<p>Anyone here applying for Young Arts? I don't know why I'm even bothering - seems like everyone applying is a super-talented prodigy with tons of formal training whereas I'm applying for writing since it's a hobby. :) no harm though, right? anyone have any experience with it? Literally just heard about it yesterday, and I'm interested to hear what everyone has to say!</p>
<p>It’s famous. I would enter, except I’m bad at like EVERYTHING creative…
(maybe documentary though.)</p>
<p>Oh, I know it’s famous and all, but I kinda just vaguely knew the name. And yeah, I’ve probably got no chance, but I had a few files ready anyway, so I figured what the heck :)</p>
<p>I’m planning on applying in creative writing as well 
</p>
<p>hi! everyone MIGHT be a prodigy - but that doesn’t mean they had training. i know for a fact that three of the vocalists from last year who went to the national youngarts week never had training, and they blew everyone away. it’s a mix of amazing people. i look forward to this year, too! (oh, and just because you don’t think you’re a prodigy doesn’t mean that you aren’t. you might not have had the right people around you to notice. that’s one of the best things about the youngarts program, i hear). good luck!</p>
<p>Okay, so after reading your lovely post, I checked YoungArts out and I’m really interested to apply for the Selection of Novel. However, I have a question for you and anyone who might know the answer to my question: do they contact your ‘most important teacher’? What do they use the email for?</p>
<p>I am really close to one of my former teachers (he was my 8th grade English teacher, actually—are you even allowed to put down a middle school teacher? Also, since I haven’t had a writing teacher, I would put down my best English teacher, yes?), and while in hindsight, I totally realized that our relationship is a platonic mentorship, I developed a ginormous crush on him. And I wrote a novel about it. And I really like that novel. And some literary agents do as well (sorry; I couldn’t help it, seeing as everyone on CC brags). Anyways, I’m wary of using him if they’re going to update him on the process. I’m not insinuating that I’ll be a finalist (in fact, I have no idea what exactly occurs in the process and I’m probably way over my head), but I would be petrified if they ended up sending him an excerpt of the manuscript that is inspired by his existence in my life (it’s kind of obvious as well).</p>
<p>So, yeah. What is the most important teacher used for? Should I list him? </p>
<p>PS: Sorry for blabbing away about my…schoolgirl issues.</p>
<p>And I happen to think the others are right. You might be very talented, and either way, this will be a great experience (unless my former teacher finds out I was in love with him).</p>
<p>This isn’t my post, but bump?</p>
<p>Also, if you submit a selection of your manuscript to YoungArts, are you still able to publish it (I currently have two literary agents who have requested either the full or partial manuscript and I want to publish)?</p>
<p>I’d really appreciate any info, @ArtScholar @IsometricKiwi @EarthWithoutArt @DigitalKing or anyone.</p>
<p>IIRC I believe YoungArts reserves full rights to it if it makes the national convention? It’s definitely worth looking into; I’m not exactly sure and what I just said <em>might</em> be completely wrong… A quick google search didn’t find the information you’re looking for.</p>
<p>@MissSuzyQ you can’t publish if you win anything, basically. That was the rule for Scholastic, too.</p>
<p>Hey, question about querying literary agents: did you tell them your real age in the letter? I’m an aspiring novelist as well and that’s a question I’ve gotten tons of conflicting answers on. </p>
<p>Okay, that’s extremely helpful! I can’t enter if these contests want to strip away our rights (plus; what was up with the application fee? Seems strange).</p>
<p>I only mentioned my age in the first query letter I ever sent, which I regret. The thing is, age isn’t really relevant (or so I’ve been told), so it’s best to let the merit of your writing talk for itself. Obviously, if a literary agent offers representation, you’ll have to reveal your age and get your parents to sign some stuff. I think it’s best to leave your age out of it since you never see any adult writers mentioning their ages. The only situation where this might be false is if you’re writing based on real experiences (which I kind of am, even though it’s a fiction novel series), and it could be a great way to market it as a “real teenager’s memoir” or something of that nature.</p>
<p>Mine isn’t a memoir and has some deep roots in fiction, so I decided it was best not to mention it. Even the literary agents who have requested either a final or a partial, I’ve remained quiet to.</p>
<p>Do you mean the $35 (not sure what you mean by this)? It makes sense to me that it’d be so high, considering that finalists go to Miami for a week, all expenses paid–that would cost at least 10k. But it’s true that it’s not very fair for those who can’t afford it.</p>
<p>Okay, the reason why I asked was because on pretty much every single book I’ve seen by a teen writer, it mentions their age in the bio section (lots of people will pick it up just because “Hey, it’s a seventeen-year-old”), but I guess for publishers and literary agents that’s different. Just wondering, how old are you? 
