Mystery Agent Contest: October!

CONTEST CLOSED!! Thanks and good luck to all our entrants!

Let the pitches flow! The Mystery Agent contest is here and officially open!!

Okay. Without further ado, LE RULES:

1) THIS IS NOT A ONE-LINE PITCH CONTEST! Sorry for yelling. Just wanted to be sure I had your attention. :) Pitches can be 2-4 sentences long. Entries must be left in the comment section of today's post. (Please do not email us your entry.)

2) You must have a completed manuscript and be ready to send it upon request.

3) You can only pitch once per contest. So if you participated in any of our previous M.A. contests, no worries--you can submit your pitch today, too.

4) Please include TITLE and GENRE along with your pitch.

NOW FOR THE DETAILS:

Our agent will choose one winner out of maximum 50 entries, and that person will get a 50-PAGE PARTIAL REQUEST!!  And guys, this agent is amazing! (I'd elaborate, but I don't want to give anything away. Just trust me on this.)

The Mystery Agent's requested genres:

Single Title Romance
- all subgenres in the 100,000 word range
- no inspirational

Young Adult and Middle Grade
- all subgenres

Fantasy and Science Fiction
- all subgenres
- for Adult or Young Adult readers

Commercial Fiction
- including women's fiction, chick lit, historical fiction and high concept mainstream commercial fiction

Good luck, everyone! 

Note: For those of you who entered September's M.A. contest, results are coming VERY SOON, either Sunday or Monday.

Mystery Agent Contest: April!

THANK YOU to all who entered! Stay tuned for the results! :)

First of all, Happy April Fool's day!!!


Second of all, THIS IS NOT AN APRIL FOOL'S JOKE. There really is a Mystery Agent who lives, breathes, walks, and talks. Said Mystery Agent will be judging this contest. Pinky swear.


*clears throat*


Here we go again, folks! Brace yourselves for another Mystery Agent contest!! *fist pump*

Le rules:

1) Entry limit: 50 one-line pitches

2) Novels pitched MUST BE COMPLETE. 

3) You may only enter once. If you entered a past M.A. contest, you are still eligible to participate today.

Our Mystery Agent is accepting submissions for: YA, adult, and adult nonfiction manuscripts. No MG, thrillers, women's fiction, romance, poetry, short stories. 

BUT our M.A. is particularly looking for:

YA: Fantasy, urban fantasy, contemporary, dystopian, post-apocalyptic, steampunk

Adult fiction: Fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal romance, dystopian, post-apocalyptic

Adult nonfiction: Cookbooks with a strong platform, humorous memoirs, healthy living, narrative, and current events.

Other cool stuff our M.A. wants: all things weird, fantastical, morbid, and romantic. Has a special love of unique plots, dark themes, strong characters, an engaging voice, and witty humor.

Sounds AWESOME, right?

Now get those pitches out and post them in the comments! The contest will close once the fiftieth pitch is up! The winner will get a FULL MANUSCRIPT REQUEST! 

BEST OF LUCK to everyone :)

An Awesome Launch: Mystery Agent Contest

UPDATE: My voice is sore from all the excited squeeing done today. How will I be able to manage a cookie now :) A huge thank you to everyone who entered, tweeted, blogged, commented and made Operation Awesomes launch, well, awesome. The contest is full for this month, but stick with us because we've got more to come...this won't be your last pitch chance. Again, from all of us here at OA, hugs!


UPDATE: Winners announced here: Mystery Agent Revealed!

Have you ever wanted to squee so loud you thought your head may explode? Okay, it’s just me. Anyway, welcome to the launch of Operation Awesome and our little corner of the blogosphere. We want you to feel at home, so relax, pull up a chair, grab a cup of tea and help yourself to a cookie. It’s okay, I made them. :)

To celebrate in style we have a fantastic September contest -- a one-sentence pitch contest, judged by an amazing mystery agent (M.A).

This agent IS fantastic. We're all jealous we can’t enter. Seriously!

Here are the details:

Genre is limited to MG and YA. Please include Title/Genre in the comments.
The first 50 one-line pitches posted will be considered.
Mystery Agent will choose one winner.
The winner will have Mystery Agent's full attention when they send their full MS. Yep, you heard the British one of the group right, YOUR FULL MS! So don’t forget, please have your manuscript ready to send before you pitch.

The rules: We won’t have any fancy ‘you must follow us’ rules. Sure, we’d love you all to follow us, but Operation Awesome is about giving back. But, in the spirit of sharing, please spread the word. Tweet, blog, shout it from the rooftop. You can even grab one of our buttons. :)

Want some help with your pitch? Here are some handy links:

Query Tracker - the one sentence pitch
QueryTracker Blog - the elevator pitch
Elana Johnson - one-sentence pitching.

The contest will close at the end of September, or when the fifty entries are filled, whichever comes first. So keep checking back to be sure you don't miss the chance.
Want to know who mystery agent is? Come back when the winners are announced when we’ll have an interview with the agent extraordinaire.

So ready, steady, go!

I'm not NOT saying you'll need a one-line pitch

So just in case you find yourself in need of a one-line pitch, also called an elevator pitch or a logline...

Check out this pure awesome from agent and literary rock star, Nathan Bransford.

Because you really never know when you'll be called upon to spread the awesome...

...in one magical line (not unlike Nutella).