Thursday, October 28, 2010

Submission Dates: BAKER'S DOZEN AGENT AUCTION

Mark your calendars! Set your alerts! Elbow the nearest guy out of your way as you dive for the mouse!

These are the Official Submission Windows for the Baker's Dozen Agent Auction. Please read carefully!

1. ADULT FICTION: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16
  • Women's fiction
  • Historical fiction
  • Thriller (including historical)
  • Mystery
  • Romance (including historical and paranormal)
  • Fantasy (including urban and all subgenres)
  • Science Fiction (including all subgenres)
  • Suspense
  • Literary
I will accept 40 (up from 25) submissions. 15 will be chosen for the auction.

SUBMISSION WINDOW #1: 12:00 pm EST for the first 20. No alternates.
SUBMISSION WINDOW #2: 6:00 pm EST for the next 20. No alternates.


All 40 entrants will be notified within 1 week as to whether their submission has been accepted for the auction.

2. MIDDLE GRADE AND YOUNG ADULT FICTION: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18

I will accept 80 (up from 40) submissions. 25 will be chosen for the auction.

SUBMISSION WINDOW #1: 12:00 pm EST for the first 40. No alternates.
SUBMISSION WINDOW #2: 6:00 pm EST for the next 40. No alternates.

All 80 entrants will be notified within 1 week as to whether their submission has been accepted for the auction.

All submissions must be emailed to authoress.submissions(at)gmail.com and formatted in the usual way:

SCREEN NAME: (type it here)
TITLE: (type it here)
GENRE: (type it here)

(Type your logline here. DO NOT TYPE THE WORD "LOGLINE". Just, yanno, type your logline.)

(Type your 250-word excerpt here.)

There will be a 100-word addition to the word count to allow for the loglines. If your logline is longer than 100 words, you'll have to shorten your excerpt.

Entries will be read just like any other slush pile. The 40 that float to the top will be included in the auction. I may have something special for the others later. It depends on whether or not I'm in a blog-induced coma by then.

The 40 winning entries will be posted to the blog on Saturday, December 4, to give the bidding agents several days to read them prior to the opening of the auction on the 7th.

I think that's everything! Post your questions below.

55 comments:

  1. This is incredible! You are always so generous with your time, and I hope you know how appreciated you are :) I'm extremely excited to read the entries!

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  2. Thank you for increasing the number of entries! Of course, that means we have to work harder to make sure our entries float to the top.

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  3. I'm so excited for this! Thanks so much for taking the time to do all this :) Now I just need to get my logline in shape--I think I'm only making it worse!

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  4. This is Great! Thank you for giving us this opportunity. Increasing the entries gives us a better chance to be the first forty.

    I know this must sound naive of me, but is the logline a short query or synopsis?

    Thanks,
    Michael

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  5. A friend just sent me this post. How exciting and generous! I can't wait to polish my logline and save my draft email for November 16th.

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  6. Squee! This is so cool. I've read so much good stuff on this blog. I just know some worthy peeps are in for an awesome holdiay gift this year. It's gonna be fun to see.

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  7. Good idea to increase the slush pile size. That will ensure you get some great enteries.

    Can't wait! :D

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  8. Thank you, Authoress. I've learned so much from having my logline critiqued. In fact, before I write my next book, I'm going to write my logline for it. What a great way to keep a story on track!

    Also, I admire your devotion to helping other aspiring authors even as you seek publication for your own work. Best of luck to us all!

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  9. Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity!

    Question: can we submit more than one story? One adult and one YA?

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  10. Thank you all for your kind words. :)

    Anon -- Only one submission per person. That's a standard rule for all contests/crits. So pick your best one. :)

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  11. I guess you could, anon 4:14, but you'd be taking a spot from someone else, and then you wouldn't be able to sleep at night from the injustice of it all. I wouldn't want that for you.

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  12. This is so exciting! Thanks for increasing the number of submissions. Can't wait.

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  13. Authoress, You are incredible.
    I have a quick question - are you still doing a November SA contest?
    THANKS.

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  14. Yep! November SA submission guidelines will post Monday. :)

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  15. And where do we post our entries?

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  16. Wow- you're amazing! There is so much talent on here this is going to be great! Thank you for this wonderful opportunity~ We love you!!!

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  17. Authoress, if our logline is 50 words, could our except be 300?

    As always, thank you for everything.

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  18. Er...that's excerpt, not except. So excited!

