Tag Archives: Middle Grade

New Vision Award via Lee & Low Books

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Lee & Low Books

TU BOOKS, the middle grade and young adult imprint of LEE & LOW BOOKS, award-winning publisher of children’s books, announced the fourth New Visions Award a few months ago. The award will be given for a middle grade or young adult novel by a writer of color. Established in 2012, the NEW VISIONS AWARD encourages writers of color to submit their work to a publisher that takes pride in nurturing new talent. Winning submissions include Ink and Ashes by Valynne Maetani, published in 2015 and the recipient of an honor citation from the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association Award for Literature, and The Amaterasu Project by Axie Oh, due for publication in 2017.

Eligibility:

  1. The contest is open to writers of color who are residents of the United States, 18 years of age or older at the time of entry, and who have not previously had a middle grade or young adult novel published.
  2. Writers who have published work in other venues such as children’s magazines or picture books, or adult fiction or nonfiction, are eligible. Only unagented manuscripts will be accepted.
  3. Work that has been published in its entirety in any format (including online and self publishing as well as other countries) is not eligible.
  4.  Manuscripts previously submitted for this award or to TU BOOKS will not be considered.

Submissions will be accepted through October 31, 2016. Since the window is closing, y’all better scoot on over here for complete guidelines!

As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

The Bent Agency Internship

Internship, Literary, , , , , , , , ,

molly_ker_hawn

Molly Ker Hawn of The Bent Agency is looking for an intern to read young adult and middle grade fiction for her. This is a remote and unpaid internship. Her expectations are that the intern reads and reports on an manuscript every two weeks. Applicants should be familiar with all sorts of YA & MG, especially literary-commercial. Molly would like someone with knowledge of New York Time Best Sellers and has interests in authors like Katherine Rundell, John Corey Whaley, Stephanie Kuehn, Margo Lanagan, Jack Gantos, Marie Rutkoski, Naomi Novik, Jacqueline Woodson, E Lockhart, Gene Luen Yang, Libba Bray…and, of course, her own clients.

For guidelines and how to apply, go here. As always, good luck!

P. D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

The Manuscript Academy Scholarship Giveaway

Contests, Literary, Writing Conferences & Getaways, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

how-to-throw-a-2

The Pitch Wars community, founded by Brenda Drake, has joined forces with The Manuscript Academy to give away scholarships for upcoming conferences:

Writing Picture Books, Middle Grade, and Young Adult, begins November 5, 2016

How to Get Your Adult Fiction (or Memoir) Published, begins November 26, 2016

THREE writers will be selected based on a brief description of why they want/need this opportunity. Authors should check out The Manuscript Academy and then fill out the form on Brenda’s blog to let the community know why they would like to win. The scholarship giveaway will be open until October 18th!

As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

#DVpit Twitter Pitch Party Is Soon

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dvpitlogo

The search for diversity within books has increased, not just with secondary characters but main characters. The world wants to see a fabulous palette of colors and cultures among the stories they read and the publishing industry is responding! This prompted literary agent Beth Phelan of The Bent Agency to create #DVpit.

According to the site, #DVpit is a twitter event created to showcase pitches about and by marginalized voices. This includes (but is not limited to): Native peoples and people of color; people living and/or born/raised in underrepresented cultures and countries; disabled persons; people with illness; people on marginalized ends of the socioeconomic, cultural and/or religious spectrum; people identifying as LGBTQIA+; and more.

The next event will spread over two days. October 5th will be for Children’s & Teen Fiction/Nonfiction (picture books, chapter books, graphic novel, middle grade, young adult). October 6th will be for Adult Fiction/Nonfiction (all genres, commercial and literary). Each day the event will run from 8am-8pm ET using the hashtag #DVpit. Be sure and pitch your manuscript on the correct day because agents/editors will search the feed on the specific day of the categories they represent/acquire.

As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

“DEAR LUCKY AGENT” CONTEST

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DearLuckyAgent24

Chuck Sambuchino announced Writer’s Digest is hosting the 23nd “Dear Lucky Agent” Contest. The agent judge is Marisa A. Corvisiero of Corvisiero Literary Agency.

marisa-corvisiero-literary-agent

Marisa A. Corvisiero is the founder of the Corvisiero Literary Agency and their Senior Literary Agent. Before starting her own agency, Marisa worked at the L. Perkins Agency, where she learned invaluable lessons and made a name for herself in the industry. Marisa is seeking creative stories with well developed plots and rich characters with unique voices. She will consider  Contemporary Romance, Thrillers, Adventure, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction, or any combination thereof, unique concepts in Fantasy, Adventure and Science Fiction for middle-grade and Picture Books with special stories to deliver a subtle non didactic message. In non-fiction, she enjoys out of the box and high concept spiritual, self-improvement, science, and business books for all ages. You can visit her on Twitter at @mcorvisiero.

