8 Agents Seeking Science Fiction

Updated 1/2/25

Here are 8 agents currently seeking science fiction manuscripts. All are from reputable agencies.

If you want to know more about a particular agent, you can check him or her out at Absolute Write, a forum where writers freely discuss their experiences with agents and publishers.  (To avoid jumping through hoops, just type the name of the agent and "absolute write" into a google search.)

Query Tracker is another good site for finding information about agents (such as who they represent).

ALWAYS check the agency website before submitting. Agents may switch agencies or close their lists, and submission requirements may change.

If these agents do not suit your needs, you can find a comprehensive list of new and established agents seeking clients here: Agents Seeking Clients.

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1. Ms. Kate Davids of Arc Literary Management

Kate joined Arc Literary in 2022 after 3 years working at Simon & Schuster as part of their Organic Growth Initiative. She uses her background in market research and digital marketing strategy to help her clients find new audiences and better appeal to the audiences they may already have. Prior to working in publishing, Kate worked in marketing strategy and research in a variety of industries for brands like Weight Watchers and Unilever. She loves exploring different cultures, including subcultures. For her, books enable readers to explore new and different perspectives, with authors as the all-important guides and gateways.

What she is looking for: In fiction, Kate has a soft spot for science fiction and fantasy that has great action and world building that leverages real world cultures or histories. She loves fiction that represents diverse cultural backgrounds in their settings and characters. 

How to submit: You can submit your work via her QueryManager form.

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2. Mr. Jack Mozley of Perez Literary & Entertainment

The son of a mining engineer and a poet, Jack naturally ended up with a doctorate in quantum physics and a love of Science Fiction, each using, as they do, a little of the extraordinary to understand the everyday.

When not squinting at a spreadsheet, Jack can be found with his nose in a book or graphic novel. He is a huge fan of classic SF, especially Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov, as well as Iain M. Banks and China Miéville. Growing up, he devoured every issue of 2000 AD and remains an Alan Moore devotee.

Jack holds a PhD in Quantum Physics from École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France and an MPhys from the University of Oxford. He is fluent in French, speaks basic Spanish, and has lived in four countries.

What he is seeking: Jack is currently open to Science Fiction queries only.

How to submit: Use his querymanager HERE.

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3. Evan Gregory (Ethan Ellenberg Literary)

"I will not respond to your email unless interested. If you do not hear back from me after two weeks from sending your submission, you can safely assume that I am not interested in that project. You may submit to me again if you have a new project you think might interest me or the agency, but please do not submit the same project to the agency multiple times, and please do not submit more than one project at a time."

What he is looking for: “Action-oriented SF, military SF, space opera, but also looking for that weird stuff which really pushes the envelope.”

How to submit: Please send submissions to agent [at] ethanellenberg.com to the attention of Evan. “For email submissions, we ask that you paste all materials into the body of the email in the order mentioned below. For example, if you were submitting fiction you would begin with a brief query letter, followed by your synopsis, followed by the first 50 pages of your manuscript. We will not open attachments.”

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4. Sara Megibow (Megibow Literary Agency)

About Sara: Sara is a literary agent with nine years of experience in publishing. She specializes in working with authors in middle grade, young adult, romance, erotica, science fiction and fantasy and represents New York Times bestselling authors Roni Loren and Jason Hough and international bestselling authors Stefan Bachmann and Tiffany Reisz. Sara is LGBTQ-friendly and presents regularly at SCBWI and RWA events around the country.

How to submit: To submit, please email a query letter and the first 10 pages of your manuscript along with your author website if you have one to saraquery@megibowliterary.com

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5. Kimberly Peticolas of The Rudy Agency

Kimberly is a recent addition to the Rudy Agency. She has worked in the publishing industry for nearly a decade and comes to the agency after working as an editor and publishing consultant, as well as previously running a boutique publisher. She has a passion for immersive fiction, and content-rich non-fiction. She also has a soft spot for military history. She earned an MA in Museum Studies.

