Happy Martin Luther King Day, everyone! With Sun vs. Snow rapidly approaching, I thought I’d put some of my prior contest advice posts in one handy place for you. (Side note: This is the contest where I met Michelle Hauck, and I got amazing feedback on my first page as an alternate, which lead to […]
December ’tis the season of many wonderful things… including SFFPit, PitMad, and PitchMas. I don’t really have much to say about the holidays (Except that I like sugar cookies and fudge. Please send me some), so let’s talk about Twitter pitch parties. I love a good party. They just got requests from their dream agents. […]
The past couple of months, I’ve helped with a couple of contests. All three of my critique partners were featured in PitchWars, so I also read a lot of contest entries as an observer/spectator. My guess is that I read probably about 400 entries between all the contests. Why do I mention this? Just to […]
The NoQS entries went up early! Go take a sneak peek! Before the agent round starts, take a minute to check out my amazing mentees’ awesome entries: http://michelle4laughs.blogspot.com/2014/10/noqs-minion-4-wired-for-wall-street.html http://writersoutworld.blogspot.com/2014/10/noqs-agent-round-grandma-has-murder-on.html And then stop and check out Team #SCSpooks, which I helped create. (It’s OK to check out the other entries on the first two blogs. They’re […]
I spent most of last week reading through slush for Nightmare on Query Street, and I’m also acting as a mentor. While reading about 200 queries, I noticed a few common issues. So, I’ve compiled some query DOs and DON’Ts. DO write your query in the third person, present tense. It doesn’t matter if the […]
Now that PitchSlam is over, I have some overall observations on contests. If an agent doesn’t request to see more, that is not a rejection. Many agents will say that it’s OK to query them after a contest. For one thing, the submission guidelines may be different. If the agent read a pitch, and you have […]
Every writer is going to get negative feedback. It’s inevitable. Not everyone can love your work. I didn’t finish The Fault in Our Stars (please don’t stop reading). I have a friend who won’t even read The Hunger Games because she finds the subject matter so appalling. The Ender’s Game series has gotten criticism for […]
Now that the feedback for the second round of PitchSlam entries has gone out, I thought I’d share some feedback about things that worked and didn’t work for me.* Common Issues I Spotted: Starting in the Wrong Place: There are many ways that this pops up. I truly think that finding the right place to start […]
With the first round of PitchSlam behind us, I thought I’d share some things I noticed going through the pitches. Hopefully, some of the contestants can use this information when revising their pitches before the next round. A Round of Applause for the Entrants. You should be proud of yourselves. Some amazing pitches were submitted. A […]
Every writer has probably heard of the elevator pitch, but basically: if you find yourself in an elevator with your dream agent or editor, how would you explain your story in a couple of sentences? As I mentioned earlier, PitchSlam starts soon (tomorrow, actually!) PitchSlam is a query contest that lets writers receive feedback along […]
With a few awesome contests coming up soon,* I want to take a minute to talk about subjectivity. It took me a while to really get it. Everyone says that querying is subjective. That publishing itself is subjective, and that a rejection of the work is not a comment on the writer’s ability, the plot, […]
I said it was coming, right? Anyway, Nightmare on Query Street is a contest to help writers and agents find each other. There are currently seven agents signed up, with more to come. 1. Contests are loads of fun. Seriously, I can’t talk up contests enough. Contests are like an amazing dance party for introverts […]