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  19. Looks like a great event! Seriously Authoress, if I get published, I will give you and your blog much much credit!

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  20. I am speechless...Where do you get the time to be generous?

    Sharpening my pencil as we speak...

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  21. Thanks so much for doing this! I'm lathering on an extra coat of polish for my MS, and this event is giving me that extra push to do it. Hugs to Miss Snark!

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  22. I have goosebumps! Thank you, Authoress! This is all so exciting ^_^

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  23. I'm working on my entry. Yay! Very excited.

    Question: What should the subject line say? Baker's Dozen Agent Auction?

    Thanks.

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  24. Pamela--Subject line doesn't matter. The only thing you MUSTN'T do is use RE: in your subject line. The bot will think it's an email reply and reject it.

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  25. Hi Authoress,

    This is a fantastic idea. I also have a question. The 250 word excerpt -- is that to be any 250 words from the manuscript?

    In addition, we're using that 250 and deducting what the logline word count is?

    I just need a better explanation. Thanks.

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  26. I think you've topped yourself with this contest. It's going to be interesting to see how it works, interesting in a good way.

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  27. This is amazing! I'm so happy I found you!

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  28. Justin,

    I'm wondering the same thing... still trying to find the answer! =( If anyone sees knows, please let me know!

    Jessica

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  29. Seriously, you are awesome! Thank you for all you do. :)

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  30. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  31. Contests are ALWAYS for the first 250 words. Agents don't want to be dropped into the middle of a story. So, yes, the FIRST 250.

    No, the excerpt limit is still 255. The bot will let you in if you do the 300/50, but Jodi and I will disqualify you when we read the slush. *evil grin*

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  32. This is so cool! I am so mad at myself that my YA is yet unfinished. I guess I'll have to wait for the next one. However, I just wanted to say thankyou for all the work you put into helping fellow authors out. You da woman!

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  33. I have set my alarm. No forgetting this one!!

    Thank you thank you thank you

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  34. If I tried but missed out on the noon submission, am I eligible to submit at six?

    Regardless, thanks for doing these contests. We need all the help we can get.

    Cheers,
    Ian

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  35. I messed up this morning. The thing is, I have to be at work at your 6:00 PM submission opening. Is it okay if I forward my logline/excerpt to my spouse and have him send it to you at the appropriate time from his email? Sorry, and thanks again for this.

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  36. Gaya -- that's fine! Others have done this in the past.

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  37. Hi Authoress! I saw on your Twitter that you send "accept or reject" emails to all entries along with a reason. I did receive an email but there was no reason, only a log number in parentheses. Just wondering if there will be a "reason" forthcoming. Thanks again!

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  38. gaya--Please forward your rejection email to me at facelesswords(at)gmail.com and I'll decipher. :)

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  39. OOPS my mail server acted up big time...Sent out four submissions (or more), all the while giving me a weird message that "the message could not be deleted" and not going into sent items! Grrr. Guess that means I'm out! Can I try again at 6pm, or are we allowed only one try?

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  40. How do we know if we did not get in as part of the 50 entries in the 12 PM slot? Are we notified by the bot?

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  41. Got an immediate rejection for not having a screen name, title, or genre at the top, even thouogh I did, I double checked. Anything I can do to fix this by next submission time? Thanks!

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  42. The screen name, et al., need COLONS after them or the bot won't read them. Format EXACTLY as laid out in the directions.

    Safest best: Type the headers into your email BY HAND. That will avoid unwanted invisible characters from cut-and-paste.

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  43. Thanks for the opportunity! I was rejected because it said I didn't send it to the correct address, but I used the one above (authoress.submissions at gmail dot com). Am I just blind? :)

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  44. Thanks! I'll type it out by hand and see if that helps. Thanks again, I'm currently submitting for my busy mom and need all the help I can get! : )

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  45. I wrote out a draft copy of my entry and had it ready to send off a week ago. I was just waiting until 6:00. Then it hit me, NY is on a different time zone than us, so I sent it when I thought about the time difference--5:15. Too late. :(

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  46. Yay! Thanks again, now I can tell my mom that I sent her submission off on time! It will make her happy :)

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  47. Where does New Adult go? My MC starts out at seventeen but ages to 21 during the course of the book. Thanks.

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  48. Not sure if you guys realized this, but you're commenting on a 2010 blog post! To ensure your questions are answered you might want to go to the 2012 post about the Bakers Dozen auction! :)

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