Auction #38:  Manuscript Critique with Author Gwenda Bond

Welcome to KidLit Cares, an online talent auction to benefit the Red Cross relief effort to help communities recover from Superstorm Sandy. Agents, editors, authors, and illustrators have donated various services to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, with donations being made directly to the Red Cross disaster relief fund. You can read more about KidLit Cares here. Now, on to the auction!

Gwenda Bond, YA fantasy author of the recently released Blackwood, is offering a 50-page manuscript critique for a fantasy or science fiction novel, any flavor  (can be MG, YA, or for adults). She also reviews YA for Locus Magazine, contributes to Publishers Weekly, and guest-edited a special YA issue of Subterranean Online. Gwenda says: “This will be a generous critique, and I’ll happily spitball ideas with the writer about world-building and the structure/plot of the rest of the book if they like, via email or in a half-hour phone call. Or, if they have the whole manuscript, I will help them craft the query pitch for it.”

Opening Bid: $30

Auction Ends: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 10pm EST. (Any bids submitted in comments after that time will be void.)

A note about last-minute bidding: If you are used to computerized Ebay auctions that end at an exact, given second, please know that the KidLit Cares auctions don’t work quite that way. Each auction ends when I post the “Auction closed” comment. I do that when my computer turns to 10pm, but because I have multiple auctions to close at that time (also because I am human) it will not be a totally exact thing.  (I have been working for years to try and clone myself, but to no avail, and I am particularly bummed about that at the moment. Those cloned Kates would have been great at closing auctions all at once.) At any rate, the winning bid is the high bid before the Auction Closed comment, even if the time on your computer reads slightly after 10:00. Thanks for understanding!

If you’d like to bid on this auction, check the current high bid and place a higher bid by leaving your name and bid amount in the comments, along with some way to contact you (email, FB or Twitter…I’m not fussy.) Winners will be notified when the auction ends and should be prepared to make an online donation to the Red Cross Disaster Relief fund in the amount of the high bid at that time.  After you’ve made your donation, you’ll forward your receipt to me, and I’ll put you in touch with the person who donated the service you won so that the two of you can work out the details about how and when.   All services will be provided at the convenience of both the person making the donation and the auction winner, but this should happen within three months of the auction’s end unless something else is agreed upon by both parties.

Good luck and thanks for your help!