Pitching Agents/Novel and Short Story Markets

Writer’s Thought for the Week: Writing begins with a knot. ~ Margaret Atwood

Pitching Agents: Plan on pitching your book to an agent at a conference? An agent shares some pointers for authors here.
  
HORATIO NELSON FICTION PRIZE
Black Balloon Publishing will award the winner a $5,000 prize as part of their book deal. Must be a work of fiction: a novel or short story collection, minimum word count of 50,000 words. This is a two-tiered process: initial entries include a summary and an excerpt no longer than 4,000 words. Authors who move on to second round of judging will have one week to submit their manuscript after being notified.

CROSSED OUT MAGAZINE #4

Deadline: May 1, 2013

Submit up to three short stories, 2000 words or less each, that are direct, concise, character driven, and socially relevant. This online biannual pays $20 per accepted fiction story for first and one-time rights.

Agent Databases

If you pursue the traditional publishing route for your book and want an agent, here are two free searchable agent databases that may help. Happy hunting!

AgentQuery.com

This searchable database of agents was voted one of Writers Digest's Best Web Sites for Writers for the 6th year in a row in 2010. Search criteria include AARP member or not, keywords you enter, genres within fiction or nonfiction, e-mail or snail mail queries, and actively seeking new clients. Besides the database, the site has articles on submission, publishing, and resources.

Another searchable agent database is at 1000literaryagents.com/find-literary-agents.php.