#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:

Update on the Pride

It's been a very long time since I posted here and good Lord, a lot's happened since last March. 

Mainly, I got a new job. A job where I actually have to work during the day and where the Internet is monitored to the extent that it's filtered. So no more updating social media at work for me. I'm also frequently working overtime, and it's all computer-based, so by the time I get home, I don't want to get anywhere near my laptop. Hence the steep and sudden drop-off in my blog and Goodreads reviews. I am hoping to do better. 

But enough about me, let's talk about the lovely ladies of the Pride. 

My top pick, Marie Meyer, signed with a fabulous agent and then said fabulous agent sold Through the Storm (now entitled Across the Distance) to Forever Romance for a multi-book deal! Not only is Across the Distance releasing TOMORROW, but the companion book, Can't Go Back, will release on August 4th. You can read Marie's Pitch Wars wrap-up here. 

My first alternate, Sarah Blair, is currently working on a sequel to the manuscript she entered in Pitch Wars, as well as another sequel due to arrive in just under four more months (it's a girl!). 

My second alternate, Annie Rains, signed with a different fabulous agent and then her fabulous agent sold Forever Yours in a three book deal! Her series, Hero's Welcome, will begin releasing in 2016. It was a very busy 2014 for Annie as she also had a baby! 

Whee!!! I'm so proud of them all! 

Brenda announced on Twitter that I will be again mentoring in this year's Pitch Wars. Submissions open in August, so watch her blog for more details as August draws nearer. If you want to join the Pride, this is your chance. My tastes haven't changed since last time (except that I'm more picky if possible), so feel free to check out my old posts to get an idea of what I'm looking for, and I'll be posting newer entries over the summer. 

However, before you do that, don't forget to add Across the Distance to your TBR, because it's coming out TOMORROW at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and many other retailers. Marie will also be doing an event at Main Street Books in St. Charles, MO on May 9th between 12pm-2pm. If you go, tell her Lioness says hi! 

Review: Across the Distance

Across the Distance by Marie Meyer

The fact that I haven't written a review yet for Across the Distance when it's been released in TWO DAYS should give you an idea of how crazy my life has been over the last year.

So, back in 2013, I agreed to be a mentor in a contest, called Pitch Wars, that the fabulous Brenda Drake hosts every year. The premise behind Pitch Wars is that authors submit unagented and unpublished works for a chance to work with a mentor who is usually an agented and/or published author or someone connected to the industry. Authors and mentors work together editing the manuscript and then after about two months, the pitch & first 250 words of the manuscript are posted on Brenda's blog for agents to peruse. If they like what they see, they comment and request a sample. I had very specific criteria for my mentees. I wanted something rife with potential and I wanted it to be marketable.

Marie was my top pick.

A lot of editing ensued over the next two months. A LOT. I don't mean like tweaking or rephrasing, I mean like entire chunks of the book were cut or completely rewritten. Did I mention this was November into January? Right over the holiday season? And Marie has two kids? It didn't matter what I threw at her, Marie rolled with it and made it work. She completely revamped and revised her manuscript over two months.

As a native New Yorker, 9/11 is an important part of my history and one of the things that initially appealed to me about Across the Distance was how 9/11 was part of the story without being the focus of the story. Yet I started to question whether it really needed to be 9/11. Wouldn't the book still have weight and purpose if her parents died some other way? Wouldn't Jillian still be dealing with the same issues? I hadn't broached the topic with Marie yet when I received the next set of edits. I read the new chapters and I just started bawling. Marie had written a scene that was so poignant, so heartbreaking, it put all my doubts to rest.

Marie knows her characters to the extent that they're not just words on a page, but people.

After Pitch Wars, Marie got an agent (yay!) who sold the book (obvs!) to Forever Romance (yay!) and a wonderful editor who said this is a great start, let's make it even better (and they did!).

At its core, Across the Distance is a true new adult, a story of what happens when you move from one stage of your life to another. You leave some people behind, you bring some with you, and you meet new ones. It's a story that shows the past, who we were, it will never truly leave us, but that we can control how much impact it has on our future. Going away to college changes Jillian's life, but it doesn't magically make all her problems go away. Only Jillian can do that and over the course of the book, she fights for her future, for a chance to be happy. This is an angst-y book, but underneath it all, there's hope.

