We Have A Winner!!!

Month9Books editor, Courtney Koschel, has picked a winner! Woo-hoo! To celebrate, and keep you in suspense just a tad longer (yes, I am evil), here are some balloons.

And now... 

The winner is...

Joan He

YA light scifi: INGENICIDE
65k

In the year 2089, education has been reinvented; prodigies run rampant in every imaginable work field. Before the "Genocide," a violent movement designed by Normals to topple the meritocracy, sparked in the US, 16 year old Sibyl Kenschild only wanted to be a Space Manipulator and design rooms that evoked the deepest stirrings of human emotion. But when the the bullets go off at the post-graduation dance, she realizes that it'll take not a Space Manipulator, nor a prodigy, but a traitor to survive.

Please send the query, first 50 pages, and a one page synopsis (ending included) to Courtney Koschel with the words "Three, Two, One, Pitch Contest Winner" in the subject of the email.

CONGRATULATIONS!

And thank you to all that participated! I am always impressed with the quality of work we get here when we run these contests. You guys are awesome. Really.

Three Two One Pitch Contest Official Entry Post

This contest is now over. Thanks to everyone who entered. We will announce the winner as soon as our judging editor has made her decision.

So you think you can pitch? Well, it's time! The Three-Two-One pitch contest takes place today and tomorrow (Wednesday and Thursday), November 20th and 21st. Are you ready? Great!

But before you begin posting, take one last look at the rules and regulations:

The Three-Two-One pitch contest goes like this:

THREE - Pitch your story in only three sentences.

TWO - Two days to enter: November 20th and 21st.

ONE - One awesome editor—Courtney Koschel of Month9Books—will judge and pick a winner.

This contest is open to completed and polished manuscripts in the genres of speculative YA and MG.

To be eligible, you must:

• Follow this blog - go ahead and click "Join this Site" or the Bloglovin' button on the right if you haven't already
• Follow Dorothy on Twitter
• Follow Elizabeth on Twitter
• Follow Sandra on Twitter
• Spread the word! Tweet, Blog, or mention on Facebook about the contest linking back to this post

To enter, leave a comment in the comments section in the following format:

• Name and Email
• Title of Manuscript
• Genre
• Wordcount
• Three-sentence Pitch

Remember, no run-on sentences! Each person is allowed two entries. I will turn off comments on Thursday night at midnight.

Good luck, everyone! Can't wait to read your pitches! Ready, set, go!

Three, Two, One, Pitch Contest: Guest Judge Revealed!

It's hard to believe three months has passed and we are gearing up for another Three, Two, One, Pitch Contest. And this time our guest judge is none other than Month9Books acquisitions editor-extraordinaire, Courtney Koschel!

Courtney has been writing since she could hold a crayon. Her love for all things writing followed her to college where she obtained a B.A. in communications with a focus in print journalism. In the past seven years she has worked as a journalist, an editor, a technical writer, a technical editor, and a freelance editor. She has an undying love for YA and MG fiction. She has one completed YA fantasy novel, and is currently revising a YA horror. With that said, Courtney has a particular interest in all things creepy. She loves YA horror that will make her sleep with the light on, sci-fi, paranormal, fantasy, historical fantasy, and epic fantasy. She loves for all her stories to have a strong voice, swoon-worthy romance, and unexpected plot twists. For MG, she loves magical adventure stories. She’s especially interested in those with a male protagonist. She really loves any story that sticks with her long after she’s read it.

For this contest, Courtney would like to see the following genres:

Speculative* Middle Grade
Speculative* Young Adult

For official rules, please see this post. So, best of luck to all and, most importantly, have fun! I can't wait to read your entries! 

* From Wikipedia: Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, weird fiction, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as related static, motion, and virtual arts.

Heads up for November's Three Two One Pitch Contest

So you think you can pitch? It's time again for us to give aspiring writers everywhere a chance to pitch their manuscript. But this time it's not to a literary agent; it's to an editor at a publishing company! What an exciting opportunity, right? The next Three-Two-One pitch contest takes place November 20th and 21st. This gives you all about three weeks to get your manuscripts and pitches ready. Just a reminder to those who haven't participated before, a Three-Two-One pitch contest goes like this:

• THREE - Pitch your story in only three sentences.
• TWO - Two days to enter: November 20th and 21st.
• ONE - One editor will judge and pick a winner.

Doesn't that sound great? Well then, get those pitches ready!

