Vlog: Are Online Pitch Contests Worth It?

Another great question from another great viewer: are online pitch contests worth entering? Today I share my experience and thoughts.

RELATED LINKS:

• How to Write an Elevator Pitch (vlog)
• How to Pitch Your Book (vlog)
• How I Got My Agent

Twitter-sized bite:

Are online pitch contests worth it? Author @Ava_Jae shares their thoughts and experience. #vlog (Click to tweet)

Pitch Tip: Make Your Stakes Personal

Photo credit: Stephen Burch on Flickr

So I’ve been working on Twitter pitch critiques all week, and I’m not sure how many I’ve read, exactly, but it’s been a lot. And while I’ve spoken quite a bit about the essentials of a good pitch and making stakes clear before, there’s one related aspect that I sort of glossed over. I’m fixing that now, because to be honest? It’s pretty essential.

I’m talking about making your stakes personal. To your protagonist, that is.

Many times, I’ve seen pitches with stakes that are mentioned, but it’s unclear why it matters. For example, take this (completely made up) pitch:

When a serial killer abducts Michael, it’s up to Johnny to save him before Michael becomes Victim 13. 

I frequently see pitches about the protagonist needing to save someone from certain doom, but like the fake pitch, it’s not always clear why it matters to the protagonist. In this case, what is Michael’s relationship to Johnny? Is he Johnny’s brother? Best friend? Boyfriend? Husband? Is he just another random person, but it’s up to Johnny because Johnny is the detective tracking down the serial killer? There are loads of possibilities here, but without the specifics, pitches like these fall flat regardless of how big the stakes may seem on the surface.

Repeat after me: we must know why the conflict matters to your protagonist. 

Another pitch type I see revolves around characters having to save the world. On paper, this sounds like it’d be a really solid set-up for high stakes, but the truth is, personal stakes have a much greater impact than macro-stakes. Saving the world is great, but saving a loved one, or a child, or sibling, is so much more powerful.

The thing to remember is if we don’t know why the conflict matters to your protagonist, then the stakes (that is, what your protagonist has to lose) fall flat. So next time you’re working on a pitch, I encourage you to take a good, hard look at your set-up and make sure it’s absolutely clear why the conflict is so important to your protagonist.

After all, if your MC doesn’t care, why should your readers?

What do you think—are personal stakes important in a pitch? 

Twitter-sized bites: 

Working on a query or pitch for your WIP? Writer @Ava_Jae says to make sure it's clear your stakes matter to your MC. (Click to tweet) 

"We must know why the conflict matters to your protagonist." —@Ava_Jae on pitching your novel. (Click to tweet)

Surprise #PitMad Pitch Critiques!

Photo credit: Jorge Quinteros on Flickr

So this year’s #PitMad event is a week from today (so on 3/11/15), and I’m on Spring Break which means extra time which means I’m doing one of my favorite critique events right here on Writability. 

For the first time in about a year, I’ll critique your Twitter pitch right here in the comments from today, March 2nd to Thursday, March 5 at midnight. (Or rather, I’ll critique late night Thursday ones on Friday, but they will be critiqued if they're posted before midnight).

Some rules!

1. You must read this post on how to write a great Twitter pitch, FIRST. Granted, there’s no way for me to check, but I’m going on honor system here. The reason this is pseudo-mandatory is because I promise it’ll help you with Twitter pitch basics. And my past experience says I tend to refer people back to that post a lot.
   
   Bonus: read this post on the top 5 Twitter pitch mistakes I saw during #PitchMAS. 


2. Pay it forward by critiquing at least THREE other pitches. Two reasons for this: first, it’s just plain nice and second, it’ll help you figure out what works and doesn’t work in a pitch (which you can then apply to your own pitch! yay!). Also, you'll be more likely to get critiques from people other than myself, as well as my critique. Which is good for everyone. :) 


3. You may post as many pitches are you want, HOWEVER, I can only promise to get to one per person. I will do my darnedest to try to get to them all, but these events have gotten pretty hugenormous in the past, so I can’t guarantee I’ll get to every single pitch if you post more than one.
   