So I recommend Across the Distance for many reasons, but the most important one is this: if Jillian can do it, so can you. Fresh starts are possible and help will be there if you ask for it. Don't give up.

Across the Distance, May 5th, at your preferred e-bookstore.

#PitchWars & #ThePride

So I think it's time for one of my rare blog posts, y/y? 

I spent most of December and January in an editing fog. Between Pitch Wars and Agent-Boss's clients, I was editing every day for almost two months. By the time I finished everything I was working on, it felt weird not to be editing. Like when you're on a boat for a long time and you get back to dry land, but you still feel like you're rocking on the water? That was me. I kept thinking, 'Oh, crap, I should be edit-wait, wait, no, I'm done. Pitch Wars is over.' I took a solid week off before I was ready to touch the Red Pen of Doom again. 

I had a blast doing Pitch Wars. My team, The Pride, consisted of Marie Meyer (NA Contemporary Romance Through the Storm), Sarah L. Blair (Adult Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance The Shifting Darkness), and Anna Rains (Adult Contemporary Romance Forever Yours). Since I'd done Pitch Wars from the agent side and had previous experience with the editing process, I mapped out a schedule beforehand and set deadlines for myself & The Pride. I have to say, I don't think it would've been possible to pull everything off if I wasn't off from work during the last two weeks in December. 

I did full manuscript critiques for each Pride member. In addition, I gave them extra optional assignments because it was important to me that they understand that a) this business is highly subjective and b) it is a business. The Pride was fantastic about rising to whatever challenge I set for them and I feel they all grew as writers during the time we worked together. Sarah came away with a fantastic pitch that highlights the core of her manuscript beautifully. Anna not only did extensive revisions, but we worked together to plot out a potential series and she was able to subtly weave in the groundwork for the next two books into Forever Yours. Marie had the longest edit letter and she exceeded all my expectations. She ended up cutting, I think, about 12k. A major character got the cut and several scenes were ripped out. I was brutally honest with her and she thanked me for it. Through the Storm is amazing and I don't think there's anything like it out right now.

I honestly don't know if I'd do Pitch Wars again. I had such a great experience with The Pride, my expectations for the next group would be probably be impossible to meet. I also don't know if I'd be eligible to do it next year or if I'd have the time to devote like I did this year. In any case, I hope The Pride felt they got their time's worth out of me and for my part, this solidified my desire to be an editor. 

As of this moment, none of The Pride have made any agent announcements, but I'm confident they'll come. These ladies have proven they're willing to do whatever it takes to have a career as an author and it was an honor to help them on their journey to meeting that goal. 

I realized I never talked about the Pitch Wars submission process. If you'd be interested in reading my take on that, please leave a comment. 

Pitch Wars Alternate Showcase

Welcome to the Alternate showcase!

Today I’m hosting some of the wonderful writers who participated in a six week boot camp where published/agented authors and industry interns mentored a team of writers to help them polish their manuscripts for agents. The mentors picked one to go into the agent round on Brenda Drake’s blog (http://www.brenda-drake.com/) and two alternates in case their top pick dropped out of the competition.

The alternates were amazing, so we wanted to do a showcase of their talent to reward them for their hard work. Following this post you’ll find the pitches for the writers I’m hosting.

This is not exclusive to the agents signed up for Pitch wars. All agents are welcomed to make requests in the comments of the posts!

This is not open for critiques. So if you’re not an agent, you may comment only if you want to show some love to the writers. Again, please do not critique in the comments.

Thank you!

ALT #1: Ice Flowers in Winters (Adult Historical Fiction)

ALT #2: Three Card Monty (Adult Mystery)

ALT #3: Cut from the Earth (Historical Fiction with Magical Realism)

ALT #4: The Death Clock (Literary with speculative elements)

ALT #5: The Gardens of the Sunray (Adult Mystery with the hint of paranormal)

ALT #6: The Sweetheart (Adult Historical Fiction)

ALT #8: The Lady Caller (Steampunk Historical Romance with magical realism elements)

ALT #9: Twist of Fate (NA Fantasy)

ALT #10: The Things Between (Soft Science Fiction)

ALT #11: Sweet Nothing (NA Contemporary Romance)

ALT #12: The Lightning City (NA Science Fiction)

ALT #13: Enthralled (Contemporary Fantasy)

ALT #14: A Breath of Silver (YA/NA Fantasy [Time Travel])
ALT #15: You'll Be Thinking of Me (Women's Fiction with elements of romance and suspense)

