The Corona Critique Giveaway

Good morning, everyone! This week has been so much fun. I'd love to give you a little insight into how this amazing giveaway came together.

When everything started getting crazy with the coronavirus, I was amazed at how well the kid lit community reacted. Authors were getting permission to read their books online for kids. Others were providing activities and coloring pages. And everyone was SO kind. But in the midst of it all, I still read about a lot of fear. A lot of uncertainty. A lot of stress. And I wanted to do something too. Since I'm not (YET) a published author, I wondered what that could be. Then I got this crazy idea... maybe I could pull off a mass giveaway. I truthfully didn't know if anyone would be interested, or how I would even go about it. But I knew that I wanted a super fast turn around, because people needed something to look forward to NOW.

So last Monday I asked my critique group if they thought it would be unprofessional to just start tweeting out requests for donations. They said probably not unprofessional, but would anyone see it? Good point... so I started doing some research and finding direct email addresses or filling out forms on websites. I crossed my fingers that I could get 20 donations. I first reached out to Bonnie Swanson since she was my Write Mentor Mentee and a sparkly new agent and Brian Gehrlein since he's my Critique Partner. When they both agreed so enthusiastically, I decided to be all in, announce the giveaway, and pray that it would work out! haha.

I sent out dozens of emails on Tuesday the 17th and went to sleep. I almost cried when I woke up on the 18th to SO many responses saying "YES! I love this idea!" Even those who had to say "no" were the kindest people ever, wishing me health and hope during this unsettling time.

Then the Twitter Post got some traction and the blog posts took off. I had people reaching out to ME to donate... did I mention that the kidlit community is the best community??And in the end, we ended up with 45 (!!!) donations for Manuscript or Query critiques. WOW!

If you missed my post about choosing hope, I hope that you will catch it HERE. This whole giveaway has inspired me with even more hope. People are good. And as we come together, we can do amazing things.

The list of donors went live on Tuesday, and you can see that HERE. Please take the time to read our donor's bios and support them with follows, likes, even book purchases!

And now... IT'S TIME!!

THE CORONA CRITIQUE GIVEAWAY IS OFFICIALLY OPEN!

I wanted to keep this one super simple and not have a billion steps for entry. I know where all busy with suddenly home schooling/working from home/ trying not to eat through our quarantine snacks in a single afternoon.

So to enter, simply:

Find THIS giveaway post on Twitter.

Like and Retweet.

THAT'S IT!

For an OPTIONAL 5 bonus entries, follow every donor tagged in the post.

The giveaway will be open through Saturday Night at 11:59 PM EST.

Winners will be randomly selected and announced on twitter on Monday, March 30th.

Originally, I really wanted to set up individual giveaways and have you choose which ones would be the best fit for you, but then when the whole thing grew bigger than I ever hoped for, I knew that I couldn't manage 45 different giveaways/matching you up by choice while still homeschooling and trying to keep my 2 year old out of the office while hubby works from home. So pairings will be straight down the line. Thanks for understanding.

Another HUGE thanks to all of our donors. Please, please, go read about them HERE. I'll be updating this post to include the list of donors as well, but wanted to get it open before it became much later.

So go enter! I am so excited to see how this all plays out. Good luck to everyone!

Meet Kailei Pew

Kailei believes in books. She believes in imaginative play. She believes in having fun, getting messy, and being silly with her kids. Thus For Little Readers was born.​ Kailei also writes picture books and is currently seeking representation. She loves creating books that bring children and parents together. Kailei hopes that her own books will one day be featured in her blog. ​Prior to staying home with her children and writing picture books, Kailei worked as a reading teacher and middle school mentor. She was a 2019 Write Mentor Mentee and a finalist in Susanna Leonard Hill's 2019 Holiday Writing Contest.