It’s been such an amazing year speaking with agents, editors, authors, and publishing professionals about the things that mean the most to them–life, work, creativity, and community.
To celebrate the holidays, we wanted to do something new, special, interactive, and fun.
Monday, December 18, 8:30pm Eastern, our holiday party is designed for warmth, positivity, access to agents–and as a celebration of our amazing community. Scroll down to learn more and RSVP to save your spot.Â
The submission window is December 13-15. Not to worry–if you RSVP, we’ll send you all the details you need.Â
How It Works
Know a fantastic writer who could use a morale boost? How about someone super talented who just needs a little agent insight and assistance? Tell us all about them, and then send them to step #2.
Writers: Want to find someone to nominate you?
Join our Facebook group, meet new writer friends, and offer to swap nominations. (Everyone there is lovely. Don’t be nervous.)
Nominees will then send in their query, first page, and some information about where they need help. Has the work been getting form rejections? Is it still waiting to be sent out–but something doesn’t feel right?
Let us know and, if chosen, our panel will do its best to help.
Our panel of experts will each choose their top (friend-writer/nominator-nominee) pairs to join us onstage (or, well, on the Zoom e-stage) for panel feedback and support.
Night-of, we’ll ask the nominator to come up and say a few nice words about the nominee, and the nominee to read their query and first page.
Then the panel will give their best advice for how to edit, submit, and otherwise succeed with this work.Â
After our panel’s formal feedback, it’s time for a friendly Q&A and happy hour with our amazing panel of experts. Ask a question in the text chat, and we may invite you to come up and ask your question live. (Not to worry–you’re among friends.)
You know us! We can’t have an event without prizes, surprises, and more.
Rules & FAQ
The event is free for everyone, but to have a chance of agent feedback, you will need nominate a friend and receive a nomination. Manuscript Academy members will receive free “view only” tickets if they don’t nominate or receive a nomination.
Want someone to nominate you? Join our Facebook group and ask!Â
Nominators can also be nominees! As long as we have a nomination + work pairing, that works. So, please feel free to nominate a friend, and then ask them to nominate you.
Each person can nominate up to three writers. Please keep in mind that thoughtful nominations help!
Final choices of nomination/work pairs are at the sole discretion of our panelists. We will ask them to please try to select a variety (so it isn’t all one genre), but other than that, it’s up to them.
Nominations and query/first page packets are due by Friday, December 15, 2023.
We will send out the link to members, nominators, and nominees on the day of the event.
During the event, we ask that you be ready to turn on your camera and microphone and say nice things about them (for nominators) and be ready to read your query and first page (for nominees), if your work is chosen.
As always, our most important rule is kindness–we expect you to be supportive, respectful, and constructive, with the goal of uplifting your fellow writers and our panelists.
We hope to see you there!
The Manuscript Academy Podcast is free for everyone, and features interviews with top agents, editors and authors on the craft, business, and community of publishing.
You can find us in the iTunes Store, on Soundcloud, and on Spotify.
The Manuscript Academy Podcast is published weekly. Subscribe to see all of our episodes first.
Featured On the Show:
- Join our Facebook group! It’s full of supportive writers in the querying trenches–plus live page critiques, Q&A’s, and more.
- Want more Manuscript Academy? We’re working on new, interactive formats for our podcasts and events. Subscribe for updates.
- Feeling brave? Submit your query or first page for a chance of feedback from our guests.