Other Alternates: 
Middle Grade: Veronica Bartles

Young Adult: Stacey Lee, Jaye Robin Brown, Dannie Morin, Natalie Knaub-Traver

New Adult & Adult: Nazarea Andrews

The Pride (my mentees):

Through the Storm (NA Contemporary Romance) - Top Pick

The Shifting Darkness (Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance) - 1st Alternate

Forever Yours (Contemporary Romance) - 2nd Alternate

#PitchWars: Down to the Wire

Pitch War submissions open tomorrow at 12:01am. Are you ready? Make sure you read the submission guidelines from top to bottom. All of them. And then follow them. Precisely. Also, while it's not explicitly stated, my preferred font is New Times Roman.

This is my first Pitch Wars so I'm not entirely sure how things are going to break down. I did Pitch Wars last year as a reader for Agent Boss. I know there were ninety-nine entries and I read every single one. Despite knowing that there were even more entries that didn't make it through, part of me is still worried my inbox will be bare.

I do have a plan if I get entries. It involves a spreadsheet. I know, I know, you're shocked, right? I do so love my spreadsheets. Once I narrow it down to my top choices, I will be asking to see the first three chapters and possibly the synopsis as well. I have to be honest, though, I am not sure I'll be sending feedback to each entry. It depends on how many people submit to me. I'd want to be able to send it out in a timely manner and I don't want to promise something I can't deliver. Watch my twitter feed during Evaluation Week. I'll probably be tweeting quite a bit.

My wishlist was culled from things that the participating agents have said they wanted to see, with one or two personal preferences thrown in. However, the only thing that you really need to follow is what I don't want to see (mainly horror and despicable immoral behavior). I am going to read every single entry sent my way so long as it's an Adult or New Adult manuscript. If the writing is amazing, I am going to give the manuscript serious consideration, regardless if it's a romance or not, but I will respond more favorably to certain genres than other. For example, if you have a hard-boiled mystery, there are four other mentors that would likely be a better fit for it than me, but there's nothing stopping you from rolling the dice and submitting to me anyway.

Genre-aside, I'm primarily going to be looking for writing that grabs me and something that I can work with. I'm also going to be looking for any red flags, like, a word count that is ridiculously long for commercial fiction (i.e. above 90k) or typos. If your sample has typos in it, that's going to be a major, major issue for me because in my mind, you've had ample time to go over those five pages with a fine-toothed comb. Sending me something with a typo tells me you either didn't care enough to edit properly or you didn't realize it was a typo. I seriously cannot stress enough how much I don't want to see typos in those five pages.

I think that expands a bit on what I've posted before and covers some of the things I've been asked on Twitter. If there's anything you're curious about, this is your last chance to ask! Better to find out now rather than after you pressed send. Leave me a comment and I'll get back to you.

#PitchWars: Suggested Readings

With Pitch Wars submissions opening just two days away, I've been compiling some articles, blog entries, and essays that you may wish to peruse as you put the finishing touches on your entries.

On Writing

Baker's Dozen Slush Reader Jodi Meadows: Common Problems with Beginnings

Samhain Publishing: Common Mark-Ups

Agent Janet Reid: How Good is Good Enough?

Pitch Wars Mentor Jaye Robin Brown: Are Online Pitch Contests For You?

On Social Media

Pitch Wars Mentor Erica Chapman: Social Media & You: The Basics

Self-Published Author Leigh Ann Kopans: Publishing 101: Working on Your Platform

Lifehacked: The Ultimate Social Media Guide for Writers

On Submission

Dahlia Andrews: On Querying and Subbing Simultaneously 

Author Ilona Andrews: Queries: Common Issues

Agent Janet Reid: 10 Things to Do While Agents Dawdle Around with your full manuscript

Pitch Wars Agent Agent Carly Watters: What are agents looking for in a writer?

Ilona Andrews: Do I Need an Agent?

On Pitch Wars

Pitch Wars Advice

What I Learned from Last Year's Pitch Wars

Pitch Wars Round-Up: Data-Driven Edition
2012 #PitchWars #askmentor Answers

#PitchWars: Checking In

This blog has gotten so many visitors over the last four days, thanks to Pitch Wars, that I felt like I should check-in or something. By now, all the revisions on your manuscript should be complete and you should be making a short list of possible mentors. Pitch Wars entrants will be able to submit the first five pages of your manuscript to four different mentors on December 2nd. Go to Brenda's blog for the complete listing of submission rules.

