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Monday, May 12, 2014

Calling All Critiques: A Cross-Blog Event

We can all use a little help once in a while, can’t we?

I’m excited to announce that my blog will be part of an upcoming event, Calling All Critiques, a cross-blog critique event open to self-published, traditionally published, and unpublished authors (that would be everyone!). The event will start the weekend of May 24 and run until June 13, adding up to three weeks of critiques of different aspects of novel writing and marketing.

Three weeks of critiques

The schedule for the weekly critiques is as follows:
  • Week of May 26: First 500 word critique
  • Week of June 2: Cover art critique
  • Week of June 9: Book blurb or query letter critique
Entries will be accepted the weekend before the week’s critiques, with a cutoff of 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday. We have a total of 35 slots, 5 on each participating blog, and the entries will be accepted in the order they were received. The posts will go up throughout the week, 7 each Monday through Friday, one on each blog each day, for a total of 5 per blog. All blogs will link to each other so that critters can easily find the other entries.

There will be prizes

What’s an event without prizes? We have two categories of prizes: One lucky winner each week from the entrants and one lucky winner from a Rafflecopter giveaway, chosen by random draw.

Each winning entrant will have his or her choice of the following prizes:

Each Rafflecopter winner will win this package:
  • An electronic copy of Guarding Angel by S. L. Saboviec
  • An electronic copy of It Ain’t Easy Being Jazzy by Quanie Miller
  • $10 gift certificate from Amazon

Interested in having your work critiqued?

Each week, entrants will have two days to submit their work for critique. When the submission window opens, you (that’s right, you) may submit to an email address that will be provided. You will need to provide the following information:

Your name/pseudonym:
Title:
Genre (include audience, such as YA/Adult, and category):
Entry:

Your email will be kept confidential. What you submit is what will be posted, so double- and triple-check your spelling and grammar. (We may correct crazy formatting errors as a result of email quirks, but still, make sure it’s clean before you press send.) You may resubmit an entry, but it goes to the end of the queue: if you submit it past the 35 entry cutoff, you’ll have lost your spot.

If you’re nervous about participating because you aren’t sure what comments you’re going to get, rest assured that we bloggers are committed to making this a positive event for everyone. Mean-spirited or trolling comments will be deleted. We’ve participated in these events in the past, and for the most part, everyone is helpful and kind.

That being said, if you don’t want feedback on your entry, don’t submit. Critiques are provided to help you improve your writing. Along with “this worked great for me,” you will get “this didn’t work so great for me” comments. If you don’t want that kind of feedback, please don’t participate.

Interested in critiquing?

Yay! Critters are the lifeblood of this event. As the posts go live, one each weekday over the three weeks of the event, please feel free to critique as many or as few as you want. You may want to follow all the participating blogs to get up-to-the-minute information, or we will be tweeting under the hashtag #CACrits.

The only rule we have is to be constructive. You can say you dislike something, but give reasons why. In fact, you can say you like something, but give reasons why for that, too. Although it’s ultimately up to the author to determine whether to take feedback or not, we grow the most when we understand why something does or doesn’t work.

Posts will go up in the morning at each of our blogs. We’d love it if you could visit all of us throughout the week:

(Website not yet live) Before Ink DriesMike Verbickus
M.G.'s Fantasy Blog – M.G. Silverstein
Magic & Mayhem Book ReviewsS. L. Saboviec
MM Jaye Writes – MM Jaye (Twitter / Facebook)
You are here! - Official Blog of Brian Basham – Brian Basham (Twitter / Wattpad / Facebook)
Proof PositiveChristie Stratos
Quanie Talks WritingQuanie Miller

Thanks for stopping by!

We look forward to seeing you back here in a couple weeks.
Any questions? Leave them in the comments!

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