What she is seeking: Non-fiction: Business, Leadership, Self-Help, Lifestyle, History, Military History, Children's. Fiction: Adventure, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Historical, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, YA, Children's Books.


How to submit:  Use her form HERE.

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6. Lynnette Novak (Seymour Agency)

Prior to joining The Seymour Agency, Lynnette spent seventeen years freelance editing. She worked with new writers, advanced writers, as well as New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors. Lynnette earned a bachelor of education degree from the University of Manitoba, where she specialized in English and French. She excelled in Advanced Creative Writing in university and studied writing for children and teens through the Institute of Children’s Literature. 

She is seeking science fiction in young adult and middle grade fiction only.

How to submit: To query Lynnette, use her form HERE.

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7. Rena Bunder Rossner (Bradford Literary Agency)

Rena Rossner (she/her) joined Bradford Literary in 2026, after 15 years of agenting experience as both a foreign rights co-agent and a literary agent at The Deborah Harris Agency. Rena has sold over 170 books over the course of her career, from picture book, middle grade and young adult fiction to adult fiction, non-fiction and poetry. She was born in Miami Beach, Florida, but has spent her life living between two countries. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University’s Writing Seminars program, Trinity College, Dublin, and holds a MA in history from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She is a mom to five children and a rescue pup named Diego Rivera, she loves sunflowers, making cocktails, cooking gourmet meals and working in her ceramic studio. She currently lives in Jerusalem.

What she is seeking: Rena is interested in representing Literary and Upmarket Women’s Fiction, Historical Fiction, Thrillers, Horror, and Science Fiction and Fantasy. She has a particular love for novels in verse. She accepts queries for Adult, Young Adult, Middle Grade and Picture Books projects and also works with illustrators.

How to submit: Closed to queries.

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8. Eddie Schneider (Jabberwocky)

Eddie is an Iowa graduate, where he studied fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. He has an M.S. in Publishing from New York University, and his client list includes Hugo, Andre Norton, Philip K. Dick, and Bram Stoker Award winners, as well as New York Times bestselling authors Brandon Sanderson, Daniel José Older, and Alison Wilgus.

What he is looking for: “I love science fiction, especially SF set in the near future, often with social or cultural commentary, as well as the occasional space opera. Two examples of (non-client) novels that I enjoyed in this vein are Ursula K. LeGuin’s classic THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS and Octavia Butler’s PARABLE OF THE SOWER.  I am very much interested in SF written from non-Western cultural perspectives, and one good non-client example of that is G. Willow Wilson’s ALIF THE UNSEEN.”

How to submit: Queries should be sent to query eddie [at] awfulagent.com. Please include the first five pages of your manuscript, and paste them below your query letter, in the body of your email. 1-3 page synopses may also be included at the very bottom, but aren’t mandatory. Queries with unsolicited attachments will be deleted, unread. Use this formula for the subject line: “Query: Title (Genre)”.

The 2015 Smashwords Survey - Best price for your book, preorders, and top genres

Smashwords is an ebook distribution platform for self-publishers founded in 2008. Despite the dominance of Amazon, the company has enjoyed considerable success. Smashwords published 336,000 books by over 100,000 authors in 2014.

The CEO of Smashwords, Mark Coker, is a man who is dedicated to the idea of democratizing publishing. His insights are enormously helpful for writers breaking into the publishing scene, and Smashwords' annual surveys provide valuable information about strategies for epublishing success.

Below are some of the findings from the 2015 Smashwords survey. You can read the full survey (with an informative slide show) HERE.

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Key Findings of the 2015 Smashwords Survey

1.  Wow, preorders.  For the first time we analyzed the percentage of books born as preorders (as opposed to simply uploaded the day of release) and compared the sales of preorder-birthed books to non-preorder books.  During the survey period, less than 10 percent of books were born as a preorder, even though this feature has been available to Smashwords authors since mid 2013.  Yet despite the low usage, two thirds of our top 200 bestselling titles were born as preorders.

