pg70pit Middle Grade Submission Form

THE SUBMISSION WINDOW FOR MIDDLE GRADE IS NOW CLOSED. ENTER ON JULY 2 FOR YOUNG ADULT OR JULY 3 FOR ADULT MANUSCRIPTS. Join the week-long party on Twitter!

What you need to enter:

  • Your e-mail address (This is private, used only to verify entries or notify winners.)
  • Your code name (This contest is anonymous—choose something unique and difficult to trace back to you. This year entrants will chose song lyrics up to 7 words.)
  • The song from which your code name comes. (The finalists will be made into a playlist on Spotify, so try to pick a song available on Spotify and fairly unique.) 
  • Your novel’s intended audience—Middle Grade, Teen, or Adult (Adult is 18+)
  • Your novel’s word count, rounded to the nearest thousand (71,469 becomes 71K)
  • The closest genre (I recognize that these genre choices might not be a perfect pick for your manuscript. They will determine which slush reader will read your work and possibly which agents will read your entry, so choose the most similar audience. I have a guide to major genres here.)
  • OPTIONAL: Sub-genre (Here is my guide to sub-genres of science fiction and fantasy)
  • Seven words describing your MC (DO NOT include character’s name. Can be a list of words or a phrase)
  • Your 70th page with extra spaces between paragraphs (From your 69th and 70th pages, choose a section of consecutive words, 257 words maximum.)

If the POV character on your 69th-70th page is not your MC, you may include a disclaimer at the beginning of your page.

Example:

*This excerpt is in the POV of my MC’s [insert relationship]*

[begin excerpt]

Judges receive your code name, genre, 7-word description, and your page—all single-spaced without formatting. Please add an extra return after each paragraph:

Not like this paragraph 1. [return]
And paragraph 2.

But like this paragraph 1.[return]
[return]
And paragraph 2.

THE SUBMISSION WINDOW FOR MIDDLE GRADE IS NOW CLOSED. ENTER ON JULY 2 FOR YOUNG ADULT OR JULY 3 FOR ADULT MANUSCRIPTS. Join the week-long party on Twitter!

14 thoughts on “pg70pit Middle Grade Submission Form

  1. Susan Fobes says:

    Lara, I don’t do contests, so I’m a little nervous. I hit submit, the site said my entry was sent, and my entry was on the screen. I didn’t know if I should close the window when I saw the “go back” link. I clicked this and it took me to the entry form page again. I hope that didn’t delete my entry…

  2. johnrberkowitz says:

    Lara, I thought the back button would let me edit my entry, as I saw one of the fields still had the default text in it. So you have two entries from me, now. Hope this doesn’t disqualify me.

  3. Kate Wiseman says:

    Hi Lara, I’ve submitted my MG entry and want to submit my YA entry when the competition opens. Should my code name be the same song for both entries? Or should I pick a different one for my YA? Never done anything like this before – it’s fun and nerve-wracking at the same time:)

    • Lara says:

      Hi Kate! Different code name. (Could be the same song, but then if it gets in the playlist, you won’t know for which entry!) Same email address. Good luck, and thanks for playing!

      • Kate Wiseman says:

        Thanks for your response, Lara. I’ve now entered the YA competition. Filling in my entry form for it made realise that I made a couple of errors in my MG one – one in formatting and the other in MC description, which for some reason I read as plot summary. Doh! Is there anything I can do about it? As I said before, I’m new to this.

      • Lara says:

        Hi Kate! Yesterday I formatted entries for everyone because we get fewer MGs, but I won’t be reformatting today’s entries because we tend to get 3x as many YA.
        Unfortunately, if the 7 words have nothing to do with the main character, I may have already deleted your entry. I’ll check my file and email you whether it’s there or not.

      • Kate Wiseman says:

        Thank you. It would be good to know, one way or another. I wouldn’t say they had nothing to do with the main character, because it said she was honest. Can’t believe I was so stupid! At least I got today’s entry right!

  4. Mary says:

    Oh, gosh, thanks for reformatting! I entered yesterday; will be doing so again today for my YA manuscript, and I messed up the formatting. Also, thanks for doing this. It’s awesome!

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