It's here! Well, not quite yet. The submission windows for the semi-annual Pitch Madness go live on Saturday, September 1 at 12PM EDT (NY time) and 6PM EDT (NY time) and another window has bee added for Tuesday, September 4 @ 10AM EDT (NY time). The game theme this time is Paintball (Great suggestion SM Johnston of YATopia!). What's Pitch Madness, you ask? Well, its a game where we bring together a bushel of agents to compete for your pitches. There's three other blogs joining me in this funtastic event. So I guess I'll start by introducing them first.
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| Shelley Watters |
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| Erica M. Chapman |
Here's the crazy awesome agents participating...
Dawn Frederick - Red Sofa Literary
Brittany Howard - Corvisiero Agency
John Cusick - Scott Treimel NY
Victoria Marini - Gelfman Schneider Lit.
Judith Engracia - Liza Dawson & Assoc.
Louise Fury - L. Perkins Agency
Sarah LaPolla - Curtis Brown Ltd.
Brooks Sherman - FinePrint Literary Management
Molly Ker Hawn - The Bent Agency
Brittany Howard - Corvisiero Agency
John Cusick - Scott Treimel NY
Victoria Marini - Gelfman Schneider Lit.
Judith Engracia - Liza Dawson & Assoc.
Louise Fury - L. Perkins Agency
Sarah LaPolla - Curtis Brown Ltd.
Brooks Sherman - FinePrint Literary Management
Molly Ker Hawn - The Bent Agency
We'll have more about the agents up in our Meet the Agents' post coming September 4 and 5.
Now, here's the submission deets ...
Shine up your 35-word (exact-anything over will be disqualified) pitches and the first 150-words (if the cut-off falls in the middle of a sentence, go to the end of that sentence) of your finished Adult, Young Adult, and Middle Grade fiction. We'll pick 60 entries to move on to the Agent Pitch Match.
We've doubled the number of entries we're taking in this time. There will be a percentage of what genres make it in based on all the agents likes. You guessed it, there will be more YA in the contest than Adult, but the main thing we're looking for is the WOW factor. Only one entry per person.
We have two submission times, and this year we're holding it on a Saturday.
The windows open on September 1 ...
1ST SUBMISSION TIME: 12:00 pm EDT (EST-NY time) first 100.
2ND SUBMISSION TIME: 6:00 pm EDT (EST-NY time) first 100.
And we've added another submission time for September 4...
3RD SUBMISSION TIME: 10:00 am EDT (EST-NY time) first 100.
2ND SUBMISSION TIME: 6:00 pm EDT (EST-NY time) first 100.
And we've added another submission time for September 4...
3RD SUBMISSION TIME: 10:00 am EDT (EST-NY time) first 100.
Submissions will be emailed to brendadrakecontests@gmail.com. All email submissions received before the submission times will be deleted.
Only the best of the best will make it to the final round.
Only the best of the best will make it to the final round.
Submissions will be emailed to brendadrakecontests@gmail.com.
Here's how to format your entry ...
Subject line: Pitch Madness: TITLE
Here's how to format your entry ...
Subject line: Pitch Madness: TITLE
Name: Brenda Drake
Title: The Britanika Journals: Around the World in 80:45:07
Genre: Middle Grade Adventure
Word Count: 50,000
Max and Annika use a transporting globe to find her missing
father. With evil men in an airship on their tails, Max must use his sleuthing
skills with Annika’s inventor ones to rescue her father.
Maximilian Drayson knew that a masterful sleuth had to
pay attention to one crucial thing—the details. He tightened his grip on the
white apron he had snatched from the Britanika's laundry room. It took several
hours into his investigation to find it, and most would think it was just a
soiled apron, but he believed it to be a clue.
He paced the manicured lawn of the Britanika's residence,
scratching the back of his neck and searching the ground. This particular
mystery came about after he had overheard one of the Britanika's housemaids,
Molly, sobbing to another servant about losing her mother's brooch. At hearing
Molly's distress, he went into action.
Before beginning his investigation, Max interrogated
Molly, asking her a series of questions: When had she last seen the brooch? Did
she wear it while she worked? What were her household duties? He needed every
bit of information he could obtain if he wanted to mark this case as solved.
That's it. We're so excited!
A couple of announcements for my blog...
The query workshop was great fun, and hopefully informative. A huge thank you to all the participants and critiquers. I know how hard it is to put yourselves out there and I'm so pleased with everyone's comments. You all are so kind and helpful to each other, I love it. Hug it out. You all deserve pats on your backs. And, most importantly, a gigantic thank you to my co-hosts. Drop by their blogs, read their critiques, and show them some love!
The query workshop was great fun, and hopefully informative. A huge thank you to all the participants and critiquers. I know how hard it is to put yourselves out there and I'm so pleased with everyone's comments. You all are so kind and helpful to each other, I love it. Hug it out. You all deserve pats on your backs. And, most importantly, a gigantic thank you to my co-hosts. Drop by their blogs, read their critiques, and show them some love!
