This is pretty exciting! My local chapter, the Land of Enchantment Romance Authors (LERA), is changing up our unpublished manuscript contest this year! Instead of having agents and editors as final judges, we’re switching things up to offer mentoring and promo support via judges who are established authors. Writers of all stages may enter! Only the manuscript needs to be unpublished.
And I’m the judge and mentor for the Paranormal/Speculative Fiction/Urban Fantasy/Fantasy Romance category! Yes, it’s a broad category. What can I say? What this means is that the chapter will judge all entries and forward their top three to me. I’ll pick my favorite and mentor that writer and their manuscript. This means whatever that person needs – help with recs and prep for traditional publishing or help with self-publishing. Plus I’d help that person win overall against the wimpy writers chosen by the other judges. 😉 The overall winner gets to choose from the mentors and the whole chapter will support their efforts!
Other categories and judge mentors are:
Contemporary Romance – Long, Judge: Tamra Baumann
Contemporary Romance – Short, Judge: Katie Lane
Romantic Suspense, Judge: Robin Perini
Young Adult, Judge: Darynda Jones
Find out more information and enter here!