Book Event : Elephant Rock Books YA Contest

Our new YA imprint wasn't drawn up on a cocktail napkin, but rather Jotham heard the voice of his niece Lindsay nagging him to read the Hunger Games. She nagged him for three years (she’s a relentless little knucklehead) and finally he relented, and his YA reading life began. Flash forward a few years and he hatches the imprint and contest idea and then recruits Inkwood bookseller, and YA know-it-all Amanda Hurley to lead the new imprint to discover the next great YA voice. The elephant reading an orange book came later.

Please review the guidelines and submit your novel for consideration. Our shrewd judges will pick a winner and help launch the author and book. Like all our titles, we’ll put all our knowhow and muscle behind the winner. Good luck.

So what are we looking for? Tough question. Good writing? Rather, we’ve listed below Amanda’s favorite books in the category. Good luck.

•The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

•Fault in Our Stars and/or Paper Towns by John Green

•Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos

•Adios, Nirvana by Conrad Wesselhoeft

•The Marbury Lens by Adam Smith, This book is great, but disturbing

•The Legend series by Marie Lu, One of a few good dystopian series out there, following after Hunger Games.

 

We’re after quality stories with heart, guts, and a clear voice. We’re especially interested in the quirky and the hopeful and the real. We are not particularly interested in genre fiction and prefer stand-alone novels, unless you’ve got the next Hunger Games. We seek writers who believe in the transformative power of a great story, so show us what you’ve got. 

Prize:

Winner will receive a $1,000 lump-sum prize as part of their book deal with our new imprint Elephant Rock Books YA.

Contest Judges:

Becky Quiroga Curtis, Children's Book Buyer, Books & Books

Louise Brueggemann, Children's Services Supervisor, Naperville Public Library

Submission Period:

July 1 to Sept. 15.

Submit the Following via Submittable:

Cover letter including a brief novel summary, your bio/credits, capacity/ideas/availability to promote the book, with the first fifty (50) pages of your manuscript, and brief chapter-by-chapter synopsis.

  

General Terms and Conditions: 

This is a two-tiered process:

• Initial entries are no longer than 50-pages.
• If we love what we read, we’ll request a printed copy of the entire manuscript. The novel must be received within one week of our request.

Only completed English-language manuscripts are eligible.

Must be a work of unpublished fiction with a minimum word count of 50,000 words.

Contest is open to all authors over the age of 18.

Notifications by November 1. Due to the volume of interest we won’t comment on rejected manuscripts.