Friday, January 22, 2016

Son of a Pitch

Ah, the dreaded pitch. It's the bane of the as yet unpublished writer's existence. How to boil your masterpiece down into its essence and feed it to a potential buyer (agent, publisher, etc.). Looking for advice and chance to have your words heard?

I'm proud to say Katie Hamstead Teller has asked me to be a part of her pitch contest. I'll be participating in round 2, giving feedback and posting queries here on my blog.

Here is all the information you need to prepare for SON OF A PITCH!



Here are the basics:
Formatting:
Title: (Name of Manuscript)
Age and Genre: (YA/NA/Adult then Genre)
Word Count: (to the nearest thousand)
Query:
Insert query here. No bio please.
First 250 Words:
I don't care if this is from a prologue or chapter one. That's up to you.

Week 1 starts Feb 15, 2016:
A chance to refine your query and first 250 words. Post this on your blog then post a link in the comments of a post I will put up on my blog the week of Feb 15. Please leave feedback on a minimum of three other queries and first 250.

Week 2 starts Feb 22, 2016:
This week, published authors will give you feedback. The Son of a Pitch team, who are all published, will post your emailed in queries and 250 words on their blogs. Please use the formatting above and email to:

sonofapitchcomp@yahoo.com.au

Incorrectly formatted emails will be kicked off the island. The team will vote for their favorites to go onto the final round. They will cast five votes each, anywhere they want, and the top 20 will go onto the next round. Feel free to coax judges your direction however you want! But please, only you and the judges can comment on your entry, or the comments can get confusing for tallying votes at the end. Votes will close on Thursday 11:59 p.m. MST. To stalk the hosts/voting authors, click Here.

The first fifty entries will go into this round. So get your clickers ready to email at precisely 10 a.m. MST on Friday Feb 19th.

But don't be discouraged! You will get good feedback to help you even if you don't make the top twenty. So please go and query elsewhere afterward, and let us know your success story so it can be shared on the blog.

Week 3 starts Feb 29, 2016:
We have a fantastic line up of editors, publishers, and agents. They'll swing by the final contestants to try to bribe you into subbing to them. The final Twenty will post on Katie's blog, where agents/editors will come and make requests for you. If you make the top twenty, you will be emailed on Friday 26th, and all updated entries sent to the email address by Saturday 27th 11:59 p.m. MST. If you don't make the deadline, the next highest voted entry will be emailed, and will have 24 hrs to get the entry into the inbox.

Feel free to email any requests made whenever you feel like it, but note that the agents/editors are allowed to give feedback on your entry. Also, make sure to include that your query to them is from the comp by putting Son of a Pitch Request in the title.

Twitter Pitch: Mar 7, 2016:

And finally, we'll have a free-for-all twitter pitching opp under the hashtag #sonofapitch

Rules: Makes sure to include #sonofapitch and your genre/age category with the tweet. You can tweet any number of manuscripts, but only once every hour each.

It will be open all day.

Here's the list of Publishers participating in SON OF A PITCH:
Follow the links to learn more about each.


Here is a list of Agents participating in SON OF A PITCH:



For the second round, published authors will be swinging around to critique queries and first 250 words posted on three blogs, as well as casting votes on who will make the final round.
Follow these links to read about those authors!

&

This is a great opportunity. I hope you'll take it, and if you're not ready please pass the information on to other writers.

Tweet One of These

@KatieTeller1 Son of a Pitch is the opportunity to get your manuscript noticed by agents and publishers. http://kjhstories.blogspot.com/2016/01/son-of-pitch-entry-information.html

@KatieTeller1 Have your query read and critiqued by other writers and win a chance at publication. http://kjhstories.blogspot.com/2016/01/son-of-pitch-entry-information.html

@KatieTeller1 Feedback on your query and a chance for publication, get the details here. http://kjhstories.blogspot.com/2016/01/son-of-pitch-entry-information.html
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2 comments:

  1. Yolanda RenéeJanuary 22, 2016 at 4:48 PM

    Great job! I hope everyone spreads the word! Love to make this a success for Katie and the participants!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jennifer Ruth JacksonJanuary 26, 2016 at 9:46 PM

    Sounds really cool!
    I hope you get a lot of people involved.

    ReplyDelete

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