The winners of a first chapter critique for the Query Workshop by Random.org are:
KL Layton
Andrew Patterson
Laurie Litwin
Please email me the first chapter of your manuscript to brendadrakecontests@gmail.com.
Coming up after Pitch Madness...
The Teenaged Nitpick critiques by John Hansen (@ABoredAuthor). John will critique ten lucky winners in a drawing to receive a first page critique from him and posted on my blog the week of September 24. This is for young adult finished/unfinished manuscripts any genre.
John is a high school student and an intern for Pam van Hylckama of Larsen Pomada Literary Agents. You may have seen him answering questions on Leigh Ann Kopan's Ask A Teen hashtag #YAWritersAAT. He brings the teen perspective to his critiques. You can get more information about John on his site The Incessant Droning Of A Bored Writer.
Look for more details and for the Rafflecopter to go live on the blog on September 17.
Woot! :D I wish my MS was finished I would join in the fun on pitch madness. Maybe next time. :D
ReplyDeleteCongrats to the winners of the Query Workshop and big thanks to the blog hosters, and special thanks to Brenda. :D
Cool! Thanks for the heads up!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the opportunity! Will we submit by entering a comment on your blog on that day, or is there another website you will direct us to?
ReplyDeleteYou'll email your entries to my contest website.
DeleteWhere is your contest website? Or did you mean to email entries to brendadrakecontests[at]gmail[dot]com ?
DeleteThanks for clearing things up
Yes, I meant the email brendadrakecontests@gmail.com
DeleteI wish I were ready for this, but best of luck to all the entrants! You guys are awesome for hosting these!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun contest! Bummed my genre isn't included, but I'll be rooting from the sidelines!! Good luck everyone :)
ReplyDeleteI just might be more stoked than ever right now... Well third to the births of my two boys.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for taking your time to do this!!!!!
ReplyDeleteFantastic! I look forward to slamming my pitch right in there with the lions. I was going to ask the same question as TNJ--is there a special email to send the pitch, etc. to?
I'll be out of town using my phone most likely. Have it all set up on my email, ready to go. Thanks for hosting this Brenda.
sorry--I see the email. Must slow down, my enthusiasm kills me.
DeleteSo you won't be as strict on the 150 words as the pitch correct? Mine is looking to be about 154 to finish that last sentence.
ReplyDeleteIs that okay? Otherwise I will probably cut it to 125, because those few sentences aren't strong if you don't see where they are going.
Right, you can go to 154 (to the end of the sentence where the 150 falls).
DeleteLooks like I'll have to use my new scheduling software for the first time, since I'm never on the computer on Shabbos day! Hopefully it'll go through at the correct time. (All my Saturday blog posts are scheduled in advance to avoid the issue of using electricity on the Sabbath.)
ReplyDeleteHi Brenda! What a great opportunity. I shared this on Twitter and my FB page. Love your blog.
ReplyDeleteMichelle
Random Writing Rants
Very cool. Hope I make the cut!
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to enter but we're camping that day, and I can guarantee I'll no internet service. :(
ReplyDeleteArg! Dragon*Con! I will be standing in the parade lineup dressed as Stemapunk Poison Ivy...maybe I can send it from my phone?
ReplyDeleteWe've scheduled another window for Tuesday at 10AM EDT!
DeleteOkay-this question I don't see- What should we put in the subject line? Thanks Brenda!
ReplyDeleteBrenda,
ReplyDeleteIt's lovely to meet you, and thanks for the follow on my blog. Your blog is very nice. What an awesome contest! Sounds fun. :)
What a fantastic opportunity! Off to perfect my pitch...
ReplyDeleteWow, what a great opportunity you've created! Looks like I'll be setting the alarm for 2am to email you from Australia!
ReplyDeleteI second Karen's question: Do you want something specific on the subject line? Perhaps Pitch Madness followed by the title? Just want to make sure. Thanks! I can't wait! :)
ReplyDeleteDoh! I always miss something. Yes, subject line - Pitch Madness: TITLE
DeleteThanks for this, it looks awesome. Thanks for following my blog. Off to polish my pitch, and check how your times correspond to Greenwich Mean Time! :)
ReplyDeleteOh! I am so, so glad you added that additional date!! Just found out there's a funeral I'll be going to on Sunday which necessitate an almost all day drive Saturday so I will definitely miss the noon one, and probably the six pm one too.
ReplyDeleteYou *so* rock for providing these opportunities. Thank you!!
If we don't make it into the first 100 with one submission window, can we try for another? Will we know if we made the first 100?
ReplyDeleteOpps - so sorry! I wished I had read your comment about the subject line before I hit send! I've got Pitch Madness and my name, not title.
ReplyDeletePlease let me know if I need to submit it again in another window. Thanks!!