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2.  Series with free series starters earn more money.  For the first time we analyzed the difference in sales between series with free series and starters and series without free series starters.  We looked at our 200 bestselling series with a free series starter and our 200 bestselling series without free series starters.  Then we added up the numbers and compared them.  First we looked at the average.  The free series starter group earned 66% more

3.  Free still works to build readership.  For each survey year, we've looked at how free ebook downloads compare to paid downloads using iBooks as our apples to apples comparison each year (bad pun, sorry!).  In the 2014 Survey, we found that free books got 39 times more downloads than priced books, down dramatically from 91x in 2013 and 100X in 2012.   I expected the power of free to fall further this year, given that this secret - which I've been advocating for nearly eight years - helps authors earn more money.  The result for 2014?  41x.  The effectiveness of free increased despite the glut of free books.

4.  Longer books sell better than shorter books.  This finding is consistent with each of the prior year's surveys, though as I mention in the presentation, this year's finding comes with a lot more caveats.  In a nutshell, I suspect the rise of multi-author box sets, often at deep discount prices, is probably throwing off the data this year, and as I discuss in the presentation, some of the dynamics will cause it to understate impact of longer books and some will cause it to overstate it.

5.  $3.99 remains the sweet spot for full length indie fiction.  For the third year in a row, authors sold more units and earned more overall income with books priced at $3.99.  This is significant because it counters the concern of some authors that the glut of high-quality will lead to ever lower prices.  For great authors, readers are still willing to pay.  The pricing, earnings and unit sales data we share has been remarkably consistent now for four years, especially when you consider how this translates to a competitive advantage for indie ebook authors compared to traditionally published ebook authors. 

6.  99 cents is still good for building readership, but not as good as $2.99 and $3.99.  And from an earnings perspective, 99 cents underperforms the average of all other prices by about 65%.

7.  Avoid $1.99.   For the fourth year in a row, $1.99 was a black hole in terms of overall earnings.  On a unit sales basis, although $1.99 books outperformed all books priced $5.00 and above, it dramatically underperformed on overall earnings, earning 73% less than the average of all other price points.

8.  Bestselling authors and social media.  Bestselling authors are more likely to have a presence on Facebook and Twitter, and more likely to have a blog.  Not a huge surprise, though it's worth noting there are plenty of successful authors who have minimal presence on social media.

9.  Top 10 Fiction categories during the one year period:  1.  Romance.  2.  Erotica.  3.  YA and teen fiction.  4.  Fantasy.  5.  Mystery & detective.   6.  Gay and lesbian fiction.  7.  Science fiction.  8.  Historical.  9.  Thriller & suspense.   10.  Adventure.

10.  Top 10 Non-fiction categories during the one year period:  1. Biography.  2.  Health, wellbeing and medicine.  3.  Business & economics.  4.  Self-improvement.  5. Religion & spirituality.  6.  Relationships and family.  7.  Sports and outdoor recreation.   8.  Education and study guides.  9.  New age.  10.  Computers & Internet.

You can read the full survey along with an informative slide show HERE.

Top 10 Publishing Posts of 2015

This is the first year I have looked back at my posts. (Normally, once they are up I simply move on to the next exciting idea.)

But, stats are important for various reasons. They tell us what people like to read. They also tell us what people need. Blog posts that provide answers to questions, that inform, and that explain are bound to be popular.

And for writers, anything that answers the question, "How do I get published?" will be warmly received.

(I promise that in 2016 I will continue to provide answers to that question.)

So, without further ado, here are my top ten posts - in reverse order.



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#10 10 Awards for Self-Published Books (1569 views)

#9 Should You Hire a Professional Book Cover Designer? (1948)

#8 Publisher Pan Macmillan Accepting Unsolicited Manuscripts - No Agent Needed (2129 views)

#7 Fantasy and Sci-fi Reviewers  Accepting Self-Published Authors (2616 views)

#6 2 New Agents Seeking Writers (2630 views)

#5 23 Poetry Publishers Accepting Unagented Manuscripts (2729 views)

#4 Speculative Fiction Magazines Accepting Submissions (4127 views)

#3 2 New Agents Seeking Writers: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Nonfiction, Thrillers and more (4727 views)

#2 234 Hashtags for Writers (5759 views)

And my top post was (drum roll)...

