Calling All Critiques: First Week Wrap-Up

Thank you to everyone who has participated in our first week of Calling All Critiques, whether you were a submitting author or a critiquer or just stopped by the blogs to see what was going on. The Rafflecopter random giveaway of two eBooks and a $10 Amazon gift certificate ends on Sunday at midnight, so give some feedback on one of the earlier posts and maybe win some prizes:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

First 500 Word Random Winner

As a thank you to all the authors who submitted their work to be critiqued, we’ve randomly chosen one lucky winner who has a choice of the following prizes:

• 20-page professional edit/critique by Proof Positive OR
• An author interview on the Proof Positive blog AND an author WIP Q&A on MM Jaye Writes OR
• An honest review of his or her book (no horror/hardcore erotica) on MM Jaye Writes AND, if it’s speculative or dark fiction, Magic & Mayhem Book Reviews, with corresponding Amazon and Goodreads reviews.

This week’s winner is:

Entrant #5
Toya Barnette

Toya, look for an email in your inbox later today. You have until Sunday to respond as to which of the three prizes you want. If we don’t hear from you by then, a runner-up will be chosen. Once you choose your prize, we will provide you and the blogger with each other’s contact information to coordinate timing.

Next Week: Cover Art Critique

Starting Saturday, May 31, 2014 at 6 a.m., submit your cover art to Critiques@Saboviec.com. Cut and paste the following template into your email and fill it in.

The name you want to be known by:
Your website (optional):
Title:
Genre (include audience, such as YA/Adult, and category):

Attach your cover art to the email in a standard format (.jpg, .gif, .png preferred). Make sure it’s big enough to be legible when viewed at full size on a standard web browser.

Updated info for this week: Your entry will be assigned a number in the order in which it is received. Our cutoff is now 30 entries. Entries 1-6 will be posted on our blogs Monday morning, entries 7-12 will be posted on our blogs Tuesday morning, etc. This week, we will keep accepting entries through Monday or Tuesday, depending on interest. If you get them in before 8 p.m. EDT and spots are open, you will go into the next day’s round.

And all the rest is the same: 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 30-entry cutoff, you’ll have lost your spot.

All 30 accepted entrants will be entered into the prize drawing, and the winner will be chosen by their assigned number through Random.org.

As always, if you don’t want both positive and negative feedback, please don’t enter. This event is for us to help one another grow as authors and maybe to make some friends in the process.

Some fine print: Entries that don’t include the above information will be discarded. At our sole discretion, we may also discard other posts for reasons such as offensive/distasteful material. Erotica may be confined only to certain blogs, and we may put an adult content warning on it.

If You Enter, Please …

Critique other entrants. The sky’s the limit on how many other entries you critique, but we ask that you at least provide feedback to two other participants.

Also, when you receive feedback on your entry, be gracious if you decide to respond. We would highly suggest not responding except for perhaps a “thank you,” but you’re going to do what you’re going to do, aren’t you? Don’t be defensive or explanatory; these critiques are for you to improve your writing. Take what you want and leave the rest behind.

And If You Critique, Please …

Be nice. Be constructive. Be specific. Be polite.

Mean-spirited or spam posts will be deleted. General “I love everything about it and I think you’re the next J.K. Rowling, ZOMG!” obviously-written-about-your-best-friend comments won’t be deleted, but that’s tacky. Don’t be tacky.

Join us for more fun next week!

While you wait, check out all the participating blogs and bloggers:

• Quanie Talks Writing – Quanie Miller
• Proof Positive – Christie Stratos (Twitter / Facebook / Google+)
• Official Blog of Brian Basham – Brian Basham (Twitter / Wattpad / Facebook)
• MM Jaye Writes – MM Jaye (Twitter / Facebook)
• Magic & Mayhem Book Reviews – S. L. Saboviec
• Before Ink Dries – Mike Verbickas

We look forward to seeing you back here soon.

Any questions? Leave them in the comments!