bit sooner.

Roseanne's notes:
[RW1] Why is the manuscript starting here, with her first jump, rather than with the inciting incident?
[RW2] Not very specific? Car? Train? Wagon?
[RW] I think this is misidentified as MG, and the story is starting in the wrong place. The query was confusing, especially problematic for a story about time travel.

Emily's notes:
[EK] This might work better as YA but would like to see 1st 30 pages to see if it gels. Please email them to me at queryemily (at) fuseliterary (dot) com, with the subject OPERATION AWESOME and the submission pasted in the body of the email.

RESULTS

Moe Ferrara: PASS
Roseanne Wells: PASS
Emily Keyes: PAGES!

May Pass Or Pages Entry #2

Welcome to our feedback reveal for Pass Or Pages. In this contest, randomly chosen entries were critiqued by our agent panel. We hope it will give everyone a sense of what is going on in an agent's head as they read queries and first pages. We're so grateful to the members of the agent panel who gave their time to provide feedback on these entries. We'd also like to thank the entrants. It's hard to put yourself out there. Thanks for being brave!

Entry #2: ARTIFICIAL WINGS (78,000 words)

QUERY

All his life, Carus has longed to fly in the sky with wings of his own. If only he'd been born a girl.... [RW1]

In Carus's world, girls are born with wings and the gender roles are reversed [RW2]: boys take home-ec, learn to cook, and are expected to look pretty, while girls show off their strong wings, play Skyball in the air [RW3] for gym class, and perch themselves on ceiling-chairs in the cafeteria to catcall down to boys. 

Carus feels like he's the only boy in school who dreams of having wings. He wants to fly and be able to do everything the girls do, but he has to keep those feeling buried deep inside. Boys can't fly, and that's just the way it is.

Until now. An extremely controversial invention - artificial wings for men - makes Carus's dream into a possible reality. What's more, the doctor who invented them comes to Carus's town to correct a mistake that she made years ago: removing the wings Carus had at birth. [MF1] [RW4] [EK1]

It will cost Carus his friends, his family, and everything else to confront his rigid society and get his wings back. But along the way he'll make an important discovery: even if you're different, you're never alone.

ARTIFICIAL WINGS is complete at 78,000 words [RW5]. It has gender themes relevant to today's youth [MF2] market, and can also be enjoyed simply as alternate-reality fiction.

--------------
Moe's notes:
[MF1] So this doesn’t follow your premise that only girls are born with wings. Is this a transgender or intersex book?
[MF2] MG? YA? It’s a bit long for me for MG, but honestly the query reads a lot more like YA than MG.

[MF] I appreciate getting some world building in here, but be careful there’s not too much that you lose valuable real-estate to tell us about your plot!

Roseanne's notes:
[RW1] This use of ellipsis isn’t correct, and doesn’t add much to the meaning of the sentence.
[RW2] Books that reverse our world’s (race/gender/sexuality/ability/neurodiversity) power imbalances can be really problematic because the reader is on this earth, not in an ideal world where the genders are equal. It usually ends up making the author look naïve and unaware of the deep-seated biases that are harmful, possibly to the reader now or in the future.
[RW3] Skyball implies that it’s in the air.
[RW4] Does he not realize until now that he has scars from removing the wings? Unless this implies that he’s intersex in this world, this seems very obvious, and how did he miss this?
[RW5] I’m assuming this is YA fantasy? Reads older than MG.

[RW] The query has extraneous words and some vague phrasing that makes it less compelling than it could be.

Emily's notes:
[EK1] I found this reversal confusing. Does this mean Icarus is genderfluid or transgender? Or merely that gender roles are a societal construct? What “gender themes” are you commenting on specifically? 

FIRST 250

I wish I'd been born a girl. Then I'd have wings.

But it's not like I had any choice in the matter. I was born a boy, so that means no wings. No flying. I'm stuck on the ground, slowly withering away here in home-ec class, watching the girls soar around outside for gym class through the window. [RW1]

I can't take my eyes off them. The way they zip through the air, flapping their huge feathery wings. It must feel amazing, the wind rushing past them, blowing over every curve and crevice of their body as they glide through the sky like fish through water. It's a lot better than learning how to cook [RW2], that's for sure.

