Wednesday, November 11, 2009

The Writing Life: Entering a Contest

It's 8:08 PM, Tuesday evening, and I've just entered a contest sponsored by QueryTracker.com. They have arranged for a literary agent from Curtis Brown Literary Agency to read the first seventy submissions of a young adult novel.

I entered Love Ya Like a Sister: the first five pages of the novel and a one-page synopsis, as requested. The on-line submission was only through QueryTracker and will be read by Anna Webman.

It was interesting entering the contest. QueryTracker announced several days in advance the rules of the contest. The time to submit was 8:00 PM CST, and the first seventy submissions would be considered.

I was on-line prior to the opening of the contest, my first five pages ready for the copy-and-paste. My one-page synopsis that I had polished over the weekend was also opened and ready for the moment. I was as twitchy as my son halfway through a Halo session.

The contest submission form was posted, and I went for it! Title...Word Count...My Name...Sub-genre.... Sub-genre? A quick, frantic on-line search, and I typed in "realistic" rather than "growing up." Then Email...First Five Pages...Synopsis.... Done!

Wish me luck! I've been shopping my fantasy novel The Stone Dragon, but this seemed fun and easy. And I now have a new, improved one-page synopsis for Love Ya Like a Sister. Yeah!

Copyright 2009 by Thomas L. Kepler, all rights reserved

1 comment:

  1. I read yesterday evening on the QueryTracker site that the contest filled out its quota of seventy submissions in twenty minutes. I'm glad I was focused on submitting quickly!

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