   Related: if you post more than one, please post them in separate comments (unless they’re super similar, i.e.: which version do you think is better?). This makes it easier for me to critique and get through the pitches in a more organized fashion. 

Helpful tips:

• For examples of winning pitches (i.e.: pitches that got requests), check out this awesome round-up from a past #PitMad event from Carissa Taylor.


• For tips on the event itself, look at this post (and also don’t do this. No really. Don’t).


• You can check your character count without accidentally tweeting here.


• UPDATE: Alyssa in the comment recommended this really awesome post from my agent sister Diana Urban about what #PitMad is with great tips, and it includes a downloadable spreadsheet where you can schedule your posts and it automatically counts your characters. It's pretty fabulous. Check it out! 


• Don’t forget to save room for your genre, category and the hashtag! A quick rundown:
  
  PB = Picture book
  MG = Middle Grade
  YA = Young Adult
  NA = New Adult
  A[genre]/Adult = Adult
  
  SF = Science Fiction
  F = Fantasy
  UF = Urban Fantasy
  PNR = Paranormal Romance
  CR = Contemporary Romance
  WF = Women’s Fiction
  HisFic = Historical Fiction
  SpecFic = Speculative Fiction
  
  Others I've frequently seen written out/abbreviated to the best of the writer's ability.

And that's it! Let’s see those pitches! :) 

UPDATE 3/6/15: While I will not be critiquing pitches posted after midnight on 3/5/15, feel free to keep posting pitches and critiquing each other! The forum has been super lively and awesome, so I've decided to keep it open. Happing critting! :)

Twitter-sized bites: 

Are you entering #PitMad? Get your pitch critiqued before next week's event! (Click to tweet)  

Thinking about entering #PitMad? Get a free pitch critique from author/assistant editor @Ava_Jae here. (Click to tweet)

How to Prepare for a Pitch Contest

Photo credit: slightly everything on Flickr

So it’s the beginning of a new year, which means the beginning of a new season of pitch contests! This is a time I used to always look forward to in my unagented days, largely because I was slightly addicted to pitch contests. I can’t tell you how many I entered, because I’ve honestly lost count, but for me at least, it paid off.

Pitch contests, unsurprisingly, work most in your favor when you don’t jump into them blindly. So after you’ve decided you do want to enter that pitch contest, here are a few steps to take:

1. Look carefully at the contest guidelines. This is really important because every contest is different. Some pitch contests are Twitter fests, which have rules about how many times you should post, and what’s required in your Twitter pitch, and whether or not you’re eligible (some are more narrow than others about what genres/categories are acceptable). Some pitch contests run on blogs and require pseudo-queries, or the first 250 words of your manuscript, or a few answered questions, or a sentence-long pitch, or a combination thereof. Every contest has their own rules about when to submit, how to submit, and how to participate before, during and after the event. Read the guidelines and make sure you follow the rules—the last thing you want is to be automatically disqualified because you didn’t take the time to read the guidelines. 


2. Prepare your pitches and/or sample. Oftentimes (but not always) for a pitch contest, you’ll need a query-length pitch, the polished first 250 words of your MS, and a logline/Twitter pitch. Even if you don’t need all of those components, I highly recommend you get them together anyway, because you’ll inevitably need them.
   
   I’ve already written a few posts on how to write a great Twitter pitch (which can be used for any pitch, minus the character limit) as well as the importance of details in queries and pitches, and some common Twitter pitch mistakes, so I recommend you check those out for help with the actual pitch-writing part.


3. Get your pitches critiqued (a lot). To me, the most important part of writing your pitches and sample is getting them critiqued.
   
   There are usually loads of places to get pitches critiqued before a pitch contest, sometimes hosted on the contest blog, sometimes set up by fellow writers and announced on the hashtag on Twitter (so make sure you check it!). But the important thing is that you show your pitch to people who haven’t read your book and see what they think. Do they understand what your book is about? Are they intrigued? If the answer isn’t a clear yes to both, you know you’ve got some work to do. 

And that’s really all there is to it. Once you’ve polished your pitches to perfection, the only thing left to do is wait for those submission dates to arrive, cross your fingers and hope for the best. Good luck!