Do not enter your pitch on this post. We will make an official contest entry post on November 20th and entrants will post their three-sentence pitches (no run on sentences!) in the comments section of that post. At midnight on November 21st, We will turn off comments and no other entries will be accepted. 

We will announce our spectacular judging editor sometime prior to the contest, so keep an eye out!

This contest is open to completed and polished manuscripts in the genres of:

Speculative* Middle Grade
Speculative* Young Adult

To be eligible, you must:

• Follow this blog - go ahead and click "Join this Site" or click the Bloglovin' button on the right if you haven't already
• Follow Dorothy on Twitter
• Follow Elizabeth on Twitter
• Follow Sandra on Twitter
• Spread the word! Tweet, Blog, or mention on Facebook about the contest and link back to this post or the official entry post.

So, don't forget: three sentences, two days to enter, one editor will judge. Good luck, everyone. We can't wait to read all of your pitches. See you back here on the 20th of November! :)

* From Wikipedia: Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, weird fiction, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as related static, motion, and virtual arts.

Three, Two, One, Pitch Contest: We Have Winners!

Good morning, Ladies and Gents! As many of you know, we ran a little contest a few days ago called the Three, Two, One, Pitch Contest (read more about it here). We had some really great entries and I'm happy to announce that our guest agent judge, Lindsay Ribar, has picked her winners. And not only that, she gave us a little feedback as to WHY she picked what she did. How awesome is that? 

So, here are her choices, in Lindsay's own words:

First of all, thanks for having me as the judge for the Three Two One Pitch contest! It was incredibly fun to read all of these, and actually pretty hard to narrow it down.  In the end, though, these are the pitches that really stuck with me.

1

Kate Larkindale

STUMPED

YA Contemporary

75,000 words

After losing his legs in an accident, Ozzy knows he’s a hideous freak. Determined to prove he can still be a man despite his disability, he throws himself into dumping the burden of his virginity, but finds there’s a limited number of people willing to touch legless dudes in wheelchairs. Ozzy’s obsession takes him into the seedy underworld of brothels and escort services where he discovers the difference between sex and intimacy, and that sometimes the price you pay for getting what you want is much higher than a sex worker’s fee.

Talk about edgy, right? Not only does our protagonist have a disability that clearly screws with his own self-perception, but his coping mechanism is paying for sex.  But if the phrase “the difference between sex and intimacy” didn’t hook me (spoiler: it did), that last line sure did. I want to know what the price is.

2

Molly Pinto Madigan

OF BLOOD AND ROSES

YA UF/PR

70,000 words

Maggie Mae Carter is sick of living life timidly, adrift in a sucky sea of collegiate drudgery, so when she hears a voice on the radio that makes her feel more alive than she has in years, she knows she has to meet the singer – the mysterious Thomas Lynn. Armed with a penchant for folk music, Maggie steals away to The Hall – a labyrinthine rock club teeming with secrets – to meet the man who spins ballads into rock ‘n’ roll perfection, but when she wakes up alone on the greenroom couch, petals in her curls and her arms raked with thorns, Maggie is plunged into the strange world behind the shadows of The Hall, where words bind, where music manipulates, and where mortality hints at something more. As she struggles to unravel the mystery behind the music, will Maggie be able to save Thomas Lynn from the fey forces that threaten him, and, more importantly, will she be able to save him from himself?

Full disclosure: I did receive this as a query a few months ago, and because I’m horribly behind on my non-client reading, it’s still in my “Look At This When You Have Time, Because It Might Be Awesome” folder. Full disclosure part two: I’m 300% more likely to read anything that has to do with music and musicians. Those things aside, though, this is just a particularly well-written pitch… and I’m intrigued by the hints of magic, which feel far more otherworldly than most things you find in YA nowadays.

3

Joanna Ahleen

SHADOWS

YA PR

78,000 words

Samantha Bell is falling hard for her best friend Mark, but he’s in love with a ghost who has been dead over a century. Sam’s budding feelings for Mark are tested immediately as she is literally haunted by ghost girl-Kate who, according to a stupid prophesy, thinks Mark is destined to die and join her spirit-state very soon. To make matters worse, when Sam learns Kate isn’t the only ghost keeping an eye on her, Sam’s world shifts into something she isn’t sure she wants to be a part of: a world where ghosts aren’t merely harmless specters who slam doors and throw dishes.

