I have to give a shout out to MSFV. Authoress’ goal is to create the “premium slush pile” and aspiring authors show up to post, give feedback, and offer advice and encouragement to each other.
I entered 250 words of Butterfly Swords in one of the Secret Agent contests and learned a lot about how to hook from page 1 by reading the comments on my entries as well as other entries. The wonderful thing is that 50 entries get a GUARANTEED agent critique. Personalized feedback is priceless.
So Authoress is at it again, this time with a query contest. You can enter your query letter and first page, but you only have until tomorrow morning at 9am EST! The entries will be critiqued by Jodi Meadows of the Rappaport agency. Check out the link for details.
http://misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com/2009/07/our-very-first-query-contest.html