#1 HarperCollins Seeking Submissions - No Agent Required (15,973 views)

2016 - Your Year to Get Published!

I consider New Year's resolutions to be a culturally sanctioned form of torture, providing false hope for a week or two before plunging us all into a bottomless well of guilt for the remainder of the year.

Because I dislike psychological abuse, I have kept my writing resolutions quite reasonable over the years.

In 2013, I resolved to research my market. That was an excellent resolution, and one which I am still trying to fulfill. The obvious purpose behind researching my market was to develop a marketing plan well in advance of publication. It was a practical, if unexciting, resolution. One day I mean to keep it.

In 2014, I went for something more thrilling. I resolved to get more rejections than C. S. Lewis. He got 800, so it was a tall order to fill. Nonetheless, I am proud to say I did manage to get well over a hundred rejections (and I am still getting them!). I reasoned that by inoculating myself with repeated rejections, my work would eventually get accepted somewhere.

This year, I have set my sights even higher. My goal is to get published, come hell or high water. That means getting more stories published, writing essays, reviews, hmm ... I'll thrown in some irate letters to the editor - and while I'm at it, I'll publish my book.

Here is my plan. Feel free to join me.

Submit stories to publications that actually want them. Last year, I submitted my stories all over the place, and they racked up an impressive number of rejections. But, the literary magazines that eventually published my stories did so because what I sent them was exactly what they were looking for. This year, rather than blitz the market, I will spend more time reading the publications I am wooing in order to make sure they are a good fit. (Here is a list of 217 paying markets. Among those, there should be several that will provide good homes to our little darlings.)

Query agents who are looking for my genre - and style. Agents often list books they have enjoyed on their bios. They also give interviews. It's worth doing a bit of research before querying.

Submit to publishers directly. Once I have exhausted my list of agents, I will submit to publishers. I have assembled quite a list of publishers that accept manuscripts directly from writers.

Go about submissions systemically and doggedly. I used to submit to a few places and stop when I was turned away. My last year's resolution is still racking up the rejections, so by now my skin is nice and thick. I will not let rejections deter me.

Let's finish our projects, submit them, and get them published! This is our year!

Bookmark this post! When you get your story or article (or book) published, leave a comment.

13 Calls for Submissions: January 2016 - Speculative fiction, poetry, short fiction, non-fiction, children's lit

The new year is (nearly) upon us, and with it come publishing opportunities!

Here are thirteen magazines and anthologies looking for writers.

As usual, there is a wide array of genres: speculative fiction, children's literature, poetry, flash fiction, short stories, dramatic monologues, and creative nonfiction.

All of these are paying markets.

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ChappyFiction LLC: Time travel anthology

"The anthology will contain new short stories centered around time travel. How does it affect our society, our humanity, or the characters? We want new stories. Create paradoxes. Make us laugh. Make us cry. If you have a killer reprint, query us first before submitting." Simultaneous submissions are okay.

Genre: Science fiction/fantasy

Length: Under 7,000 words

Payment: 6 cents a word

Deadline: January 1, 2016

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Mom for the Holidays: Stories of Love, Laughter and Tantrums

Genre: Personal essays, stories, poems

Payment: $25-$200 per piece

Deadline: January 1, 2016

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No Shit, There I Was

"The intention is to cover a wide range of subgenres to show the versatility of a single opening line comedies, tragedies, and everything in between are welcome in the slush pile. That said, Rachael is not terribly interested in horror, and erotica is right out. Salty language is okay, gratuitous violence, gore, or sex is not."

