Contest with a REAL PRIZE!

This contest has ended.
Winners are posted here and here.

Another contest will be announced soon.




Let's try another contest. It's a long holiday weekend, so you have time to write something just for fun, right? Since we've done a few queries this month, here's a prompt that will help hone your skills at summing up your novel.

Prompt:
Write a three-sentence pitch for an LDS novel. Somewhere in that pitch there needs to be: 1) a clear hint to the genre; 2) a clear hint that it's LDS; 3) your main character's name and age; 4) the general plot line. Bonus points if you're able to do this in 90* words or less. (Hyphenated words count as individual words. Numbers count as words.) Please put your word count at the end of your pitch. (This does not count as part of your total words.)

Prizes:
There will be two winners: Publisher's Choice (chosen by me) and Readers Choice (chosen by you). Each first-place winner will receive a paperback copy of the LDS novel of their choice.


TO VOTE:
All pitches have their own post, titled "Pitch #1," "Pitch #2," etc.

To vote, click on the "comments" link at the bottom of the pitch you like. Cast your vote by leaving a comment.


Stupid Little Details That You Must Follow in Order to Win:
1. Send your pitch to my e-mail address. Include your mailing address and your choice of LDS novel in your e-mail so I can mail your prize as soon as the contest ends.

2. I will post all pitches to this blog in the order they are received. I will NOT post the author's name or any identifying information until the contest is over.

3. Enter as many times as you want, but send a separate e-mail for each entry. Each entry will be judged on its own merits. (That means, if one is really good and one is really bad, the bad one won't color judgment of the good one.)

4. The contest STARTS NOW and and STOPS Tuesday, July 4, 2006 at midnight (MST).

5. All pitches will be posted by Wednesday, July 5, 2006.

6. Voting STARTS NOW and STOPS on Friday, July 7th. Vote by posting in the comments trail of the pitch you like.

7. You may vote for as many pitches as you want, but you can only vote for a particular pitch once. You are on the Honor Code not to post multiple anonymous votes for your favorite pitch.

8. You may vote for yourself, but only once per pitch. And just so we don't end up with every pitch having 1 vote, vote for a couple of others too.

9. Winners posted on Saturday, July 8, 2006. I will post the first-place winners and two runners-up in each category. Unless you specifically request not to be indentified, the names of the winners will be posted.

10. In the case of a tie for the Readers Choice, I will put the names in a hat and draw the winner.

11. The same pitch cannot win in both categories. I will select my winner before tallying the Readers Choice votes. If my winner is also the winner of the Readers Choice, the Readers Choice prize will go to the second place pitch.


P.S. To send this contest info to all your writer friends (that's a subliminal command for you to do so), go to the "Previous Posts" listed on the right of this blog. Click on the title of this post. It will display in its own webpage. Copy the URL (web address) line and paste it into your e-mail. Then send that link to every writer you know. (Do it! Do it! You know you want to...)

P.P.S. If you're concerned about nepotism, don't be. I've rejected plenty of my good friends in the past, which is why I no longer have any.

*Updated bonus word count. See comments on this post.