Upcoming pitch contest submission dates:

• Sun vs. Snow: 1/26/15
• #AdPit: 2/12/15
• Miss Snark’s First Victim’s Secret Agent Contest (run monthly) 
• Operation Awesome’s Mystery Agent Contest (run monthly)
• Pitch Madness: 2/20/15
• #PitMad: 3/11/15
• New Leaf Twitter Pitch Contest: 5/23/15

Have you ever entered a pitch contest? Do you have any tips for preparing?

Twitter-sized bite: 

Want to enter an upcoming pitch contest? Here are a few steps to take in preparation. (Click to tweet)

Top 5 Twitter Pitch Mistakes

Photo credit: Jexweber.fotos on Flickr

So as some of you who follow me on Twitter know, I participated in this season’s #pitmad and #PitchMAS Twitter pitch events—except I wasn’t pitching this time.

No, for the first time ever, I got to participate as someone making requests (in this case for my editorboss). And you know? It was really fun and interesting to see the other side of these pitch events. I’d frequently participated as a pitcher, but handing out shiny gold favorites was fun.

That said, out of the hundreds of pitches I read, I requested maybe 1%. (I did the math with an estimate.) Many times it had less to do with the pitch and more to do with the fact that it wasn’t what I was specifically looking for, but I did notice several common mistakes that I think are important to take note of.

So without further ado, here are the top five twitter pitch mistakes I observed:

1. Stakes and/or conflict are unclear. This is huge. HUGE. If the stakes and conflict aren’t crystal clear in your pitch, then it’s very difficult to know enough about the book to make a request. Why? Because stories are rooted in conflict (and the conflict isn’t clear if we don’t know what’s at stake). Without conflict, there isn’t a story, and so pitches without stakes or conflict don’t show why the events in the story are important. 


2. Vagueness. I’ve written a post already on why details are so important in queries and pitches, so I won’t rehash the whole thing here. The short version is this: if your pitch has a phrase that could apply to anyone else’s pitch (i.e.: “dark secret,” “overcome great odds,” etc.), then chances are likely you could do better. In a pitch or query setting where the important thing is to stand out from the hundreds of other queries and pitches, you’re not going to do it with a vague phrase that a hundred other people have used. Instead, your goal should be to make your pitch so specific that it wouldn’t fit for anyone else’s manuscript. 


3. Quotes. I understand the temptation to use a quote, I do. But the problem is, quotes never ever address point one—the stakes and conflict. Not only that, they don’t tell us what the book is about, which is the point of the pitch to begin with. Quotes are fun, and I get that, but save them for another setting. Chances are likely they aren’t going to help you in a pitch fest. 


4. Summarization (instead of pitch). Pitches, unlike a synopsis, should not tell us the ending. A pitch should intrigue and make me want to read the book—but I don’t want to know how it ends before I’ve even taken a look at it. Save the full plot summary for the synopsis. 


5. Not using all 140 characters wisely. By this, I mostly mean I saw a lot of people twisting their pitch around to try to make their title fit. And quite frankly? It’s unnecessary—you’d be much better off using those characters to get extra information in about your manuscript. Cool titles are fun, but most of the time, they’re not going to get you requests—an interesting premise with clear stakes and conflict, will. 


6. Bonus: didn’t specify genre or category. I can’t speak for everyone browsing through the Twitter pitch feeds, but if a pitch didn’t have the category or genre specified, I skipped it. Why? The truth is, there are just way too many pitches to go through to spend time reading one that might not be a category or genre that I’m looking for. The genre/category tags are important for a reason. 


7. Extra bonus: For more on the essential aspects of a Twitter pitch, check out this post.

So those are my top five Twitter pitch mistakes. What recommendations do you have for Twitter pitchers? 

Twitter-sized bites:

Assistant Editor @Ava_Jae shares the top 5 pitch mistakes she observed during #pitmad & #pitchMAS. (Click to tweet) 

Thinking about participating in a Twitter pitch event? Here are 5 common pitch mistakes to avoid. (Click to tweet)

Should You Enter That Pitch Contest?

Photo credit: amortize on Flickr

So I’ve already written about why you should consider entering pitch contests, but I’d like to talk about the other side of the coin—that is, reasons you might not want to enter, or may want to pause before entering a contest.