It’s the viewpoint that sold me on this one – a viewpoint that reminds me of Team Human in the best possible way. And if that wasn’t enough, this Samantha person seems to think about as highly of prophecies as I do!  

Congratulations to all of the winners! And the prizes? Lindsay would like to see your full manuscripts! Yippee! Please send the material to lribar (at) sjga (dot) com. Be sure to mention you are a winner of the Three, Two, One, Pitch Contest in the subject line of your email.

Thank you, Lindsay, for being so awesome and for taking the time to judge this contest. You seriously ROCK!

Three Two One Pitch Contest Official Entry Post

This contest is now closed to additional entries. We will announce the winner as soon as the judging agent informs us of her choice. Thanks to everyone who participated.

So you think you can pitch? Well, it's time! The Three-Two-One pitch contest takes place today and tomorrow (Thursday and Friday), July 25th and 26th. Are you ready? Great!

But before you begin posting, take one last look at the rules and regulations:

The Three-Two-One pitch contest goes like this:

THREE - Pitch your story in only three sentences.

TWO - Two days to enter: July 25th and 26th.

ONE - One awesome agent—Lindsay Ribar of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates—will judge and pick a winner.


This contest is open to unagented, completed and polished manuscripts in the genres of YA and MG.

To be eligible, you must:

• Follow this blog - go ahead and click "Join this Site" on the right if you haven't already
• Follow Dorothy on Twitter
• Follow Elizabeth on Twitter
• Spread the word! Tweet, Blog, or mention on Facebook about the contest linking back to this post

To enter, leave a comment in the comments section in the following format:

• Name and Email
• Title of Manuscript
• Genre
• Wordcount
• Three-sentence Pitch

Remember, no run-on sentences! Each person is allowed two entries. I will turn off comments on Friday at midnight.

Good luck, everyone! Can't wait to read your pitches! Ready, set, go!

Three, Two, One, Pitch Contest: Guest Judge!

Howdy! I am so excited. In only one week, We-Do-Write will host another Three, Two, One Pitch Contest! And to top it off, the fabulous judge of this contest is none other than MY super-agent, Lindsay Ribar of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Check out this interview we did a few months ago.)

Associate agent Lindsay Ribar began her career at Greenburger Associates in 2007, working primarily with science fiction and fantasy authors.  In addition to representing her own clients, she co-reps a select number of authors with senior agent Matt Bialer.

Lindsay grew up in New Jersey, where the only logical thing to do after high school was to move to New York. She majored in drama and English literature at NYU, and now works in book publishing, where she reads other people’s novels by day and writes her own by night. She owns approximately twelve bazillion CD’s, attends far too many concerts, and mainlines nerdy television shows like it’s going out of style. She is fond of wine, Ireland, musicals, long walks around Manhattan, and the color blue.

Lindsay is looking for:

- Young Adult: Paranormal, horror, thriller, and contemporary realistic (no secondary-world fantasy or "issue" books, please)

- Middle Grade: Contemporary realistic, literary stand-alones, paranormal, mystery

- No adult of any genre, please; no chapter- or picture-books

So, if you want the opportunity to pitch to Lindsay Ribar in three sentences, follow the directions here, perfect that pitch, and come back on July 25th. See you soon!

Heads Up! Countdown to the Three Two One Pitch Contest

So you think you can pitch? It's time again for us to give aspiring writers everywhere a chance to pitch to a literary agent. The next Three-Two-One pitch contest takes place July 25th and 26th. This gives you all about three weeks to get your manuscripts and pitches ready. Just a reminder to those who haven't participated before, a Three-Two-One pitch contest goes like this:

THREE - Pitch your story in only three sentences.

TWO - Two days to enter: July 25th and 26th.

ONE - One agent will judge and pick a winner.

Doesn't that sound great? Well then, get those pitches ready!

Do not enter your pitch on this post. We will make an official contest entry post on July 25th and entrants will post their three-sentence pitches (no run on sentences!) in the comments section of that post. At midnight on July 26th, We will turn off comments and no other entries will be accepted. The winner will get a full manuscript request!

We will announce our spectacular judging agent sometime prior to the contest, so keep an eye out!

This contest is open to unagented, completed and polished manuscripts in the genres of:

• Middle Grade
• Young Adult

To be eligible, you must:

1) Follow this blog - go ahead and click "Join this Site" on the right if you haven't already
2) Follow Dorothy on Twitter
3) Follow Elizabeth on Twitter
4) Spread the word! Tweet, Blog, or mention on Facebook about the contest and link back to this post or the official entry post.

