4th Annual Young Adult Novel Discovery Contest

Serendipity Literary Agency and Gotham Writers' Workshop are once again offering the opportunity to get the first page of your young adult novel in front of select editors and literary agent Regina Brooks.

For a $15 entry fee, your first page (250 words) and title will be read by Ms. Brooks to find the top 20 entries. From their website: "These submissions will then be read by editors from five prominent publishing houses.  These judges will whittle the 20 semi-finalists down to five finalists, and each of the five winners will be provided commentary on their submissions.

Here is a list of judges for this year's contest:

Navah Wolfe, Simon and Schuster
Tracey Sherrod, Harlequin Kimani
Krista Viola, Random House
Nicole Raymond, Candlewick
Rachel Griffiths, Scholastic
Aubrey Poole, Sourcebooks
Mercedes Fernandez, Kensington
Nataysha Wilson, Harlequin teen
Laura Whitaker, Bloomsbury
Anna Roberts, Feiwel and Friends

And here's what you could win:
The Grand Prize Winner will have the opportunity to submit an entire manuscript to YA literary agent Regina Brooks and receive a free, 10-week writing course, courtesy of Gotham Writers' Workshop, plus a collection of gourmet teas from Possibiliteas.co.

The Top Five Entrants (including the Grand Prize winner) will receive a 15-minute, one-on-one pitch session with Regina Brooks, one of New York’s premier literary agents for young adult books. They will also receive commentary on their submissions by editors at five prominent publishing houses and receive a one-year subscription to The Writer magazine.

The First 50 Entrants will receive a copy of Writing Great Books for Young Adults by Regina Brooks. (Shipped only to addresses in US and Canada.)


Deadline is November 30 so what are you waiting for? Here's a chance to bypass the query system and get eyes on your first page!

P.S. Perhaps you want to take advantage of Pitch Wars to help hone your pitch? The details and schedule are here, and then go here to find the coaches current wants.

What's Your Flavor? A Buffet of Contests

Writer's Digest is not only an invaluable source for improving your craft and keeping up with market news, they also offer contests throughout the year. Their biggest two are annual well-established competitions:

The annual Short Story Competition (in its 12th year) with a maximum of 1,500 words. Any genre, any style, but 1,500 words is challenging! If you're up to it, the entry fee is $20 and the deadline is November 15, with the winners notified by the end of February 2012.

The deadline for the 80th WD Annual Writing Competition has already passed, but the winners will be announced in October, and details for the next competition in November. WD also has competitions for poetry, screen plays, self-published books, and "Your Story" (which uses a writing prompt).

New this year are separate genre short story competitions, with a maximum of 4,000 words. Entries are also $20, with a chance to win up to $1,000. The deadlines for each genre are:

September 15
Science Fiction/Fantasy
Thriller/Suspense

October 1
Young Adult Fiction

October 15
Romance

October 22
Crime

October 31
Horror

So start pondering some story ideas now, so that you'll have a finished story by the deadline! I may enter more than one category, just for the challenge of stretching my genres.

What about you--do you find yourself keeping to one genre when you write, or do you write all across the board?

Images courtesy of DailyClipArt.net

3 Exciting Contests for YA Novel Writers

Since they've been dropping hints, I expect Operation Awesome to announce their one-sentence pitch any day now. So have that one-sentence pitch ready to go!

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Along with the logline (one-sentence pitch), the Guide to Literary Agents blog wants the first 150-200 words of your finished YA manuscript. "Top 3 winners all get: 1) A critique of the first 10 pages of your work, by judge Tamar Rydzinski. 2) A free one-year subscription to WritersMarket.com." This is the 7th contest he has run, so there might be similar opportunities in the future. No entry fee, but he does ask that you spread the word about the contest and/or add him to your blogroll. Contest is open Oct. 21-Nov. 3, with winners notified "by e-mail within three weeks of end of contest. Winners announced on the blog thereafter." Found via Rachel Allen Dillon

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For an entry fee of $15, Gotham Writers' Workshop has a Young Adult Novel Discovery Contest opening on November 1. They want the first 250 words of your YA novel plus the title, and the Grand Prize Winner will have the opportunity to submit an entire manuscript to YA literary agent Regina Brooks and receive a free, 10-week writing course, courtesy of Gotham Writers' Workshop.

The Top Five Entrants (including the Grand Prize winner) will receive a 15-minute, one-on-one pitch session with Regina Brooks, one of New York’s premier literary agents for young adult books. They will also receive commentary on their submissions by editors at Candlewick, Scholastic, Harlequin, MacMillan, Viking, Roaring Brook Press, and Sourcebooks and receive a one-year subscription to The Writer magazine.

The First 100 Entrants will receive a copy of Writing Great Books for Young Adults by Regina Brooks. Winners are announced on Feb. 4, 2011, and be sure to read all the official rules.

Contests at New Guard Literary Review

Two new contests forwarded to me by Christina Mercer, who failed to post them on her own blog in a timely manner, so that makes them fair game (bwah ha ha):

MACHIGONNE FICTION CONTEST: $1,000 for an exceptional work of literary or experimental fiction. Submit 2,500-5,000 words of prose. Novel excerpts welcomed. JUDGE: Good for the Jews author DEBRA SPARK. Deadline: October 1, 2010

KNIGHTVILLE POETRY CONTEST: $1,000 for an exceptional work of narrative or experimental poetry. Submit up to 70 lines per poem. Three poems per entry. JUDGE: Former U.S. Poet Laureate DONALD HALL. Deadline: November 1, 2010

The New Guard is a newly-formed independent literary review in Maine.