I would give anything to be out there with the girls. I know it's a stupid thought, and I know that it's impossible. But maybe, just maybe, if what I saw on the news last night is true, then there's a tiny chance that–

"Carus, did you hear me?"

Reality smacks me right in the face Crap, I got caught not paying attention. Again.

All eyes in the classroom are on me. The other Creton Middle School [RW3] boys are giggling while Mr. Hesti, our teacher, stands at the front trying to look stern in his frilly apron and oven mits.

"Welcome back to class, Carus," he says. "Now would you like to tell us what the next step in baking this cake is?"
--------------Moe's notes:

[MK] Do a re-read with an eye to grammar/spelling. (I spy a missing period and it’s ‘oven mitt’!) This is definitely reading more YA. Also, I haven’t learned much about Carus, especially since he’s telling us how cool wings are rather than showing us.

Roseanne's notes:
[RW1] This opening sounds overly dramatic and forced, bordering on whining. Probably would have stopped reading here or close to here.
[RW2] As someone who finds enjoyment in cooking and is very aware of the gender biases in the food world, it makes me instantly dislike this character.
[RW3] Oh, this is MG. I had no idea from the query.
[RW] Gender issues aside, I’m not connecting emotionally with the main character, and I felt like the pages sometimes read like YA, sometimes like MG. The pages also need a proofread. [Operatives' note: Roseanne very kindly included some proofreading; however, in the interest of time, we have not included those in this post.]

Emily's notes:
[EK] Everything about this seems too “on the nose.” 

RESULTS

Moe Ferrara: PASS
Roseanne Wells: PASS
Emily Keyes: PASS

May Pass Or Pages Entry #1

Welcome to our feedback reveal for Pass Or Pages. In this contest, randomly chosen entries were critiqued by our agent panel. We hope it will give everyone a sense of what is going on in an agent's head as they read queries and first pages. We're so grateful to the members of the agent panel who gave their time to provide feedback on these entries. We'd also like to thank the entrants. It's hard to put yourself out there. Thanks for being brave!

Entry #1: SECRETS NEVER TO BE TOLD (60,000 words)

QUERY

Twelve-year-old twins, Henry and Maggie, burst awake from a shared nightmare that comes true when their quantum physicist father [RW1] disappears over the Bermuda Triangle. More dreams and paranormal experiences [RW2] lead the twins to realize they share a gift for ESP. Or is it a curse?

After dreaming about her father's abusive childhood, Maggie delves into his past and unearths secrets that make her doubt his integrity. [RW3]

Meanwhile, a voice in Henry’s head [RW4] demands he break into a government facility to steal confidential research in exchange for information about his missing father. [RW5]

Evidence builds that the twins’ father is being held by a terrorist [RW6] bent on attaining power. Will Henry and Maggie's burgeoning ESP skills save their father or strand them all in a parallel universe? [MF1]
--------------
Moe's notes:
[MF1] Avoid hypothetical questions in your query if at all possible.
[MF] I’m finding the query is confusing and I don’t have a good sense of what the stakes are here. Break up that first sentence – it’s a bit cumbersome!

Roseanne's notes:
[RW1] I know that writers are trying to get as much information into a query as possible, but this kind of description like “lawyer mom” comes off as awkward.
[RW2] This is really vague. You have space in your query to go into more specifics.
[RW3] More vague hints. Use specifics to draw the reader in. I have no personal investment in their story right now because I don’t know what is actually happening.
[RW4] This sounds less like ESP and more like schizophrenia. If I knew more specifics from above, like what kind of ESP they have, then I think this would be clearer.
[RW5] Does he do it? It’s never stated if he breaks in or not.

[RW6] I thought he disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle? This isn’t a BT story?

FIRST 250

“He’s psychic!” [RW1]

Henry knocked his twin sister’s hand down as she pointed at the turbaned swami [RW2] waving a cheap stuffed animal as carnival goers passed. “No. He’s a scammer. How hard can it be to guess the month you were born within two months? He scribbles a couple letters that look like they could be January, June or July. So every month is covered except October.” [RW3]

“You sound like Dad.” Maggie turned to step into the Viking ship [RW4].

Grimacing, Henry wiggled his tennis shoe free of the sticky pink mess [RW5] on the ground and followed her on. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”

“Skeptical, is all I mean.” Her tone was teasing, but when Henry scowled she shrugged. “Just saying.”

