#PitchWars: Wishlist

What do I want to see? Everything. Since we can only pick one person this year, I want options. I want to find that manuscript that's special, that has a great voice, that I would be willing to read over and over again during edits. I want to be forced to make an agonizing decision between great manuscripts. I will be requesting the first three chapters of my top picks again, and possibly the full if I'm faced with that agonizing choice. I hope to provide feedback to my top picks, but I make no promises.

Now that's what I want, but just like I can only pick one of you, you're limited in the number of mentors you can submit to. So you want to make sure that you're picking the mentors who will be the best fit for you. Therefore, while I want to see everything, there are some things I'm not comfortable with: horror, cannibalism, evil zombies, incest, child abuse, animal abuse, pedophilia, necrophilia, or anything that goes beyond taboo and into despicable. I also do best with books that have a happy ending, whether it be happy forever or happy for right now. The book can be full of struggles and angst, so long as I have the comfort of knowing everything will turn out all right by the end.

Moving onto my area of expertise, I am best with romances (big shocker there, huh?) and the majority of my editing clients do fall into that genre. I do read pretty much anything that has a romantic element in there somewhere, regardless of overall genre. However, if you have something that you think isn't my usual fare, but you're sure I'm the perfect fit, submit it to me anyway. 

(if you're thinking to yourself, that all seemed very familiar, you get a cookie! The last two paragraphs are a copy and paste from my 2013 wishlist.)

Like I did with the Pride, I will be looking for manuscripts that fit the agents' wishlists or are particularly marketable. So if your manuscript matches something on the list below, please please please submit to me. 

• Contemporary that features a heroine in a non-traditional career. Like, oh, I don't know, a female mechanic? 
• Contemporary romance where the main couple are/were contestants on a Voice-type reality show and their relationship starts to develop during filming, or if they were child contestants together twenty years ago and reconnected during a reunion special. 
• A twisty, heart-stopping, romantic suspense or mystery
• Magical Realism Contemporary, something like Eureka, but where it's magic instead of technology. 
• Something featuring an American Ninja Warrior-type hero
• A m/m fiction-y love story that's gorgeously written
• In any commercial genre, a book inspired by a gender-swapped fairy-tale. For example, a gender-swapped, sci-fic, Cinderella: He's the lowly grunt on his step-father's ship and she's the highly-decorated captain looking for a second in command. A fantasy-esque Swan Princess: He's cursed by the sorcerer because the Big Bad wants the heroine for himself, but she says F that and sets off on an epic quest to rescue the hero. 

Submissions open up on August 17th. I hope you all flood my inbox with submissions. I'm looking for just the right person to add to the Pride. Will it be you? 

#PitchWars: The Sequel

To officially announce it here, I've once again agreed to mentor in Pitch Wars for New Adult/Adult. There were a few changes this year, as there will only be one mentee, and I'm now competing against 99 other mentors. To say I'm a wee bit intimidated would be understating the matter. To make matters worse, the link to this post is due to Brenda by tomorrow and I have absolutely no idea what to write.

This is one of the reasons being an agent is not for me. I'm not good with the sales pitch. And that is also another reason why I'm happy to stick to freelance editing. Editing for publishing houses these days usually involve covers and marketing and a bunch of other things that are not editing. I just want to edit.

But you're not here for my thoughts on publishing careers, you want to know why you should submit to me in Pitch Wars when submissions open up on August 17th. Well, I think I did pretty good with the Pride last time around. Marie even made me all teary with a lovely acknowledgement in her first book, Across the Distance (formerly Through the Storm). The next book, by the way, is coming out this Tuesday, August 4th: Can't Go Back. It's equally as good! Speaking of Pride books, Annie's  Welcome to Forever (formerly Forever Yours) will be released on December 1st, so add it to your TBR list.

I think I digressed a little. So I've moved from the dining room table to the couch in hopes of finding inspiration by staring at the living room rug. The dog is not amused by my game of musical chairs and wants me to finish this so we can play.

Well, okay, this is my bio from the 2013 Pitch Wars. Not a great deal has changed except I've added more TV shows to my season pass (Agent Carter, anyone?). I don't collect vinyls anymore, but my nail polish collection is, well, abundant. I'm certainly still a rabid Whedon fangirl. I could probably  update the authors' and movies' sections, but it's not like I've taken an aversion to anything listed there.

Still with me? Good. Look, I'm not sure what else there is to say except that I believe I'm good at what I do and I have experience doing it. I have an unique perspective on the industry and I'm looking for the right person to add to the Pride. You should submit to me if you are completely open to edits (like prepared to cut scenes and characters open) and you want a mentor who's going to treat this like a partnership. I'm not here to be your friend or your cheerleader, I'm here to hopefully get you to the next step, whatever form that may take. I can't promise you that what happened for Marie and Annie will happen for you, but I will help you the best I can.

My wishlist is here.  If you have questions, leave me a comment here or tweet me at @lionessbkshelf. I'm also going to try to pop onto the Pitch Wars hashtag once a day. Again, submissions open on August 17th.

The other mentors: