Title: The Windup Entry Nickname: One-Handed Wonder Word Count: 40,000 Genre: Upper Middle Grade, Contemporary Query: Kyle Whalen, a southpaw Little League pitcher, had enjoyed a typical adolescent boyhood until a car crash took his right hand, his twin brother, and his passion for life. Now, three years later, Kyle is fourteen and determined to […]
Round 3 of Query Kombat has officially come to a close. Our numbers have been cut in half yet again. The Sweet 16 becomes the Elite 8 fighting for just four spots in the next round. Round 4 promises to be the toughest round thus far. I have no idea how the judges are going […]
The time is finally here! Time to release my Kombatants onto the unsuspecting public! The choice was excruciating. The hosts agonized, weighing this query against that 250. We received hundreds of amazing entries. Of course, making it into a contest is no indication of the quality of your query. Many people who don’t make it […]
Want a chance to win a query critique? Of course you do! Here’s how: From May 27th to June 1st (8am EST to 9pm EST), judges of Query Kombat 2016 will scour the hash tag #QKCrit looking to make critique requests. If you want to get in on the action, all you have to do is tweet a […]
The submission window is NOW OPEN until May 20 at noon. There is no cap on entries this year. If you don’t receive email confirmation within an hour of submitting your entry, contact us via Twitter and let us know. Kontestants will be revealed on May 27th, and the tournament will kick off on June 1st. IMPORTANT: […]
Since the kontestants get to invent amazing nicknames, naturally the judges want one, too! Plus it lets them vote with more freedom. To recognize our wonderful judges and know the vote is legit, here is a list of the nicknames they have chosen: Barn owl Spitfire Bagheera Apple Cordelia Chase Bob Thompstein Tim Riggins Trinity […]
***This giveaway has now ended. CONGRATULATIONS to our winner, Laura B., who won a copy of UNTIL WE BREAK by judge Jamie Howard!*** As we all know, the best way to thank contest judges and hosts for the time they donate is to buy their books. Ask your library to buy their books. Leave an […]
The big reveal is HERE. Want to know what agents and editors we have for Query Kombat? WE HAVE TWENTY-EIGHT, AND COUNTING!! There are so many publishing professionals participating, we can’t fit them all on one blog! View one-third of them below, then click on over to Michelle’s and Michael’s blogs to see the rest. We’ve […]
I’m excited to announce the winner of my very first Free Pass into #QueryKombat. This author is guaranteed a spot in the Top 64 entries, which means getting valuable feedback from up to 25 judges in the first round of the competition. Without further adieu, the winner of this year’s free pass is: MARK ENGELS […]
Time for our AMAZING lineup of judges for this year’s Query Kombat tournament. Many of them were contestants in prior contests. We’ve worked hard to find authors that form a diverse group of opinions, talents, and specialties from all categories and genres. Query Kombat would not be possible without the wonderful people who donate their […]
Query Kombat is back! First things first: You are all so very talented, you make picking extremely difficult for me. And since there’s no cap on entries this year, I decided to enlist the help of a very talented writer (and excellent critique partner) to sift through everything for me. Meet Kara! Kara Reynolds is […]
Bloggers Laura, Michael, and Michelle are back again to bring you the fourth annual Query Kombat tournament. The Basics Query Kombat will host 64 kombatants in a single-elimination, tournament style query-off. Entries will go head to head (one on one) with one another until only ONE entry remains. There will be a total of six […]