Because the truth is, yes, contests are exciting and yes, they are absolutely wonderful opportunities that have lead to many writers landing agents or publishing contracts. But there are a couple questions you’ll want to ask yourself before entering a pitch contest:

1. Is my manuscript polished? No really, be honest with yourself. These contests are for writers who are ready to query, or already are querying. If you’re not ready, then you won’t be doing yourself any favors by submitting early. Remember, you only get one first impression—don’t you want yours to be the very best it can be?
   
   Side note: if you see a contest coming up and you’re tempted to rush through your edits so that it’s ready on time—don’t. Take all the time you need to make your manuscript as good as you can possibly make it. There will always be another contest, but as I said above, you only get one first impression. 


2. What can I get from this contest? Different writing/pitch contests have different prizes and goals. Some put your pitch in front of agents and/or editors, some provide winners with critiques and some do both. Make sure you understand what the aim of the contest is, and be sure you actually want the prize. If, for example, the winners have their pitches posted in front of agents or editors you aren’t interested in working with, then don’t waste the judges (and the publishing professionals) time by entering.  

If you’ve answered these questions favorably, then great! Get your pitch and whatever other entry requirements ready, follow the submission guidelines and good luck! But if not, then you may want to think long and hard before hitting that “submit” button.

For fun, here are some pitch contests that (I think) happen every year, with estimated dates:

• Sun vs. Snow (coming soon—Winter 2014)
• Pitchmas/ Pitchmas in July (Winter/Summer 2014)
• Luck O' The Irish Pitch Fest (Spring 2014)  
• The Writer’s Voice (Spring 2014)
• Like a Virgin Pitch Contest (Spring 2014)
• Pitch Madness/ #Pitmad (Spring/Fall 2014)
• Query Kombat (Summer 2014)  
• Trick or Treat with Agents (Fall 2014)
• Baker’s Dozen (Winter 2014) 
• Pitch Wars (Winter 2014) 
• Secret Agent Contest (recurring) 
• Mystery Agent Contest (recurring) 
• An Agent’s Inbox (recurring) 
• Pitch+250 Contest (recurring)

NOTE: This is not a comprehensive list of contests, nor is their listing a guarantee that they'll be running again this year. This list is speculation based off previous years. Also, if you know of some contests I'm missing, feel free to let me know!

Have you entered any pitch contests? What was your experience like? 

Twitter-sized bites: 

Thinking you might enter that pitch contest? Make sure you ask yourselves these questions first. (Click to tweet) 

"You only get one first impression—don't you want yours to be the very best it can be?" #pubtip (Click to tweet)

Post-#PitMad Thoughts

Photo credit: nvk_ on Flickr

A fun post today, after a long week of #PitMad prep and a day full of the twelve-hour event itself.

The point of pitch events like #PitMad is, of course, to try to get some requests from publishing professionals, but there are a lot of other benefits that people tend not to talk about quite as much:

• Meet other writers. Events like #PitMad brings writers out from all corners of the internet. Making new friends and connections is the whole point of social media, and these events are the perfect time to meet new people.


• See what agents and editors like. I saw someone suggest that check out favorites from publishing professionals to see what they’re requesting, which I think is a really smart strategy. If you’re looking to query, for the next few days at least, you should be able to scroll through their favorites to see what they’re looking for at the moment.


• See what others are writing/pitching. Nothing reveals the querying trends like scrolling through an hour of #PitMad. Writers who pitch during these events are the same writers who are querying while you’re querying, and it helps to be able to see what agents and editors are seeing a lot of.


• Learn what makes one pitch more effective than others. Just looking at the pitches and determining which ones grab your attention and which ones make your eyes glaze over can be a big help when writing or rewriting your pitch later on.

Some things to remember:

• There will always be trolls. Whenever there are public events, there are going to be people who use the opportunity to spam, or put others down, or make fun of those participating. It happens, and the best response is to brush them off. Don’t let a few negative people get you down.


