Monday 25 June 2012

Christmas in July: A few more details

As you know, Michelle Krys is co-hosting Christmas in July with me, and today we have a few more details for you.

First of all, if you missed the first post, you can find it here.

Now for the exciting bits :) We already told you you'd need a query letter and the first 500 words of your completed ms to enter. We'll both be reading ALL the entries (and possibly fighting over our favourites.) I'm kidding (I'm not, and I'm pretty sure I have the weight advantage).

Anyway, once we've come to a dignified and amicable decision (seriously, I fight dirty), we're going to help you edit your entry until it is a many spendoured thing. Not that you HAVE to take our advice - it's your work. But the advice will be there :)

So because we'll need time to read all the entries and you might need to time to polish them up after our suggestions, the timeline is going to look like this:

Next post - 2nd July. This one will reveal our ten agents!

Submission window - 9th July between 6am and 3pm EST. Submissions should be sent to lottiehumphries14(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk. I'll set up an auto response so you'll know we've received your submission.

13th July - the 30 writers chosen by us will be posted and notified.

18th July - after polishing, the entries go live on our blogs for the entire week and requests will be made!!

Don't forget to use the hastag #XmasinJuly on Twitter!



27 comments:

  1. I'm looking forward to the contest, as well as reading all the entries!

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  2. SO excited for this! Thanks for putting it on!

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  3. Merry Christmas an good luck everyone. I wish I had a ms ready, but I'm still doing the short story thing. :-)

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  4. I'm just relieved we have a little more time to polish things up. I always seem to be in the middle of edits/revisions when big contests come along! :)

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    1. This is part of the reason we scheduled posts about the contest in the weeks beforehand. I'm glad it's working for you!

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    2. Agreed. I'm so excited about this contest and about having the extra time. Thanks for hosting!

      ~Gina Blechman

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  5. Hi, I hope you dont mind me asking but I am thinking of submitting a particular picture book text that i have been working on but it comes to over 800 words. I would like to starting polishing up what I will be submitting when the time comes, but not sure just how many words I can submit for a picture book text. Thanks. (sorry for the long paragraph) :-)

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    1. No problem, Jean. I'm here to answer questions :)

      How about you send the nearest you can make it to 500 words for the intial submission, and if Michelle or I choose you as one of the 30, we can discuss what will best benefit your story. I'm sure we can both be a little flexible when it comes to picture books.

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    2. Thanks a lot. I look forward to submitting :-)

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  6. This is SO exciting! How do you guys know the perfect time to do this?! I have a question: I'll be away from the internet (EEP!) from July 21st to the first week of August. Can I still participate? (Please say yes, please say yes.)

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    1. Of course you can : )

      If you're one of our 30, I'll put a note in the comments box so the agents know.

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  7. You know, I've been working hard, and I might have something for this. ;)

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  8. I'm over here from Kimberly Gabriel's blog! :) Nice to meet you! This sounds like a fantastic contest. Thank you so much for co-hosting. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more info!

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    1. Nice to meet you too. I'm looking forward to revealing the agents *rubs hands together* *but not in an evil way*

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  9. Ruth, I love the Gollum-esque back-and-forth dialogue in this entry. I literally LOL'ed at "I'm kidding (I'm not..."

    Take care – I'm definitely looking forward to this! Love the new revision twist. :D

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  10. Hi Ruth,
    I'm a new follower and I'm so excited about Christmas this year:)
    There are two reasons I'll be putting a gift under your tree this July. 1. I need extra coaching on my query letter. Not only does it scare me, it intimidates me. 2. My first 500 words need some spiffing up so readers can understand what's going on from the very beginning. Not at the end of the chapter.
    Thanks for hosting this Chritmas get together. It's my favorite holiday!

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    1. Don't fear the query. We are here to help! : D

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  11. I can't wait...it really does feel like Christmas...hurry up, hurry up and get here, please!

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  12. Do we put the 500 words under the query letter? And can we submit creative nonfiction (memoir)? Thanks. This sounds like a great opportunity.

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    1. Yes please - query and then words.

      I'll be posting the list of agents involved on Monday (2nd July). If you think any of the ten would be a good fit and represent your genre, then by all means go ahead and submit :)

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  13. I'm looking forward to this! Now, I just have to decide if I want to submit my YA contemporary novel or my picture book...

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  14. By the way, I love your "please prove you are a robot" line here above your comments box. Glad to see I'm not the only one who giggles every time I see the Captcha box that tells me to prove I'm not a robot :)

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  15. Hi there!

    The email address in red says .co
    Is that supposed to be .com? Just checking as I'm preparing things now. Thanks!

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    1. It's .co.uk on the end. I'm English :)

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Please prove you are a robot. I'll be disappointed if you aren't.