Now's the time to get to know the mentors. A lot of us are on Twitter (I'm @lionessbkshelf) and we can often be found hanging out on the #PitchWars hashtag. I really encourage you to peruse the tag because we mentors are a witty bunch. Check out S.P. McConnell's and Fiona McLaren's trash talk, in a way that could only be done by book lovers. I've been answering a lot of 'What do you think about X genre' questions and I've been trying to answer them very honestly and seriously because I want all y'all to get an idea of what it'd be like to have me as a mentor.

I also had to defend my geek cred. 

You know what they say, no pix, no proof. Sooo...

I'm wearing it as I type this entry.

I have a Joss Whedon action figure too! Anyways, I pretty much bought this shirt as soon as Scott Kurtz released it so mine has the PvP logo on the back, but you can buy a newer version with a slant-ier logo here. Action figure not included.

If you can't pick just four out of the wonderful bunch in your category, be sure to participate in the scavenger hunt/word jumble for a shot at earning a fifth mentor slot. Five lucky contestants will win the chance to submit to five mentors instead of four, if they correctly solve the puzzle and submit the answer by November 30th. For the rules and the puzzle, go here. My clue is on my wishlist, but you have to pay attention to find it; Brenda couldn't even find it the first time she looked. 

I will probably post another blog entry or two before the 2nd (it'll be an early Christmas miracle!), but in the meantime, if you have any questions, please ask them now. Comment here or tweet me. I also want to reiterate, because I think some of you are getting blinded by my Whedonism, I am only mentoring Adult and New Adult manuscripts. If you send me Young Adult or Middle Grade, they will be deleted and you will have wasted one of your mentor slots. So do your homework and remember, "small, concealable weapons always go to the far left of the place setting." 

#PitchWars: The Mentors by Category

Hello all! These are the Pitch Wars mentors sorted by the categories they've chosen to mentor. Each link leads back to their wishlist, so be sure to click in order to get specifics on what they're looking for.

Middle Grade

Brent Taylor
Marieke Nijkamp
Jennifer Malone
Veronica Bartles
Joy McCullough-Carranza
Jen Swann Downey
Gail Nall
Naomi Hughes
Shannon Duffy

Young Adult

Cora Carmack
Elizabeth Briggs
Shelley Watters (Romance only)
Erica Chapman
Molly Lee
Lindsey Sprague
Megan Whitmer
Michelle Painchaud
Fiona McLaren
Monica Bustamante-Wagner
Skylar Dorset
Meredith McCardle
Jaye Robin Brown
Dannie Morin
Stacey Lee
S.P. McConnell
Natalie Knaub
Jessie Humphries
Stephanie Garber
Trisha Leaver
Lori Goldstein
Evelyn Ehrlich
Rin Chupeco
Lindsay Currie
Laura Tims
Diana Gallagher
Sarah Nicolas

New Adult

Cora Carmack
Agent Assistant Lioness (aka ME)
Shelley Watters (Romance only)
Tina Moss
Mina Vaughn
Skylar Dorset
Dannie Morin
Stacey Lee
Nazarea Andrews
Veronica Parks
Trisha Leaver
Julie Sondra Decker
Diana Gallagher
Sarah Nicolas

Adult

Heather Webb
Agent Assistant Lioness (aka ME)
Susan Spann
Shelley Watters (Romance only)
Tina Moss
Sarah Henning
Mina Vaughn
Elizabeth Penney
Nazarea Andrews
Julie Sondra Decker


And, of course, the hostess with the mostess, Brenda Drake!

#PitchWars: My Wishlist

Man, I thought writing my bio was hard. I'm going to be mentoring in the Adult and New Adult categories, and I wanted to just be like,

Original art © Allie Brosh*

But I was pretty sure that would rate a disapproving look from Brenda and, perhaps, shunning by the other mentors. So then I decided to look at the agents' websites to see what they wanted to see as well as the Agent and Editor Wishlist Tumblr. I managed to narrow it down to Some of the Things.

Here's what I don't want: no 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, more specifically, paranormals. 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 because Joss Whedon is your Master too, submit it to me anyway. 

