THE SUBMISSION WINDOW FOR YOUNG ADULT 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 (so 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.
Lara Willard 
Hello – typo on this post and corresponding emails – says for middle grade submissions.
Thanks! Changed the slug, title, menu link, and form, but forgot to change the big scary warning! It’s fixed now. ❤
Hey Laura. At the top it still says “THIS IS FOR MIDDLE GRADE SUBMISSIONS ONLY. IF YOU ENTER ON THE WRONG DAY, YOUR ENTRY WILL BE DISQUALIFIED.” Is that just left over from yesterday? Today, July 2nd, is the right day for YA entries, correct?
Yes! Today is the right day. That was . . . er . . . just making sure you were paying attention! 😉
I tried to use html to turn one sentence of mine into italics. Not sure if it worked.
If I notice an attempt to italicize in one of the entries, I’ll italicize for you. 🙂
Thanks.
*Smacks forehead* I didn’t add extra spaces between my paragraphs–should I resubmit?
You could resubmit immediately afterward, but if you didn’t, don’t resubmit—it will mess up our numbers. It doesn’t disqualify you; it’s just not so easy to read.
Were we supposed to receive a confirmation email after submitting? I didn’t get a confirmation email so it worried me. Thanks!
No confirmation email. Usually your entry shows up after you submit it. You can email your code name to veritylanelara @ gmail for confirmation.
Thank you! (Sorry, I think I submitted that comment twice by mistake.)
Thanks for holding this cool contest too 🙂 I’m looking forward to seeing all the winning entries.