It's been an interesting and exciting few weeks for Michelle and me. I've read some standout queries and pages, and it was fascinating to get a tiny insight into the slushpile aspect of agenting. So thank you all for being brave enough to send your work to us. It takes balls.
If you follow me on Twitter, you'll have seen my stats tweets. I'd love to be able to say I used my mad maths/ICT skills to make the following charts, but that would be a big lie because I don't have any. Instead I need to thank Heather Hawke, Deanna Romito and Elaine Vickers who all worked hard so that I didn't have to. Excellent.
Also, shamefaced apologies to Elaine since I gave her the wrong total number of entries (hey, I never said I could count). Also, I have no idea how to make the pdf she sent me appear on my blog despite mashing the keyboard with my paws for quite some time.
The total number number of entries was, in fact, 351.
Adult (96)
YA (201)
MG (38)
PB (16)
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| Heather made this. |
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| Deanna made this. |
Other stats include 20 requests for 8 manuscripts out of my 15 entrants, and 19 requests for 8 manuscripts out of Michelle's 15 for a total of 39 requests for 16 manuscripts (someone check that).
I hope they ALL turn into massive success stories!
Both Michelle and I had blogger glitches that meant one of our entries wasn't visible for some of the time. Rest assured we were both aware of this and made sure the agents were too.
Last, but by no means least, you might have noticed that I had to redact two of the entries on my blog : D
This is because L.L. McKinney's COVETED has been snapped up by an agent, and Linda McLaren's THE SOUND CATCHERS is in the process!!
I couldn't be happier that we'll all get to read those incredible stories. It makes me want to break out the...
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| Yeeeaaahhhhh! |
All in all, Christmas in July has been awsesome, and we will DEFINITELY be doing something similar in the future.
One last request before I declare the entries open for comments: this isn't a critique round, it's simply an opportunity for you to let these authors know how much you like their work. In this situation, it's like my mom says - if you haven't got anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all :)
I hope these requests turn into actual representation/book deals/lots of rich authors. ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting this, Ruth and Michelle!
I really hope so too! I'll be posting success stories as and when they come in.
DeleteYaaaay! How cool to see the stats, and congrats on the contest being such a smashing success!
ReplyDeleteI don't know what prompted you two to take on this massive endeavor but from those of use who got to play - THANK YOU!
ReplyDeleteThank you both for such an amazing opportunity! And congrats to all the writers who received requests :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to everyone for being a part of this, and to Ruth and Michelle for making it such a success!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Love the stat charts! Sure does give a good glimpse at what agents deal with!
I wonder if this is truly representative, or if a lot of our collective followers happen to be YA writers because both Michelle and I are?
DeleteYou hosted quite a contest and I'm excited to see the success stories that come from it!
ReplyDeleteConsider me your pie chart guru for any future stats. :)
Excellent. Thank you!
DeleteSo amazing! Congrats to L.L. McKinney and Linda McLaren, and to all the writers who received requests! There were some seriously amazing entries in this contest and it was so much fun to follow!
ReplyDeleteAmazing news! Congratulations to all who received requests. I know I'm already looking forward to the next contest. :)
ReplyDeleteThis was so so great of you two to pull this all together (and field all of the questions and crazy emails I'm sure you received during the whole thing!) Hopefully we'll hear about more success stories from everyone who had requests of their work! Thanks!!
ReplyDeleteSo I made you an inaccurate pie chart in a format you couldn't use? Go me! :) But seriously, I can't thank you enough for doing this, Ruth! You are amazing!
ReplyDeleteAnd you should definitely do this again next year, if you've recovered. My CP's would have some killer entries for you!
Haha. Your charts were glorious, it was my various inpetitudes that caused the problem!
DeleteI already have a new idea for a contest as it happens...
Congratulations to all the requests!
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you, Ruth, for setting this up. These kinds of things are always fun.
Ruth--thank you for everything. It was a blast. And I loved getting to read the other entries and silently cheer their requests as well. I look forward to someday reading them off a bookshelf.
ReplyDeleteI would love it if that happened!
DeleteWatching this play out was really interesting. Of the 30 subs, I really want three of them to be books RIGHT NOW. Some great entries! And a real insight into the agent business!
ReplyDeleteAny chance of a repeat competition in the future? (Cheeky question because this competition is only just over, but it really was such a fantastic chance for entrants.)
Yes, definitely! Don't have a date yet, but YES!
DeleteSo glad to see such a high success rate! You ladies picked some outstanding entries! I'm actually surprised by some of them that did not receive requests!! Thank you both for all the hard work!! This has been fun to follow. (And I love the charts) ;)
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