Good luck, it’s so cool that you’ve gotten two agents request reads already!</p>
<p>Yes, the 35$. Most scholarship services will never ask you for money; I understand some of the logic behind it, but spending money to send in an excerpt of a novel I wrote doesn’t sit well with me. I was going to send them a copy of my free lunch notice so I’d be able to apply for free anyway, but I still don’t really like that they ask for money. I mean, it’s a scholarship service!</p>
<p>Yes, I think it’s a marketing ploy. Readers would be intrigued that a teen wrote this book and somehow managed to get it published… However, I don’t think agents and publishers care until they’re beginning to create that marketing technique and have already accepted your manuscript and are excited to publish.</p>
<p>I’m fifteen. Thanks so much! The query trenches are really tough, but I think if you send queries to enough people and have enough self esteem to not cry when you get 30 form letter rejections in a row (it happens to me), you’ll succeed. I wish you a bunch of good luck as well, wherever your writing endeavors take you!</p>
<p>I really want to enter for music, but I don’t want to exert so much time and effort into my recordings only to get rejected ):</p>
<p>Can we enter more than one category?</p>
<p>@MissSuzyQ yeah, I get that. Wow! How many queries did you send out before getting interest? And I’m fifteen too
@sunsh0wers yes! And it never hurts to try. If you don’t get any recognition from YoungArts, I’m pretty sure you can use the same recordings for other contests.</p>
<p>Hmm. I don’t have an exact number. I’ve probably sent over 60, and received around 30 rejections. I’m expecting many more, but the thing is, there’s going to be one agent (at least) that likes your novel if it is well written and evokes emotion. You just have to have A LOT of patience and not take rejections so seriously. </p>
<p>The two literary agents who are reading my MS right now might ultimately reject me as well, and while that saddens me, I enjoy writing so much that I’m not too worried about it. After I received my first request, I read the email over and over again, unsure if I was misunderstanding what the literary agent wrote. It was surreal. I haven’t heard back from her since May 20; the other I haven’t been emailed again since June 2. I’m crossing all my fingers.</p>
<p>Have you sent any queries out yet?</p>
<p>I applied for creative writing too! :)</p>
<p>And @MissSuzyQ and @IsometricKiwi, YoungArts has the same procedure for a fee waiver as SAT/ACT and college applications do. I don’t see the strangeness - you’d likely pay an application fee to apply to colleges, why wouldn’t you pay one to enter a competition? </p>
<p>Also, I just saw that Nicki Minaj was a former winner. Not personally a big fan, but pretty interesting :)</p>
<p>I view scholarship services as way different than the SAT/ACT and college applications. Why would you pay for the chance to earn a scholarship? Most scholarship applications don’t require you to do so. But maybe I’m just poor. I’m actually interested to see how many high schoolers on CC are rich compared to how many are poor…</p>
<p>@irlandaise I wasn’t saying it was necessarily strange, just more expensive than other similar competitions I know about. Scholastic was $5 per entry. However, there are not as many submissions to YoungArts, and the prize for finalists is much more expensive than Scholastic’s.</p>
<p>@MissSuzyQ Back in seventh and eighth grade I did! I got some interest–I didn’t query agents, I queried publishing companies at the time because the kid I was collaborating with didn’t want an agent (yeah, I know, I know, but hey I was twelve). However, one or two were scams, and the other one ultimately decided the manuscript wasn’t for them after requesting a full review. I haven’t done anything since then in terms of publishing.
To be honest, I’m glad it didn’t work out, because it was pretty mediocre writing and it would be embarrassing after a couple years.</p>
<p>That’s really, really encouraging though. How long did it take for the agents to reply to you? I’ve gotten the Writers’ Market catalogs and it says about six weeks or a couple months. Is it really that long? Good luck </p>