• Just because your pitch isn’t favorited doesn’t mean you shouldn’t query. Or as Agent extraordinaire Jessica Sinsheimer said:

Please don't assume that I have seen your pitch, and decided no, if I didn't favorite. There are so many, and it's a busy day. #PitMad
— Jessica Sinsheimer (@jsinsheim) September 12, 2013 

Guess what? Sometimes even though you pitched twice an hour every hour, people don’t see your pitch. Or they see your pitch, and it doesn’t grab their attention, but when they see your extended pitch (also known as a query) and an excerpt, it does grab their interest. It happens, so don’t assume that just because you didn’t get a favorite doesn’t mean you can’t query any of the agents who participated in #PitMad. 

Case and point:

I don't mind things like #pitmad. They can be fun & force you to conceptualize your novel. But a full query + sample pages is always better.
— Sarah LaPolla (@sarahlapolla) September 12, 2013

So for those of you who participated or glanced at #PitMad (or have in the past), what did you learn from the event?

Twitter-sized bites: 

Did you participate in #PitMad this week? What did you learn? Join the discussion at @Ava_Jae's blog! (Click to tweet) 

One writer shares her post-#PitMad thoughts. What did you learn from the Twitter pitch party? (Click to tweet)

#PitMad Pitch Critiques!

Photo credit: stevegarfield on Flickr

It’s Twitter pitch time! Or at least, it will this Thursday from 8AM to 8PM Eastern. If you’ve never participated in a Twitter pitch party before, the rules and other details are all here.

In preparation for one of my favorite Twitter events of the season, I’m offering Twitter pitch critiques right here at Writability from right now (September 9) to Wednesday, September 11 at midnight EST. 

The rules are pretty simple. Post your twitter pitch (or pitches) in the comments and critique three other pitches. I ask that you guys critique each other’s pitches for two reasons: first, it’s common courtesy to pay it forward, and second, I truly believe that you can learn just as much from critiquing other people as you can from receiving a critique. 

I’m going to try to get to everyone’s pitches, although if you post more than one and the comments get crowded, I can only promise that I’ll get to one. But I’ll do my best to critique them all. *rolls up sleeves* 

For a reminder of the necessary elements in a Twitter pitch, check out this post. And for examples of winning pitches (that is, pitches that got requests) from March's #PitMad event, check out this lovely roundup from Carissa Taylor. 

Some tips for the event itself: 

1. Try not to post more than once an hour. I’d recommend you post twice an hour at most. I understand the temptation of posting several times, particularly when new agents or editors enter the fray, but I promise you that spamming the feed will not do you any favors. Publishing professionals know how to scroll, and by over-tweeting your pitch, all you’re doing is crowding the feed. 


2. Have more than one pitch ready. I usually like to set up three or four pitches to tweet throughout the day. The reason this is helpful is because sometimes one pitch may not work for one professional, but another does. It also helps fight against pitch fatigue, which can happen when people read the same pitch over and over again. 


3. Don’t do anything on this list. Read it. Memorize it. Avoid it at all costs. 

So that about covers it! To start this off, I’ve posted the three pitches I’m preparing for Thursdays event. Feel free to rip them apart. 

When 19 yo 1/2 human rebel soldier Eros is enslaved, he must serve the alien queen who ordered the slaughter of his tribe. NA SF #PitMad  

#PitMad A 1/2blood slave & alien queen are framed for her fiancé's attempted murder.THE GIRL OF FIRE & THORNS meets future alien world NA SF 

His home razed, Eros must choose: serve the alien queen who ordered his tribe's slaughter or be executed for his true identity NA SF #PitMad

What are you waiting for? Let’s see your pitches! And don’t forget the genre, category and hashtag!

Twitter-sized bites: 

Are you entering #PitMad? Get your pitch critiqued before Thursday's event! (Click to tweet)  

Thinking about entering this week's #PitMad? Get a free pitch critique from writer @Ava_Jae here. (Click to tweet)

CRITIQUE IS NOW CLOSED! THANKS TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED AND GOOD LUCK! :)  

How to Write a Great Twitter Pitch

Photo credit: Johan Larsson on Flickr

It’s that time again! We are just days away from yet another fantastic Twitter pitch contest, this one on May 28 from 8AM to 8PM EDT. You can find all the details, rules and extra tidbits here, as well as a post on why you should enter pitch contests here.