Genre: Speculative fiction beginning with the line "No Shit, There I Was"

Length: 2,000-7,500 words

Payment: 6 cents a word

Deadline: January 6, 2016

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The Big Day

Babybug seeks rhymes and stories celebrating big days and first experiences. Meeting someone new, visiting an unfamiliar place, taking a step, discovering the word no—what makes a baby or toddler’s day extraordinary? We are looking for playful writing that begs to be read aloud.

Genre: For ages 0–3

Length: Please keep it short—Babybug poems are generally no longer than eight lines, and stories can be up to 6 sentences.

Payment: Up to 25 cents per word for prose; up to $3.00 per line; $25.00 minimum for poetry

Deadline: January 6, 2016

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Monsters

What if Cyclops went to school with Godzilla? What would a kraken bring in its lunchbox? Cricket and Spider are on the prowl for stories, poetry, and nonfiction exploring the theme of Monsters. We’re interested in work that taps in to kids'  fascination with all things monstrous in myth, fantasy, sci fi, and as figures for beastly power in our daily lives. Monster stories give kids a space to play with strong feelings, huge life changes, the annoying rules of the grown-up world, and the occasional impulse to smash the Tokyo skyline.

Genre: Fiction and poetry for ages 6–9 (Spider) and ages 9–14 (Cricket)

Payment: Up to 25 cents per word for prose; up to $3.00 per line ($25.00 minimum) for poetry

Deadline: January 6, 2016

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Qu

Qu is a publication of Queens University of Charlotte.

Genres: Contemporary prose, drama. and poetry

Length: Up to 8K words for prose. Submit up to three poems per poetry submission.

Payment: $100 per prose piece, $50 per poem

Deadline: January 15, 2016

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Liminal

"We like stories that are strange and unsettling, sharp-edged and evocative.  Although we will consider any genre, we have a soft spot for weird fiction, magical realism, soft sci-fi, and those uncatagorizable stories that straddle the line between genres."

Genre: Fiction

Length: Up to 10,000 words

Payment: 6c/word

Deadline: January 15, 2016

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Great Weather for MEDIA Annual Anthology

"Our focus is on the fearless, the unpredictable, and experimental but we do not have a set theme for our anthologies."

Genres: Poetry, flash fiction, short stories, dramatic monologues, and creative nonfiction

Payment: One contributor copy, plus $10 for writers based in USA. International writers receive two copies.

Deadline: January 15, 2016

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Specter Spectacular III: 13 Uncanny Tales

We hope to expand on the previous volumes of “ghostly” tales and “deathly” tales by delving into the realm of “uncanny” tales. The idea of the uncanny opens up possibilities: creepy doppelgängers, too-close-to-human robots, changeling intruders, cryptid animals, jarring juxtapositions.The essence of the uncanny is an unsettled feeling, a sense that something isn’t quite right, often coupled with an inability to articulate exactly why. Our tastes lean more toward the psychological than toward gore, especially for this volume. We’re looking for a wide range of interpretations and a balance of styles and tones (serious, humorous, modern, historical, futuristic, mythological, gothic, etc.).

Length: Under 10,000 words.

Payment: $10 + paperback copy of the anthology.

Deadline: January 15, 2016

Reprints accepted.

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Rattle Magazine

Restrictions: Poems must be written by those who have lived at least half their lives in the Greater Los Angeles Area.

Genre: Poetry.

Payment: $50

Deadline: January 15, 2016

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Wordrunner eChapbooks: Devices

The theme for this year's annual themed anthology is Devices: Technology’s impact on our lives and relationships. "The technology could be as old as the invention of writing, false teeth, the printing press, or something not yet invented; it might be your first TV, your grandfather's model T, or augmented reality eyeware. What are the stories and the emotional dynamics? We are looking for the human component, regardless of device or genre."

Genres: "Fiction on this topic can be contemporary, historical, or speculative science fiction. We'd like to see personal memoir or creative nonfiction about family history." 

