Querying Anniversary Contest!

Photo by darkewolf

It's been a while since I did a contest, hasn't it? It's time for another one.

What are the rules? Well, this one's gonna be easy. No genre-blending, worst first lines, or flash fiction writing requirements. This time, I'm going for the followers. You know how it goes: you get points for following me on this blog and/or on Twitter, extra points for referring people directly and/or for passing on word about my contest on your own blog or Twitter account. I'll put the specific details at the bottom of the post.

What's the occasion? On April 15th, it will be the one-year anniversary of the day I sent out my first-ever query letter for my novel.

What's the prize? I'm so glad you asked! I will be giving away a copy of Steve Almond's amazing self-published chapbook, This Won't Take But A Minute, Honey. Thirty flash fiction stories on one side, then you flip the book over and get thirty short essays on the craft of writing on the other side. The stories are good, no question... but these essays, people, are GENIUS. It's an MFA program in the palm of your hand. You need this book.

Even better, the copy that I'm giving away has been SIGNED by the author. He doesn't know your name, but he knows what you need to hear, and he inscribed it just for you.

The contest starts NOW, and will close at midnight on April 14th so that I can pick and announce a winner on April 15th. Each point gets you one entry into the contest, yadda yadda.

RULES:

• You must comment on THIS blog post to be entered. That gets you +1 point.
• You get +2 points for being a blog follower.
• You get +1 point for having commented on my blog at any point before today. (I wanted to reward those who've been with me for a while, but was afraid I'd lose track of which people are new blog followers and which are already following as of this writing. So, I'm rewarding participation instead.)
• You get +1 point for following me on Twitter.
• You get +1 point if you've retweeted me or my blog at any point before today.
• You get +1 point for Tweeting about this contest/retweeting this post.
• You get +2 points for blogging about this contest.
• You get +1 point if someone writes in their comment that YOU are the reason they found out about this blog/contest. (Please do give credit if you were referred here by someone! It doesn't lower your chances that much, really.)
• You can obviously un-follow me again at the close of the contest, but I'm really quite amusing, and I'm sure you'll want to stick around.

So! That means new followers can get EIGHT possible entries, and loyal followers can get as many as TEN entries.* Sounds pretty good, right? Plus, if I get enough new Twitter & blog followers, I'll post a link to something amusing and embarrassing online. I have 140 blog followers and 96 Twitter followers as of this moment. Any suggestions for what my target numbers should be? (Don't say 150 and 100. Smartass.)

And you don't need to provide links as proof -- just tell me how many points you get and how you calculated it when you post your comment. I will check up on the winner to make sure that person's points were all honestly claimed; if I find out you didn't really earn one of the points that you said you did, you will be disqualified, and I'll pick another winner.

Let the games begin!

* Update: duh! The number of points you can get is actually unlimited because you get a point for EACH referral, not just one point for all referrals combined. Go to it!