Critiques and Tuckerizations, and your chance to win a Critique!

Happy Friday! We’ve hit a grand total of $218,430 (as of the time of this writing) for Heifer International, so it’s a happy Friday indeed!

We’ll keep it brief, because we know you guys all have a weekend to get to. Our Critiques and Tuckerizations auctions are live and doing well, and our first batch of auctions for Badali Jewelry, Subterranean Press, Valyrian Steel, and a lovely assortment of signed books donated directly by their authors will all be ending Sunday evening. Don’t miss out!

Some of the authors offering critiques and Tuckerizations this year!

If you want to check out all the Critiques and Tuckerizations, Pat has a great list of them over on his blog. There are a few we want to highlight, though, ones that you can win even if bidding on auctions isn’t your thing…

Over on the WriMos for Worldbuilders team page, we have four critiques available to anyone who donates through that page! As with the normal lottery, every $10 donated gets you one entry – and even better, your donation is still eligible for the standard lottery, meaning you not only get the chance to win a once-in-a-lifetime critique, you could also win books, games, jewelry, collectibles, and more!

The first critique (already unlocked!) will be from Jaime Lee Moyer, speculative fiction writer, poet and editor. Jaime will read up to the first 75 pages of the winner’s manuscript, and will give a ton of feedback and overall impression.

If the WriMos page reaches $5,000, editor David Pomerico will give a critique of the first 50ish pages of a manuscript, and give detailed critique and commentary. Feedback from an editor is an incredibly valuable thing, and it could be yours!

At $10,000, Bradley P. Beaulieu will throw his critiquing hat into the ring. Brad has been supporting Worldbuilders for years now, and this year he’s offering up a formal review of up to 12,500 words in a manuscript OR short story.

The final critique will be unlocked when we hit $15,000: a critique by Sherwood Smith! Sherwood will read a FULL manuscript (up to 150,000 words), and offer a ton of feedback. Seriously, a critique like this by an author of her caliber is pretty mind-blowing, and we’re so happy she’s letting us put it in this special writer’s lottery.

So there it is, folks! If you’re frantically working away at NaNoWriMo, or if you have a novel gathering dust in your trunk – donate through the WriMos page! If you have a writer friend who would drool over this chance, try to win one of the critiques and gift it to them (can you say BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER?!).

All week, we’ve been watching the totals add up while we answer questions and accept even more cool things from supporters and donors. Maria has been getting emails from folks who just heard about the fundraiser and want to send us pallets of games and books. We accept donations all year, and that includes during the active fundraiser. So if you think your company is a good fit for Worldbuilders, or if you’re an author who just saw our fundraiser in your Facebook feed, feel free to contact Maria at donations@worldbuilders.org and ask if maybe we could use some more stuff of our lottery. Even if we can’t use your donation this year (and we’ll certainly try), next year’s fundraiser will be upon us in no time!

We’re approaching more unlocked stretch goals, so stay tuned and ready your Share buttons!