So, don't forget: three sentences, two days to enter, one agent will judge. Good luck, everyone. We can't wait to read all of your pitches. See you back here on the 25th of July! :)

Pitch Contest Winners!

Yes, that's right! Winners with an 's' at the end! Here's the message Tricia sent me:

The winners! I would like to see the first 50 pages of each and have them email me with a full query in the email and the first 50 pages as a .doc attachment.

Thank you to all who participated. Great pitching. I am so impressed!

Best,
Tricia L.


1. Sarah G Marsh
AthenaDreaming [at] gmail [dot] com
NO SUCH THING
YA Southern Gothic
60,000 Words

Dare Cleaster doesn’t believe in ghosts any more than she believes in the Tooth Fairy. But on a sweaty summer night, the seventeen-year-old unintentionally wakes a sinister spirit that’s been dormant in the crumbling Waters residence for years, and it refuses to be ignored. Now Dare must figure out how to lay the ghost of Atheleen Waters to rest before she can add to the body count she began over a hundred and fifty years ago.

2. Jennifer Moore
jennycmoore@hotmail.com
AGENT SPARROW AND THE GREAT ROMAN ESCAPADE
MG
18,000 words

An imported stash of nappy pins and surplus baked beans might seem harmless enough, but in the wrong hands and the wrong millennium they can do a surprising amount of damage. With only a photo-booth time machine, a handful of Roman coins and a pocket history guide at their disposal, 10-year old Oliver Sparrow and the bungling Agent Wolf are sent back to Roman Britain to stop the world’s premier evil genius changing the course of British history forever. What starts as a normal school day soon becomes a whirlwind of exciting captures and desperate escapes, of underwear calamities, disgusting Roman food and a very close encounter with a hungry lion.

3. Joan He
joanart6 (at) gmail (dot) com
YA light scifi: INGENICIDE
65k

In the year 2089, education has been reinvented; prodigies run rampant in every imaginable work field. Before the Normals started the "Genocide", a violent movement designed to topple the meritocracy, 16 year old Sibyl Kenschild only wanted to be a Space Manipulator and to design rooms that evoked the deepest stirrings of human emotion. But when the the bullets go off at the post-graduation dance, she realizes that it'll take not a Space Manipulator, nor a prodigy, but a traitor to survive.

Woohoo, congrats to the winners! And great pitching, everyone!

Winners, please email me at dorothyanndreyer [at] gmail [dot] com for details on how to send your materials to Tricia. And for everyone else, get those manuscripts polished, because our next pitch contest takes place in July!

Official Three Two One Pitch Contest Entry Post

This contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered. We will announce the winner as soon as Tricia makes her decision. Good luck, everyone!

So you think you can pitch? Well, it's time! The Three-Two-One pitch contest takes place today and tomorrow (Thursday and Friday), April 25th and 26th. Are you ready? Great!

But before you begin posting, take one last look at the rules and regulations:

The Three-Two-One pitch contest goes like this:

THREE - Pitch your story in only three sentences.

TWO - Two days to enter: April 25th and 26th.

ONE - One awesome agent—Tricia Lawrence of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency—will judge and pick a winner.


This contest is open to unagented, completed and polished manuscripts in the genres of YA and MG.

To be eligible, you must:

• Follow this blog - go ahead and click "Join this Site" on the right if you haven't already
• Follow Dorothy on Twitter
• Follow Elizabeth on Twitter
• Spread the word! Tweet, Blog, or mention on Facebook about the contest linking back to this post

To enter, leave a comment in the comments section in the following format:

• Name and Email
• Title of Manuscript
• Genre
• Wordcount
• Three-sentence Pitch

Remember, no run-on sentences! Each person is allowed two entries. I will turn off comments on Friday at midnight.

Good luck, everyone! Can't wait to read your pitches!

Three, Two, One, Pitch Contest: Special Announcement!

It's Monday! Which, for most of us, means the weekend has come and gone and we are slogging our way back to work or school. Hopefully, you're relaxed and ready to start your week, but if that's not even close, maybe we can help (or just get you excited and antsy, which is probably not much help at all).

Today we announce the agent who will be judging the Three, Two, One, Pitch Contest in TWO WEEKS! (If you have no idea what the Three, Two, One, Pitch Contest is, read this post) Believe me, guys, this agent is a good one. She comes from a fabulous agency that is currently not opened to unsolicited queries, so this may be your chance to snag her!