Now, onto, my wishlist with specifics (these are my dream plots; if you have any romance-y book, please consider submitting to me!):

My 'I Wanna Read This' Wishlist

• Urban fantasy along the lines of Ilona Andrews or Patricia Briggs, but with a different twist. Also, a modern-day Buffy book, complete with quirky humor.
• Thriller/Mystery/Romantic Suspense/Military Romance centering on a realistic plot ripped from today's headlines like global warming, genetically modified foods, superstorms, or honeybee extinctions. 
• Magical Realism Contemporary, something like Eureka, but where it's magic instead of technology. 
• Contemporary NA that focuses more on the college side of life or a long-distance relationship where they email during the semesters and reconnect during breaks. 
• Science-Fiction with strong female characters and ethnically diverse characters. Think Voyager's cast with TNG's storylines. 
• Contemporary NA involving a quarter-life crisis.
• Steampunk set in America, where things diverged after Ben Franklin discovered electricity. 
• Any paranormal romance, but it shouldn't feel like a clone of what's already been published. 
• 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. 
• Erotica. I would love a true mmf menage, a la Lauren Dane's Laid Bare. Also, something with a risque edge to it, like exhibitionism or voyagerism. I'd particularly like to see a NA erotica, but all parties should definitely be over eighteen and, to be the most marketable, they should ideally be at least twenty. No bestiality or water sports please. MM or FF is fine, but I don't have a lot of experience with FF materials. 
• 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. 
• Space Western, i.e. Firefly in book form, but it shouldn't read like Firefly fanfiction. 
• A 'contemporary' that is set fifty years from now and is futuristic without being dystopian. 

I'm going to stop myself here because I could go on. In general, I'm looking for something I haven't read before. I've read over 300 books this year alone so I want something fresh with an unique voice. I'd also prefer books that aren't completely white-washed.  I live in white suburbia where there wasn't a single black person in my graduating high school class, but I still have people of various ethnicities, and sexual orientation for that matter, in my life. I'm not saying I want cultural stereotypes, just not a book full of straight white people. The only exception here is if your book is a historical or has some other setting where cultures wouldn't mix. 

I hope between the wishlist and my bio, you now have an idea if I could be the mentor for you. Follow Brenda's blog for more details on how to submit when submissions open on December 2nd. In the meantime, if you have any general, non-pitchy, questions, the comments are open! 

*Graphic was taken from Allie's hilarious Hyperbole and a Half blog entry, This is Why I'll Never Be an Adult, This entry was also reprinted in Allie's book, Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened. I gave it 5 stars on GoodReads. 

SECRET LETTER: T

#PitchWars Bio: A few of my favorite things

I thought a lot about what to write in my bio since I am a lady of mystery. Then I realized that this is really an exercise in compatibility. It's like when contestants have to pick a judge on The Voice. Belters and Divas go with Christina. Quirky and Unusual go to Cee-lo. Country goes to Blake. Rockers go to Adam. It doesn't really matter where any of them are from, it matters what their areas of expertise are, on who will 'get' the contestant the best. So my bio is going to be focused on the things that, I feel, will best indicate whether or not we'd be compatible as mentor and mentee.

Professional Experience: I worked at Borders Books and Music for nearly a decade before the chain went under. I spent five of those years as a romance expert, a program run by the romance buyers. From there, I transitioned in academia and I now work in a university library. In addition to the library, in 2012, I was selected to be an intern for Literary Agent Boss and then she promoted me to assistant, which I've been for the last six months.

What's My Critique Style: Professional but blunt. I try to highlight the positive, but I am definitely going to mention the not-so positive. My goal is to help you grow, to become better than you already are, not to encourage you to stay the same.

Must-See TV: There are season passes on my DVR for The Voice, Sleepy Hollow, Castle, NCIS (original and LA), Hawaii Five-O, Bones, Haven, Grimm, Once Upon a Time, Person of Interest, S.H.I.E.L.D., Elementary, Switched at Birth, and Supernatural. I was a huge fan of Leverage & Veronica Mars before they were canceled, The Big Bang Theory before they made Sheldon a caricature rather than a person, anything that had Joss Whedon's name on it, and the first season of Glee. Oh, and the original Primeval, Dark Angel, and Kim Possible. I also wrote fanfic for Roswell, Stargate: Atlantis, and Wolf Lake.