As she headed toward the tip of the boat, he yanked her back. [RW6] “Let’s sit in the middle.” He made for the center row but a gray haired lady in a Virginia Tech t-shirt beat him to it. In the short time he’d wasted, the next two rows filled up. He turned to leave. “It’s a sign we need to find the new Demons and Aliens’ trailer [EK1], instead.”

“Not a chance.” Maggie pushed him into the only seat still open—one row from the back and next to a man with stomach folds sticking out from beneath his shirt. “If I can’t have someone guess my birthday, you can’t waste Dad’s money on video games.”
--------------
Moe's notes:
[MK] I’m very confused by the opening pages. I don’t have a sense of setting at all. Carnival, then Viking ship? Is this a carnival ride or a ferry-type boat? I will say, I like the dialogue in this.

Roseanne's notes:
[RW1] Starting with dialogue usually doesn’t work because it feels like we are missing half of the conversation, which is either then explained (instead of shown) or leaves the reader with no explanation.
[RW2] This sounds problematic.
[RW3] I don’t understand this at all.
[RW4] What? Where are they?
[RW5] What mess?
[RW6] He sounds very controlling and almost mean.
[RW] The query wasn’t clear about what’s going on, and the pages were very confusing, dropping us into a scene and then moving on, without getting to know the characters or what’s happening or where they are.

Emily's notes:
[EK1] I initially assumed this mean it was a movie trailer, not a video game.
[EK] An okay premise but I wasn't pulled in by the pages.

RESULTS

Moe Ferrara: PASS
Roseanne Wells: PASS
Emily Keyes: PASS

May 2016 Pass Or Pages Agent Panel

May 2016 Pass Or Pages: Middle Grade Speculative Fiction

We here at Operation Awesome are thrilled to present our third round of Pass Or Pages, the query contest where entrants can receive feedback on their query letter and first page from literary agents. Let's meet this round's agent panel!

Moe Ferrara

BookEnds Literary Agency

Becoming a literary agent was fitting for the girl who, as a small child, begged her dad to buy her a book simply because "it has a hard cover." Growing up, she had a hard time finding YA books outside of Christopher Pike and R. L. Stine, and instead tackled Tom Clancy or her mom's romance novels. Though her career path zigzagged a bit—she attended college as a music major, earned a JD from Pace Law School, then worked various jobs throughout the publishing industry—Moe was thrilled to join the BookEnds team in May of 2015 as a literary agent and the subsidiary rights director.

Emily S. Keyes

Fuse Literary

Emily S. Keyes joined Fuse Literary in 2013 after working as an agent at the L. Perkins Agency for 2 years. Before entering the world of agenting, she worked in the contracts department of Simon & Schuster, Inc and graduated from New York University’s Center for Publishing. She uses her knowledge of contracts, copyright and the publishing business to benefit her clients and the Foreword team.

*Note: Even though Emily is currently closed to queries, she still intends to request pages from any entries that catch her eye!*

Roseanne Wells

The Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency

Roseanne Wells joined The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency as an associate agent in 2012. Previously with the Marianne Strong Literary Agency, she has also worked as a proofreader and a special sales/editorial assistant. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with degrees in Literature and Dance. An avid reader, Roseanne discovered her passion for book publishing during her internship at W. W. Norton, and she approaches agenting as a writer's advocate, editor, and partner. She is a member of SCBWI and a volunteer for Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in Soho, NYC. You can find her on Twitter @RivetingRosie.

Details for May 2016 Pass or Pages:

Starts: Monday, May 9, 2016, at 6 a.m. Eastern
Ends: Wednesday, May 11, 2016 at 6 p.m. Eastern
Category/Genre: MG Speculative (sci-fi and fantasy)
How To Enter: Fill out the entry form on the contest post when it goes live
What Is Required: Your query (NO BIO or personalization for agents), your first 250 words, a complete and polished MS

You can also read more about the rules here.

The winning entries with agent commentary will be posted on Operation Awesome the week of May 23rd, one entry each day. If you aren't comfortable with having your entry (which will be anonymous) shared on the blog, please don't enter Pass or Pages!

If you have any questions, please ask in the comments or feel free to tweet @OpAwesome6. Also, feel free to chat about the contest with fellow participants on the hashtag #PassOrPages.