That out of the way, on to the real meat of the post: Twitter pitches.

Your goal behind putting together a Twitter pitch should be to sum up or give the essence your novel in a way that’s intriguing—all within 140 characters. Simple, right? (Right, let’s go with that).

By the end of your Twitter pitch, readers should know a few key things about your novel: 

• Who your MC is. 
• What’s at stake. 
• Essence of plot. 
• Genre. 
• Bonus: What makes your story unique. 
• Bonus: Conveying the voice. 

That seems like a lot to fit into 140 characters, and it is. But if done correctly, you may just catch the eye of a publishing professional. As an added bonus, a well-crafted Twitter pitch can be turned into a fantastic log line, which is useful in several stages of the publishing process.

Because it would be unfair for me to talk about Twitter pitches without giving examples, I’ll let you tear mine apart. Here’s a variation of what I’ll be using next week:

Cade is unaware a secret society has been watching since he killed his gf w/ a kiss—now an assassin isn't his biggest problem #PitMad YAPar 

It isn’t a perfect example by any means, but it hits the main points: you know who the MC is and what’s at stake, the essence of the plot comes across, and there’s the genre tag at the end. You also may have noticed that you need to fit the hashtag into the Twitter pitch. So you don’t really have 140 characters at your disposal, sorry.

For examples of some Twitter pitches that got requests in March’s Pitch Madness, check out this fantastic roundup from Carissa Taylor.

Finally, I’d like to do something a little different here at Writability in anticipation of the upcoming #PitMad contest—I’m hosting a pitch critique session right here in the comments from right now (May 24) until Monday, May 27th at midnight EDT. 

I’m going to do my very best to try to critique every pitch that’s posted, but I encourage you guys to lurk around and critique each others pitches as well—not only is it nice to interact with each other and make friends (we like making friends, yes?), but it’s actually fantastic practice. If someone other than myself critiques your pitch, it would be very nice for you to return the favor. As I’ve said before, you can learn just as much from critiquing each other as you can from getting a critique.

Also, if you’d like to critique mine while you’re at it, you’re more than welcome to. It’s not a requirement, but I do enjoy trading critiques, and it might be fun for you guys to have the opportunity to tear my stuff apart. Maybe. If you like that kind of stuff.

Note: If you do critique each other, please be courteous. I may have a thick skin, but not everyone does. Treat others the way you’d like to be treated and all that. Ok.

Anyway, so let’s get to it, shall we? Post your Twitter pitches in the comments below and let’s have some fun!

UPDATE 3/25/14: I am temporarily taking more pitches for a last-minute critique! I'll post here and on Twitter when the critiques are closed again. Good luck! :) 

UPDATE 3/25/14: Pitmad is over and critiquing is now closed. Thanks to all who participated!

Twitter-sized bites: 

Entering #pitmad? Get some tips and a critique on your pitch at @Ava_Jae’s blog! (Click to tweet)

Having trouble with your Twitter pitch? Here are some tips. (Click to tweet)

The Writer’s Voice Entry: FIELD OF BONES

Query: 

Dear Wonderful Judges,

Seventeen-year-old Cade Shor just murdered his girlfriend—with a kiss.

He didn't mean to kill Hailey—he's not even sure how it happened. But with new instincts driving him to kill again, he doesn’t have much time to figure out how to stop the bloodshed and the assassin now hell-bent on taking his head.

Cade starts looking for help with his best friend Ana, but neither of them expects punk-ass Malachi to be the answer to their questions. He explains that Cade’s a Reaper—an immortal tasked with releasing the souls of the dying from their bodies. As a Ward, Malachi is tasked with guiding and protecting Reapers—but he hasn’t told them everything.

What Cade doesn’t know is that he’s a direct descendant of the most powerful Reaper on record, and his killings have caught the attention of a formidable group. To them, he’s a loose cannon and a risk to their establishment.

If Cade doesn't learn how to control his body's new addiction to the life force of the living—and fast—an assassin will be the least of his problems.

FIELD OF BONES is a completed 86,000-word paranormal YA novel written in Cade and Ana's alternating POVs, and is a standalone novel with series potential. Thank you for your time.