Auto-Buy Authors: Shelly Laurenston/G.A. Aiken, Dana Marie Bell, Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, Nalini Singh, Thea Harrison, JD Robb, Jayne Castle, Gena Showalter, Kristen Ashley, Kate SeRine, and Robin D. Owens.

Auto-Read Authors: Nora Roberts, Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick, Alyssa Day, Tamora Pierce, Jean Johnson, Jill Shalvis, Julia Quinn, Vivian Arend, Lauren Dane, and countless others.

Selection of my Favorite Books: Rose in Bloom by Louise May Alcott, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling, Pegasus in Flight by Anne McCaffrey, Heart Dance by Robin D. Owens, Visions of Heat by Nalini Singh, Oracle's Moon by Thea Harrison, Law Man by Kristen Ashley, Written in Blood by Anne Bishop, and Conspiracy in Death by JD Robb

Favorite Music: Country and Top 40 Pop

Favorite Movies: The Hunger Games, The Avengers, Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog, Star Trek (2009), Meet the Robinsons, all three Lion King movies, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Live Free or Die Harder, and America's Sweethearts.

Least favorite holiday: Easter

Favorite 80s Cartoon: She-Ra, Princess of Power

Favorite season: Winter. I love snow.

Biggest Real World Pet Peeve: Inconsiderate people, especially people who don't use their blinkers.

Biggest Literary Pet Peeve: Authors who mix up discreet and discrete.

Stuff I Collect: Autographed books, nail polish (I went a little berserk this year), Disney vinylmations, baking recipes, and ticket stubs.

Dream Vacation: All expenses paid trip to either a Disney resort or the United Kingdom (I'd love to see Scotland and the Harry Potter Studio Tour).

Favorite spots in the City (aka Manhattan): The Strand, Books of Wonder, Cosi's, and American Museum of Natural History. I am not a big City person. Too many people too close together. I prefer my home in the suburb.

Apple vs PC: I prefer Apple for my mobile technology, but I'm a PC girl for my desktop and laptop computing.


I could go on, but I hope that's enough to give you an idea of who I am. If you're curious about anything, comment! Click on the linky to see the other mentors and go here for my wishlist.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
For best results, use HTML mode to edit this section of the post.

#PitchWars: The Agents!

Let's be real. While getting feedback from pretty phenomenal people is positively a plus, primarily Pitch Wars (Couldn't resist; I'm done now) is about getting your work in front of agents. I am pleased as punch (hee) to announce the 18 agents who will descend on the hosting blogs on January 22nd to request away. In no particular order:

1. Louise Fury - Bent Agency
2. Suzie Townsend - New Leaf Literary
3. Nicole Resciniti - The Seymour Agency
4. John M. Cusick - The Greenhouse Agency
5. Sarah LaPolla - Bradford Literary Agency
6. Victoria Marini - Gelfman Schneider Literary Agency
7. Jessica Sinsheimer - Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency
8. Pam van Hylckama Vlieg - Foreword Literary
9. Quinlan Lee - Adams Literary
10. Jen Udden - Donald Maass Literary Agency
11. Emily Keyes - Foreword Literary
12. Brianne Johnson - Writers House
13. Carly Watters - P.S. Literary
14. Lana Popovic and Natasha Alexis - Zachary Shuster Harmsworth
15. Molly Jaffa - Folio Literary Management
16. Evan Gregory - Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency
17. Stefanie Lieberman - Janklow & Nesbit Associates
18. Rena Rossner - The Deborah Harris Agency

#PitchWars: What Else I Don't Want to See

I posted two weeks ago about the importance of eliminating typos from your manuscript before submitting it to Pitch Wars. Today, I thought I'd talk about what else I don't particularly want to see.

1. Song lyrics: You can mention the band or the album, so long as you're not using it a negative context, but the lyrics themselves are copyrighted. In order to use copyright material within your book, the publisher would have to pay for it. If your main characters are in a band, you need to come up with original lyrics for them to sing, not a cover. And while we're on this topic, use of trademarks and brand names can be tricky as well. The blog post Can I Mention Brand Name Products in My Fiction? discusses this in a very clear manner. In addition, while it's from 2003, I also recommend reading the three part Intellectual Property and Its Uses series from Lori L. Lake: Part One, Part Two, Part Three. 