Meet Tricia Lawrence of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency, the gracious guest judge of our Three, Two, One, Pitch Contest:

Tricia is the "Pacific Northwest branch" of EMLA—born and raised in Oregon, and now lives in Seattle. After 17 years of working as a developmental and production-based editor (from kids book to college textbooks, but mostly college textbooks), she joined the EMLA team in March 2011 as a social media strategist hoping to learn from Erin and Joan about agenting.

As associate agent, Tricia represents picture books/chapter books that look at the world in a unique and unusual way, with characters that are alive both on and off the page, and middle grade and young adult fiction and nonfiction that offers strong worldbuilding, wounded narrators, and stories that grab a reader and won't let go.

Tricia loves hiking, camping out in the woods, and collecting rocks. She loves BBC America and anything British. She has way too many books and not enough bookshelves. You can find Tricia's writing about blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking, and other social media topics (for authors and the publishing industry at large) here.

So, if you want the chance to pitch to Tricia in three sentences, click this link, read the post, and follow the directions. We look forward to reading your entries!

Three, Two, One Pitch Contest: Official Heads Up!

So you think you can pitch? Once again, we'll be giving aspiring writers everywhere a chance to pitch to a literary agent. The next Three-Two-One pitch contest takes place April 25^th and 26^th. This gives you all about three weeks to get your manuscripts and pitches ready. Just a reminder to those who haven't participated before, a Three-Two-One pitch contest goes like this:

THREE - Pitch your story in only three sentences.

TWO - Two days to enter:  April 25^th and 26^th.

ONE - One agent will judge and pick a winner.

Doesn't that sound great? Well then, get those pitches ready!

Do not enter your pitch on this post. We will make an official contest entry post on April 25^th and entrants will post their three-sentence pitches (no run on sentences!) in the comments section of that post. At midnight on April 26^th, We will turn off comments and no other entries will be accepted. The winner will get a full manuscript request!

We will announce our spectacular judging agent sometime prior to the contest, so keep an eye out!

This contest is open to unagented, completed and polished manuscripts in the genres of:

Middle Grade

Young Adult

To be eligible, you must:

1) Follow this blog - go ahead and click "Join this Site" on the right if you haven't already

2) Follow Dorothy on Twitter

3) Follow Elizabeth on Twitter

4) Spread the word! Tweet, Blog, or mention on Facebook about the contest and link back to this post.

So, don't forget: Three sentences, two days to enter, one agent will judge. Good luck, everyone. We can't wait to read all of your pitches. See you back here on the 25^th of April! :)

Winner of the Three Two One Pitch Contest

Our fantastic judging agent was lightning fast getting her choice for a winner back to me. Here's what she had to say:

***

Thanks for the chance to take part in the pitch fest. It was fun! There were some strong entries to choose from, and I went back and forth between a few pitches before making the final decision.

Winner is:

Deborah Kreiser 
THREE WISHES
YA fantasy
71,000 words

On the day she turns 17-1/2, Eugénie Lowry ("Genie" to her friends) is suddenly transformed from lanky to curvy, and discovers she's an honest-to-God, real, live genie, with exactly 6 months to find a master. She wishes more than anything to fall in love and live happily ever after, but is that even possible when a genie is supposed to serve her master? No one's done it before, but Genie's determined to succeed--without losing herself in the process.

Honorable mention goes to these two entries, which both hooked me.

Jen Veldhuyzen (Petre Pan)

Issue 339
YA Offbeat
80,000 words

Comic-book superhero Skye takes on awful plot twists every day, but when his parents die in a nasty cliche, he's had it. He shoots his author. But the cop investigating the murder is Skye's best friend's father--and when the publishing company hires a new writer, Skye must decide whether one more murder will save his world, or damn his soul.

Cardyn Brooks
Dodging Eros
Upmarket Women's Twisted Fiction
57k

Sometimes love's like eating forgotten leftover Halloween candy in February, and sometimes it's like consuming a gift box of freshly handmade luxe chocolates in one sitting. Either way, the consequences of indulging are impossible to escape, while the immediate pleasures seem worth the future complications--at least initially. Moving from past to present, Dodging Eros serves up complicated adults trying to protect themselves from their choices in love and in life.

I'd be happy to review the query & full ms for THREE WISHES.