Length: Submit up to three poems or a short story, novel or memoir excerpt, or personal essay (1,000 to 5,000 words)

Payment: $100 for collections ($5 to $20 for single pieces in anthologies)

Deadline: January 31, 2016

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Damsels in Success

"We’ve all read the stories and fallen in love with the movies: the girl needs saving, the boy rescues girl, they fall in love, and they lived happily ever after. But what if the boy was in distress or the girl had dreams that didn’t involve falling in love? Those are the kinds of stories we’re looking for to include in our next anthology. If you have a fantasy story about a strong female character who made her own way or a story that takes a twist on a classic tale, send it our way!"

Length: Up to 10,000 words.

Payment: $5.00 per story. There will be an editor’s choice winner that will get placed at the front of the book, have the cover designed specifically with that story in mind and the author will receive a small bonus.

Deadline: January 31, 2016

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Tesseracts Twenty: Compostela

"Compostela (Tesseracts Twenty) is an anthology of hard and soft science fiction stories that best represent a futuristic view of the sciences and how humanity might be affected (for better or worse) by a reliance in all things technological. For more than 1,000 years, Santiago de Compostela (Compostela means “field of stars”) has attracted pilgrims to walk to the cathedral that holds St. James the apostle's relics. The stories in this anthology in their own way tell the tale of futuristic travelers who journey into the dark outer (or inner) reaches of space, searching for their own connections to the past, present and future relics of their time."

Restrictions: Open to Canadians only

Genre: Science Fiction

Length: 5,000 words max

Payment: Payment for short poetry is $20.00. Payment for short stories is prorated as follows: $50 for stories up to 1,500 words, rising to a maximum of $150 for stories up to 5,000 words

Deadline: January 31, 2016

5 Writers' Conferences in January 2016

Winter is in full swing above the 40th parallel, which is why it is not entirely surprising that half of January's conferences are in Florida.

While there isn't a lot going on the first month of the year, these conferences offer as much as they do in the summer: pitch sessions with agents, workshops, presentations, readings, and ample opportunity to hobnob with writers and industry professionals (hopefully, on a beach).

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Key West Literary Seminar, January 7 - 15, 2016, Key West, Florida. The seminar, January 7 - 10, offers readings, lectures, and conversations with poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers. The 2016 theme is “Shorts: Stories, Essays & Other Briefs.” The writers' workshop offers workshops and craft discussions for poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers. The faculty includes poet Billy Collins; fiction writers Ann Beattie, Kristen-Paige Madonia, Daniel Menaker, and Antonya Nelson; and nonfiction writer Diana Abu-Jaber. The cost of the seminar is $575; the cost of the writers’ workshop is $550.

Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway, January 15 - 18, 2016, Galloway, New Jersey. Workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as craft talks, one-on-one tutorials, featured readings, and open mics. The faculty includes poets Stephen Dunn, Thomas Lux, Laura McCullough, and James Richardson; fiction writers Carol Plum-Ucci and Pamela Swallow; and creative nonfiction writers Barbara Hurd and Mimi Schwartz. Tuition, which includes some meals, ranges from $490 to $690, depending on the workshop; lodging is not included.

Eckerd College Writers’ Conference, January 16-23, 2016, St. Petersburg, FL. Workshops, roundtables, panel discussions, Q&As, readings book signings, and receptions. Faculty and guests include: Pulitzer Prize winner Gilbert King, MacArthur “Genius Grant” Poet Campbell McGrath, Andre Dubus III, Ann Hood, Dennis Lehane, Laura Lippman, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Stewart O’Nan, Les Standiford, Scott Ward, Sterling Watson, and more.

Palm Beach Poetry Festival, January 18-23, 2016, Delray Beach, Florida. Eight poetry workshops taught by Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Carl Dennis, Denise Duhamel, Carol Frost, Thomas Lux, Tom Sleigh, Mary Szybist and Kevin Young. Participant tuition includes workshop participation, and admission to all festival events. Special Guest is Robert Hass, U.S. Poet Laureate (1995-1997), Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner. Other featured poets include Dominique Christina and Marc Kelly Smith, and conference faculty, Sally Bliumis-Dunn, and Ginger Murchison.  $795 includes all events, one gala seat; $395/auditor. Accepted participants may schedule a one-on-one conference at additional cost.