2. Prologues: I'll be honest, as a reader, I never particularly cared if there was a prologue or not. I'd read it if it was there, but I was never like, 'Oh, you know what this book should have had? A prologue.' However, the more experience I get while wielding the Red Pen of Doom, the more I've come to dislike the use of prologues. The only time I feel prologues are kosher is when they are setting up a series (see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone or Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight) or necessary to establish an immediate emotional reaction in the reader. Most readers will not be picking up your book blind. They will have read a description or back blurb. If your blurb says, 'After being kidnapped by angels as a child, seventeen year-old Jonathan has resigned himself to life as a prisoner," my first thought is not 'How did they kidnap him?,' but 'Why did they kidnap him? Angels are supposed to be the good guys!' If your prologue focuses on the actual kidnapping, chances are the book is going to feel like it opens slowly because you're not telling me what I want to know. If the prologue is from the angels' POV just before or after the kidnapping and I get that feeling of 'dun dun DUNNN,' that's a different story. When in doubt, ask yourself how many books in your genre have prologues? In the category I'd like to see (*coughCommercialFictionLikeRomancecough*), prologues are not very common. 


3. RTF files: I hate reading .RTF files. They crash my iPad. So if you're interested in submitting to me, please, for the love of whatever you hold holy, send a .doc file. While we're on the subject, when Brenda announces the agents, check out their submission guidelines. Some may have specific guidelines as to how they want things sent to them and knowing ahead of time will prevent you from scrambling to convert something if you get a request.  Oh, and while I'm being picky, I prefer New Times Roman over Courier. 


4. Ginormous Word Counts: Anything over 100k is suspect and the higher the word count goes, the more I think massive editing will be needed without having read a word. You may be all, 'well, Harry Potter was huge, so it's okay that mine is long too.' No, no, it's not. The Harry Potter books gradually got longer. The page lengths basically corresponded with the skyrocketing sales. Since you are entering Pitch Wars, you are likely a debut author and it's unlikely an editor is going to look at your 150k word count & go 'I'm sure every word is essential to the book.' Even if you think you may self-publish or that your book is perfect for an epub, a huge word count is still problematic. An ebook's pricing is determined by its word count. Higher word count, higher pricing. If you're convinced that nothing can be cut, look for a place where the manuscript can be split in half. A 150k manuscript can be turned into two 75k books and now you have a potential series on your hands. Bree Ogden discusses word count from an agent's perspective here.


5.  A Genre I Didn't Ask For: While I'm not supposed to tell you my wishlist yet, I can tell you that I don't want to see horror. I am not a horror person so even if you're the next Stephen King, I will probably be too busy hiding under my covers to recognize your brilliance. I will also not be open to certain erotic fetishes, like scatology, incest, golden showers, full-on sadism, or pedophilia. If you are writing a heart-breaking, gut-wrenching, book dealing with child sexual abuse, that is one thing, but anything that portrays it as 'okay' is not something that I want to be involved in, ever. Same thing goes for animal abuse. There will be 46 mentors open for applications and you can only choose four of them to submit to. Read the wishlists carefully and make sure you're submitting to someone that you feel will genuinely appreciate your work. 

Today's the 20th, so you have forty-three days left to whip your manuscript into shape by the December 2nd submission deadline. Get cracking! 

All opinions expressed are mine alone and should not be associated with or attributed to anyone else. 

#PitchWars: What I Don't Want to See

It's official! Brenda has announced the 47 mentors who will be participating in the 2014 Pitch Wars events. As you know, I am one of the 47, billed as 'Intern Lioness.' Technically, if we're going by titles, I'm now 'Assistant Lioness,' but close enough. As per Brenda, I'm not allowed to post what I'd be open to (*coughcough* Romance *coughcough*) or anything about myself, so I thought I'd talk about what I don't want to see. 

TYPOS. 

If I see typos in your pitch or 250, it makes me wonder how many typos are going to be in your manuscript. After all, you know that you are being judged on your pitch and 250, therefore, presumably you have gone over it with a fine tooth comb. So if typos have escaped that fine toothed comb, that tells me that you didn't look closely enough, didn't care enough to self-edit, or aren't experienced enough to recognized the typos. Your writing is going to have to be pretty damn compelling to make me overlook the presence of typos. 