First 250: 

I don't usually think much when making out with my girlfriend, but right now I think I might be dying.

A part of me has shifted—broken off and crashed over my lungs and heart, leaving shrapnel in the muscles lining my ribcage. Fire drips down my chest and spreads smoothly across my body like God exhaling into me. My skin prickles with electricity and my mind overflows with neon color and laughter. I've never been into drugs, but when you feel like you might explode from the raw power flooding your veins, high barely covers it.

I'm not high—I'm on the moon. I'm on freaking Jupiter.

It’s incredible—too incredible—my heart is seconds away from giving out, my brain on the verge of shutting down, and this kiss. This frickin’ amazing kiss.

I think it’s killing me.

“911, what's your emergency?”

The colors fade from my mind and it's like I'm waking from a dream I could spend eternity in, but the real world doesn't feel right—it's cold, dark, empty. I'm in a car but I can't remember whose it is. Bright street lights from the parking lot loom over me like a spotlight.

Then I see her.

Slumped over in my arms, barely breathing, pale and cool to the touch. As I sit her up, her head lolls on her shoulders, limp, delicate. The crisp smell of autumn wafts through the open window, lingering in my lungs, spicy and fresh; the scent of bright decaying leaves and earth, fused with the haze of stale cigarettes.

How (Not) to Win a Twitter Pitch Fest

Photo credit: Johan Larsson on Flickr

Some of you lovely writers may have heard that there's going to be another Twitter pitch fest on Friday (3/29/13) under the hashtag #PitMad. Basically, if you're querying, or ready to start querying, you should most definitely participate (and here's why).

Naturally many of you are probably antsy about Friday’s Twitter fest, and so I thought it only appropriate to share ten easy steps to making every agent and editor who trolls the #PitMad feed instantly want to request your full manuscript. So without further ado:

How to Make Everyone Want Your Full Manuscript*

1. Ignore the rules. Rules are for people who aren't creative enough to break out of the box. How will can you ever expect to stand out if you follow the rules? No, you need to make your own rules. For example...


2. Send the agents your pitch directly by @ mentioning them even when they don't ask for it. This includes agents on Twitter who aren't even participating. Twitter pitch fests are all about being noticed, and what better way to get your pitch noticed then by sending it directly to your dream agent? After all, every agent LOVES Twitter queries—it’s a fact. 


3. Spam the hashtag. When there are a lot of participants in an event like a Twitter pitch fest, you sometimes have to use a little elbow to really be seen. Posting your pitch any less than a dozen times an hour will doom you to being drowned out by the other participants, and we can't have that. 


4. Bash the other writers. Save the agents the pain of looking at anyone else's work—all they need to see is your masterpiece. In fact, they should probably just stop reading altogether because nothing else will ever stand up to your work. 


5. Retweet your pitch repeatedly. Writing your pitch twelve times an hour really isn't enough—retweet those pitches until you can retweet no more!


6. Spread your pitch over ten tweets. Remember what I said about breaking the rules? While all those other silly writers are trying to fit their pitch into 140 characters, you can take advantage of all the characters you need to express the true awesomeness of your book. Take that, boring rule-followers! 


7. Write your pitch in all caps. YOU WANT PEOPLE TO READ IT, DON'T YOU? 


8. Pitch a book you haven't finished writing. Hell, pitch a book you haven't started writing. That way, when everyone is throwing publishing contracts at you, you'll be way ahead of the game. 


9. Use a quote from your book instead of a pitch. You know what? Pitches are overrated. Quotes, on the other hand...


10. Forget the pitch—just tell everyone how awesome your book is. That's all they really need to know, anyway. 

*Did I say "everyone"? I meant "no one." This is a sarcastic post, please don't do these things. It will not bring you success and joy, I promise.

Are you participating on Friday? If so, good luck! What so-called tips would you add to the list?

Pitch Tip: Remember Your Stakes

Photo credit: anna_t on Flickr

When discussing pitches, queries or back-cover copies, writers often see the word “stakes” thrown around. Oftentimes it’s a comment about the stakes not being high enough or clear enough, and truth be told, it’s easier than you’d think to fail to mention the stakes in a pitch.

