#YALitChat Writing Contest

Dear TeenFire Scribes,

Thank you so much for taking the time to RSVP for this very special writing contest! The reason for the annoying formality of the RSVP is simply to have all of you on a list that we can email en masse about news pertaining to the contest, details, and, eventually, the winners!

As previously mentioned, submissions will run throughout the month of February and you can RSVP at either the TeenFire website or on Georgia McBride's #YALitchat network. To submit your entries for judging, please email them to GreatYA@sourcebooks.com. Be advised that NO ATTACHMENTS will be opened, let alone considered.

Judging will essentially be done in three rounds. In the first round, Georgia will select up to 150 submissions from the total pool. In the second round, three Sourcebooks judges will read and vote on those 150 submissions on a scale of 1-10. Editors will be looking for originality, clarity, style and an immediate hook!

The 20 highest scoring submissions will be given a free copy of Regina Brooks's book Writing Great Books for Young Adults and invited to submit the first 20 pages of their manuscripts directly to editor Dan Ehrenhaft. With over 15 years of experience, most recently with Alloy Entertainment, where he was the editor in charge of the Gossip Girl and Peaches series, you can see Dan’s expertise as head of Sourcebooks Fire come through in the strength of our first Spring Young Adult catalog.

Winners retain all rights to their work and are under no obligation to sign with Sourcebooks.

FORMATTING PRINCIPLES:
The entire submission must be contained in the body of your email.
Text only. No pictures or attachments will be considered.
Please include:

At the top: Author contact info (full name, email) Under the Heading “Title:” The title of the piece (less than 15 words) Under the Heading “Novel Description:” Up to 100 words outlining the plot of your novel.
Under the Heading “Chapter 1:” Please include the first 250 words of your novel.

No additional information will be read by judges.

EX:
Author Contact
Best B. Known, bestbknown2u4sure@igotzthemgoods.com

Title
The Grapes of Wrath

Novel Description
Haunted by dreams of chocolate, boy unwittingly dreams the cure for chocolate addiction in YA writers. When he posts the cure to his blog one day, he becomes instantly hated and ostracized.

Chapter 1
The sky, gray above, hung like the rug Mrs. Lewiston used to drape over the porch railing each weekend. Drab, lifeless and low; we were the same in our defeat.

Submissions will go through three rounds of judging. Georgia McBride, founder of #YAlitchat will be the first-round judge, whittling down the entrants to the top one hundred fifty (150).

These one hundred fifty (150) entries will then be ranked on a scale of 1-10 by three Sourcebooks Fire editors. The top twenty (20) submissions (calculated by adding scores) will be notified and allowed to submit a pitch letter and first twenty (20) pages of their novel for further consideration by Sourcebooks editors.

These twenty (20) up will also receive copies of books WRITING GREAT BOOKS FOR YOUNG ADULTS by Regina Brooks.

Depending on the number of submissions, winners will be announced at the end of March.

Of additional consideration and interest: This contest is open to international submissions. All submissions are property of author.

Author retains all rights. Sourcebooks Fire may promote winning entries, including author names, on the TeenFire website. Sourcebooks retains no rights to submitted work, and the writer is in free to submit their proposal to other publishers. If a current project is under consideration by a publisher, please check with them before submitting it to the writing contest or uploading it to the Writers Forum.