I give you five of the most common typos I've seen:

1. DISCREET vs DISCRETE: This is my biggest pet peeve. Ever. Discreet means to say or do something quietly, prudently. Discrete means separate, distinct. Here's how to tell them apart. Discrete is a mathematical term. Greece is the birthplace of mathematics. Crete is an island in Greece. So, disCRETE = math. If you want to refer to separate objects, like individual numbers (hence the math reference), use discrete. If you want to indicate someone did something on the down-low, use discreet. 


2.  IT'S vs ITS: One is the contraction for 'it is,' the other means something belong to an intimate object. You can figure out which one to use by reading the sentence out loud, using 'it is.' For example, "The robot waved its arms," should be read as "The robot waved it is arms."  Obviously, in this case, you want to use the possessive term, not the contraction. So, the thing to remember is 'no is, no apostrophe.' This also works for YOU'RE vs YOUR.


3. PUNCTUATION IN QUOTES: Periods go inside the quotation marks. If you're quoting a quote, it's single quotes inside double quotation marks. If you're ending or beginning the sentence with a dialogue tag, the quote ends with a comma, i.e. "The road was red dirt," she said or She said, "The road was red dirt." However, if the quote is being followed by another sentence, the quote ends in a period or exclamation point, i.e. "The road was red dirt!" She stared at the truck's tires. 


4. ALOT vs A LOT: A lot is two separate words. Always. I refer you to Hyperbole and a Half if you want to know what an "alot" is. 


5. PLURAL POSSESSIVE: If something belongs to a group, the apostrophe goes on the outside of the 's.' For example, the house belonging to the Smith family would be the Smiths' house. An object belonging to John Angelos would be John Angelos's object, since there is only one John Angelos. For more apostrophe rules, this is an excellent site. 

For more grammar tips, I recommend the Purdue OWL. It was used as part of my training in college and I still consult it when I need a refresher. 

Submissions open on December 2nd, so you have fifty-seven days left to get your manuscript in tippy-top shape. 

#PitchWars? What is it good for?

Maybe absolutely nothing. Maybe absolutely everything.

Pitch Wars, for those who don't know, is an event created by Brenda Drake for writers who are unagented and are shopping an unpublished manuscript. You can go here for last year's rules.  It's sort of billed as a contest, but it's really a networking event. Basically, you, the writer, sends in a sample of your work, the judges/moderators fish out the ones they like the best, and then everything's posted on a series of blogs for industry peeps, mainly agents, to peruse. What makes Pitch Wars different from Pitch Madness is that there are mentors who select an author to work with so that they end up with the best possible manuscript.

I'm mentoring this year.

I wanted to mentor because I think Brenda's Pitch events are a great way to be exposed to a lot of different authors and writing styles. It's like one-stop shopping for agents. However, I see manuscripts all the time in my boss's slush that are good, but that still need a lot of editing before they are submission ready.  If I pick you for Pitch Wars, I can pretty much guarantee you'd get extensive revision notes. In nearly eighteen months that I've been working for my boss, I've only come across one manuscript, out of hundreds, that I didn't feel needed significant edits.

So what does this mean for you?

Well, the mentors will be posting in late November about what categories  and genres they will be accepting. I don't think it will shock anyone to learn that I'll be looking for romances, all sub-genres, as well as something with an unique concept and voice, probably in the Adult or New Adult categories. However, if last year's rules carry over to this year, you'll be able to apply to three mentors, so I'd probably be also open to fantasy, urban fantasy, and light science-fiction, preferably humorous. I believe you'll be able to apply in the beginning of December, which basically means you have two months to put your manuscript through the wringer and fine-tune your query/pitch.

Take advantage of CPseek and Absolute Writer. Get beta-readers and critique partners who don't love you to pieces. Join Twitter if you haven't already and participate in the #PitchWars hashtag. Follow the mentors and get to know what they might be looking for so you can apply strategically (If you're not following Brenda already, you should be). Several people did pitch critiques before Pitch Madness. Read through the entries/comments and see if anything can be applied to your work.

My boss has signed several clients after Pitch events and getting an agent can absolutely be considered the brass ring, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy the ride. Participate in Pitch Wars for the community and for the connections. Being selected for a mentor's team may mean your manuscript will get an audience, but just being a part of Pitch Wars could mean getting better.

It should go without saying, but if you feel you don't need to get 'better' and that every word of your manuscript is precious gold, Pitch Wars is probably not the event for you.

For everyone else, start getting ready. Pitch Wars is coming...




All opinions expressed are mine alone and should not be associated with or attributed to anyone else.