GUTGAA 2012 FAQs and Links

Below are some questions and links that may be helpful to you for the 2nd annual Gearing Up to Get an Agent Blogfest/Pitch Contest.


Links


If you want to get in on the Gearing Up to Get an Agent Blogfest/Pitch Contests go HERE to sign up.

The schedule is HERE.

Badges are HERE.

Wanna yap about it on Twitter? #GUTGAA talk is HERE

FAQS

I don't have a blog. May I still enter? YES! The only event you will actually need a blog for is the Meet and Greet (week 1) which is essentially a bloghop to get to know other writers. Even if you don't have a blog you're welcome to visit the participants and introduce yourself. The other events (pitch polish and pitch contests will be done on my blog and host blogs after entries are emailed to me. So if you have a way to email, you're good to go!

Can I enter more than one pitch? It depends. You can only enter one time per contest, but you are welcome to enter both the agent contest and small press contest with either the same or different pitches.

What is a pitch? Pitches vary per contest. In the GUTGAA contests, however, a pitch is a basic query (meaning no "Dear Agent, I wanted to query you because..." or your credentials...just the meat) and the first 150 words of your completed manuscript. If your manuscript ends in the middle of a sentence at 150 words, please finish the sentence. 

Why are there so many sign up lists? GUTGAA is a six week blogfest with four different events taking place. I like to have a master list of all those participating in any part of the fun, but I also know that not everyone can join in everything. With over 200 writers signed up, it would be a hard job to sift through who is doing what on the master list and what blogs to visit when. By making separate lists, we know who is doing what. But please take note, if you want to be a part of the blogfest in any capacity, you MUST sign up on the master list. The link is listed above:)  

What will the format be for entering the pitch polish and pitch contests? It will look like this:

TITLE OF MANUSCRIPT
GENRE
WORD COUNT

Query........

First 150 Words....

When do I send in my contest entry? Please she the schedule HERE.

I have a WordPress blog and your badge isn't working on it. No problem:) You can just right click on the badge you like, save it to your pictures and post it as an image on your blog. That spreads the words just as well. And thanks for the love!

When will the small presses be announced? During the first week of GUTGAA, so stay tuned.

What does GUTGAA stand for? Gearing Up to Get an Agent. Last year it started out as a helpful blogfest for those with the goal of getting an agent. Since then I have realized there are so many routes for writers these days and I wanted to expand the GUTGAA horizons, which is why small presses have been invited to join in this year.

What genres are you accepting for the pitch contests? For the agents contest you can submit: adult, young adult, new adult, middle grade, and one agent (Tricia  Lawrence) is looking for chapter books and picture books.  For the small press contest: adult, new adult and young adult. 

If you have a question you would like an answer to, please email me at deanabarnhart(at)gmail(dot).com 

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Deana!

Help!

What if our first 150 ends in the middle of a sentence? Do we rewrite a new sentence, just for the entry-- or finish the sentence, which will place us slightly over the count?

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Aightball said...

I'm getting my first 150 ready for Friday. The problem is that I have to either stop at 147 or go to 160. Is it better to be over or under? I'm nervous I'll be disqualified for being under...

Deana said...

Hey Kel! You won't be disqualified for either:) When I did these contests I always went to the end of the sentence if the word count ended in the middle of the sentence (if the contest allowed it). This contest does allow you to do that, so I'll leave it up to you, but I'd say go to the end of the sentence:)
I hope that helps!

Laura Hughes, MittensMorgul said...

Do you want us to put anything specific in the subject line of the email? I got all the other formatting, but I can't seem to find if you want a specific subject.

I was going to put GUTGAA Entry: TITLE, but I'd rather make sure that was okay, first!

Thanks again!

Fiona McLaren said...

If you receive an email and the email messes with the format a little, will it be disqualified? I sent my message to myself to check it from three different accounts and one email provider made the message come out with extra spaces. Just curious in case that would have you disqualified?

JohnO said...

Can you enter both the agent and small press portions of the contest, or does entering the first preclude you from the second?