Before I go into why that is, let’s take a quick look at dictionary.com's definition of stakes:

A little hard to read, unfortunately. It says: "at stake, in danger of being lost, as something that has been wagered; critically involved." 

My favorite part of this definition is “in danger of being lost” because it basically sums up the most important part of the definition.

When people say that we need to know the stakes in a pitch, they’re really saying we need to know what your protagonist has to lose. We need to know what will happen if your protagonist fails to reach his or her goal.

Why is this so important? The answer is simple: without established stakes, the readers have no reason to care if your protagonist fails or accomplishes his goal. The tension disappears, the conflict doesn’t matter because if your protagonist loses, oh well. Not like anything bad happens.

In other words: boring. Take any story and remove the stakes and the plot will fall apart. For example:

Without the fate of Middle Earth in Frodo’s hands, The Lord of the Rings would just be a really long trilogy about people trying to vacation in Mordor.

Without Prim’s life on the line, there’s no reason for Katniss to volunteer to take her place as tribute, because she’d be back in a couple weeks anyway. No biggie.

I suspect a large part of the reason writers sometimes forget to mention the stakes in their pitch is because they’re so close to their work. The writer knows what will happen if their protagonist fails and sometimes it seems obvious to them even in their stake-less pitch what that failure means--but to the outside reader who doesn’t know the story so well (or at all, for that matter), they need the stakes spelled out to them.

So next time you’re writing up or revising a query pitch (or any pitch, for that matter), take a good look at what you have and make sure you can identify the stakes from the words in front of you. It’s importance cannot be overstressed.

Can you identify the stakes from your latest pitch or back cover copy? 

Why Enter Pitch Contests?

Photo credit: William Hook on Flickr

So on Monday we discussed why you don’t have to worry about other writers stealing your ideas when publicly sharing the pitch for your novel, and now I’d like to talk about the cheerier side of the coin: why enter pitch contests at all?

The idea behind the pitch contest is simple: it’s an opportunity for writers to pitch their novel to agents and editors online.

Now some of you may be wondering how this is any different from traditional querying. After all, querying is similar in that you’re pitching your story to an agent or editor in the hopes that they will be interested enough to see more.

Pitch contests, however, are entirely different for many reasons:

• Different mindset. Agents and editors who participate in pitch contests go in with a different mindset than they do when facing the query slush pile. These are publishing professionals who are volunteering to check out the pitches and are actively looking for something to catch their eye. It’s faster (reading just a pitch is much quicker than a full query letter), the response is instant and it’s even a little exciting. The atmosphere is different than the traditional slush pile, and that alone can make all the difference.


• One pitch, multiple viewers. The thing with query letters is that you can’t send the same exact query letter to fifty agents or editors at once (well, you can, but you probably won’t be very successful). While querying, you have to choose specific agents and editors to personalize your query to. You’re seeking them out and hoping that they’ll be interested.
  
  Not so with pitch contests. In a pitch contest, your single pitch may be viewed by dozens of agents and editors—including those you may not have thought to query. It’s one of the few opportunities writers have to throw their pitch out into the wild and see if they get any bites from any agent or editor trolling the pitch feed, and that alone is a huge advantage.


• Support network. When pitch contests go live, there are often hundreds of writers who participate. You’re all in this together, and the nice thing is you can help each other out—whether it’s offering support, advice to tighten the pitch, or general feedback. As a bonus, when it’s on twitter, writers are able to retweet pitches they like to help them get attention. It’s also a great way to get to know other writers and make friendships along the way.


• It works. I think this round-up tweet from @Shelley_Watters says it all:

— Shelley Watters (@Shelley_Watters) January 27, 2013 

Out of 93 writers who received requests, they collected 193 requests. That’s an average of two per writer, which is pretty darn good if you ask me.

In short, if you haven’t given pitch contests a try, I can’t recommend it more. There are two coming up in March, one hosted by WriteOnCon (which includes pitch critiques before the contest, which is basically gold even if you don’t enter the contest) and another hosted by Brenda Drake and company. If you have a manuscript ready for querying (or will in March), definitely mark the dates on your calendar!

Have you ever participated in a pitch contest or something of the like? What was your experience like?