Even though you can query Marisa with different age groups that interest her, THIS contest is for completed MIDDLE GRADE novels across all genres — from realistic to contemporary to speculative sci-fi and fantasy. The contest is now live and runs through the end of September 19, 2016 (PST). There will be three winners! First place wins a critique of the first 10 double-spaced pages of your work by your agent judge (and she reserves the right to request the full manuscript). Second place gets a free one-year subscription to WritersMarket.com ($50 value)! And third place gets their choice of any of Chuck’s two new books coming out in September 2017 (the Guide to Literary Agents 2017 or the Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market 2017).

Be sure to check out the submission guidelines and pay close attention to a few things you need to do in order to be eligible. And as always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship ($5,000)

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Pen America

The PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship of $5,000 is offered annually to an author of children’s or young-adult fiction. It has been developed to help writers whose work is of high literary caliber and is designed to assist a writer at a crucial moment in his or her career to complete a book-length work-in-progress.

Who Is Eligible

  • A candidate is a writer of children’s or young adult fiction in financial need.
  • Candidates must have published one or more novels for children or young adults that have been warmly received by literary critics, but have not generated sufficient income to support the author.
  • The writer’s previously published book(s) must be published by a U.S. publisher (not self-published).
  • The submitted work must be fiction and a work-in-progress. Graphic novels and picture books are not accepted.
  • Judges will be looking for candidates whose work has not yet attracted a broad readership.

For submissions guidelines, go here. But if you want to participate, you need to hurry because the deadline is September 19, 2016.

As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

ON THE BLOCK CONTEST

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Authoress

Oh I just love literary contests that help writers sign with agents. Don’t you? Here is another great one hosted by Authoress on her blog Miss Snark’s First Victim. The contest is called ON THE BLOCK and submissions open September 8, 2016 from 8am-10pm (EDT). That’s next week peeps!

This is for polished and completed manuscripts only. Please know there is an entry fee of $21 (US) payable via Paypal. (A lot of work goes into these contests!) The contest will cap at 250 submissions, so don’t delay when the window opens. Out of those subs, only 20 entries will be chosen for the agent round. Authoress is accepting middle grade, young adult, new adult and adult fiction manuscripts only. (Sorry, no picture books, poetry, and narrative non-fiction.) Be sure to go to Miss Snark’s First Victim to find the participating agents and submission guidelines.

As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction

Pitch Wars Submissions are Open

Contests, Literary, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PitchWars-Logo

This is a quick reminder that Brenda Drake’s Pitch Wars submissions opened yesterday and will close August 6 at 10pm EDT (New York time). Go here for the guidelines and here  to submit. There are two extras this year also, a scavenger hunt  (scroll to find the info) to get a free pass into Pitch Wars and if you donate at least $20 you can pick two extra mentors. Woot! Lastly, be sure and stop by twitter to watch the #PitchWars feed because they are giving extra mentor prizes away.

As always, good luck!
P.D. Pabst

Manuscript Wish List

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MSWL Logo

Today I learned someone didn’t know Manuscript Wish List existed. I’ve blogged about it before but decided to readdress since agents updated their requests June 30th, as well as tweeting their wants on the twitter hashtag #MSWL. For those who don’t already know, Manuscript Wish List was created by agent Jessica Sinsheimer for agents (and some editors) to let writer’s know what they’d like to see in their inbox. Yes, it’s that simple! So, before you decide to query that shiny new manuscript, check out the website to see if any agents would be a perfect fit. Even more exciting, they’ve created a sign-up for upcoming newsletters!

We all should thank Jessica promptly! Just sayin’.

As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

Twitter Contest for Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers

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sffpit-contest

It’s that time of year again for science fiction and fantasy writers to polish their pitches for Dan Koboldt’s #SFFpit writing contest on twitter! It starts tomorrow June 23, 2016 between 8am-6pm EST. This contest allows 10 pitches total and Dan asks that you use them wisely! As usual, it needs to be a 140 character pitch for twitter and includes the hashtag #SFFpit. For all the rules, including how to properly insert the age group and category, go here. And remember to research any agents or editors that favorite your tweet because ANY ONE can trawl the feed!

As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.