Write on the Red Cedar, Jan 22 - 23, 2016, East Lansing MI. Workshops, speakers, panels, manuscript reviews, networking, and pitch appointments with literary agents Carly Watters and Ann Byle. Regular Registration $120 ($140 after Dec. 20) Includes Friday night cocktail party and full slate of workshops on Saturday. Full Conference $195 ($225 after Dec. 20).

Writing Contest: Win a Manuscript Evaluation - No entry fee

Writer's Digest recently announced a free contest held by best-selling author and writing consultant, Barbara Kyle.

Barbara is offering to evaluate a full manuscript for free - a service for which she normally charges $1,200. Second and third place winners can have portions of their manuscripts evaluated.

Your manuscript does not have to be complete to enter. If you win, you will have a full year to submit. The deadline is December 31, 2015.

Good luck!

 

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CONTEST! Win a Manuscript Evaluation

Grand Prize: a *$1,200 manuscript evaluation

Want an expert critique of your manuscript? Then this contest is for you.

It’s open to anyone with a work of fiction or narrative non-fiction. All genres are welcome. There is no fee to enter the contest.

And here’s the great thing. If you win, you’ll have up to a year to send me your manuscript. If it’s ready now, that’s fine, send it as soon as you hear you’ve won. But if you need more time to complete it, that’s fine too. Contest winners will have up to a year to send me their manuscript.

I’ll choose three winners based on writing samples that suggest the writer’s work has a good chance of succeeding in the publishing marketplace. Agents and publishers want books that sell, and my goal is to help you move forward in your writing career. I want you to land that agent. I want you to sign that book deal.

* value based on a manuscript of 450 pages

PRIZES

Grand Prize: my evaluation of a full manuscript – a $1,200 value
Second Prize: my evaluation of a manuscript’s first 50 pages
Third Prize: my evaluation of a manuscript’s first 25 pages

The manuscript evaluation will be conducted in a discussion with me by Skype or by phone. The Grand Prize winner will get a 1.5-hour (one and a half hour) discussion with me. The Second Prize winner and Third Prize winner will each get a half-hour discussion with me.

The evaluation will consist of my in-depth analysis in which I’ll pinpoint the manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses with regard to premise, story structure, character development, voice, dialogue, setting, pacing, POV, and marketability. I’ll also offer suggestions on how any weaknesses might be improved.

CONTEST RULES

The deadline for entering is 12:00 midnight EST on 31 December 2015.

There is no fee to enter.

To enter, complete the contest entry form (click the “Register Here” button below) and attach your writing sample. Maximum length of the sample: 1,500 words.

Only one entry per person.

The 3 winners will be announced on 21 January 2016 and their names will be posted on my website and in my Newsletter for Writers.

The 3 winners can send me their manuscripts as soon as they have been notified that they have won, or they can take up to 12 months to do so. (So, if you win, there’s lots of time to finish your manuscript if you need it.)

For the Grand Prize winner, the maximum length of the full manuscript to be evaluated is 120,000 words. The manuscript must be double-spaced in 12-point font.

For the Second Prize winner, the maximum length of the manuscript to be evaluated is 50 pages, double-spaced in 12-point font.

For the Third Prize winner, the maximum length of the manuscript to be evaluated is 25 pages double-spaced in 12-point font.

Ready to enter? Great! Here’s how.

HOW TO ENTER THE CONTEST

Complete the entry form (click the “Register Here” button below) and attach to it your writing sample.
• Maximum length of the sample: 1,500 words. Format: double-spaced
• The sample can be from your work-in-progress or a previous work
• Attach your sample as a Word document or PDF

Deadline to enter is midnight on 31 December 2015.

Click here to enter the contest.