WeBook, a website which also provides a literary agent query service (that seems to be working pretty well so far–Colleen Lindsay seems a big proponent of it), is now running a first page contest based on reader voting.
Called PageToFame, it focuses on the quality of your novel’s first page, plus a synopsis. Readers vote and rate that first page, and if you received enough positive ratings, you move to the second round, where you can submit your first chapter to be rated. Get enough positive ratings there, and you can submit the first 50 pages, all the way up to the entire manuscript.
Also, at each advancing step, your work is reviewed by a literary agent (though they don’t specify exactly which agents, so far as I can see). There is a $4.95 introductory fee per submission, but if your work is rated well enough, that might be all you’d have to pay to see your work get all the way to the top. Of course, if it stalls in one of the stages and you want to submit another piece, then that’ll be another fee. Still, if you have faith that your story will be highly approved by readers, then perhaps this might be an interesting alternative to the usual query method.
I will probably submit at least one or two pieces here and see how it goes. Let me know if you do the same and what your results are.