***

Congratulations, Deborah Kreiser! Please send your full ms in an attachment to myrsini@carolmannagency.com with the subject "Requested Material: Three Wishes".
Put your query in the body of the email, and please
 mention that her request came from this contest.

We'll be crossing our fingers for you!

To the honorable mentions and everyone else who took part in the contest,
feel free to query Myrsini in the usual manner.
Honorable mentions can mention the contest as well.

To all, stay tuned this spring for the next pitch contest!

Three Two One Pitch Contest Official Entry Post

This contest is now closed. I will announce the winner as soon as literary agent Myrsini Stephanides let's me know her pick. Thanks to everyone who participated.

So you think you can pitch? Well, it's time! The Three-Two-One pitch contest takes place today and tomorrow, Friday and Saturday, February 8th and 9th. Are you ready? Great!

But before you begin, take a gander at the rules and regulations:

The Three-Two-One pitch contest goes like this:

THREE - Pitch your story in only three sentences.

TWO - Two days to enter: February 8th and 9th.

ONE - One agent—Myrsini Stephanides of the Carol Mann Agency —will judge and pick a winner.

This contest is open to unagented, completed and polished manuscripts in the genres of:

• Offbeat, literary, and graphic YA
• New Adult
• Upmarket Women's Fiction with a twist
• Commercial Fiction

NO middle grade, science fiction, or category romance.

To be eligible, you must:

• Follow this blog - go ahead and click "Join this Site" on the right if you haven't already
• Follow me on Twitter
• Spread the word! Tweet, Blog, or mention on Facebook about the contest linking back to this post

Not necessary, but in the spirit of paying it forward:

• Friend me on Goodreads
• Like my Facebook Author Page

To enter, leave a comment in the comments section in the following format:

• Name and Email
• Title of Manuscript
• Genre
• Wordcount
• Three-sentence Pitch

Remember, no run-on sentences! Each person is allowed two entries. I will turn off comments on Saturday at midnight.

Good luck, everyone! Can't wait to read your pitches!

Three Two One Pitch Contest Details: Meet the Agent

So you think you can pitch? Once again we'll be giving aspiring writers everywhere a chance to pitch to a literary agent. The next Three-Two-One pitch contest takes place this Friday and Saturday, February 8th and 9th. Are you ready?

Just a reminder to those who haven't participated before, a Three-Two-One pitch contest goes like this:

THREE - Pitch your story in only three sentences.

TWO - Two days to enter: February 8th and 9th.

ONE - One agent will judge and pick a winner.

Doesn't that sound great? Well then get those pitches ready!

And now it's time to meet our awesome judging literary agent: Myrsini Stephanides of the Carol Mann Agency! We're very happy to have such a wonderful agent judge our contest.

And now, on with the details:

Do not enter your pitch on this post. I will make an official contest entry post on February 8th, and entrants will post their three-sentence pitches (no run on sentences!) in the comments section of that post. At midnight on February 9th, I will turn off comments and no other entries will be accepted. The winner will get a full manuscript request!

This contest is open to unagented, completed and polished manuscripts in the genres of:

• Offbeat, literary, and graphic YA
• New Adult
• Upmarket Women's Fiction with a twist
• Commercial Fiction

NO middle grade, science fiction, or category romance.

To be eligible, you must:

• Follow this blog - go ahead and click "Join this Site" on the right if you haven't already
• Follow me on Twitter
• Spread the word! Tweet, Blog, or mention on Facebook about the contest linking back to this post

Not necessary, but in the spirit of paying it forward:

• Friend me on Goodreads
• Like my Facebook Author Page

So, don't forget: Three sentences, two days to enter, one agent will judge. Good luck, everyone. Can't wait to read all your pitches. See you back here on the Friday!

Heads up for the Next Three Two One Pitch Contest

So you think you can pitch? Once again we'll be giving aspiring writers everywhere a chance to pitch to a literary agent. The next Three-Two-One pitch contest takes place February 8th and 9th. This gives you all about one month to get your manuscripts and pitches ready. Just a reminder to those who haven't participated before, a Three-Two-One pitch contest goes like this:

THREE - Pitch your story in only three sentences.

TWO - Two days to enter: February 8th and 9th.

ONE - One agent will judge and pick a winner.

Doesn't that sound great? Well then get those pitches ready!

Do not enter your pitch on this post. I will make an official contest entry post on February 8th, and entrants will post their three-sentence pitches (no run on sentences!) in the comments section of that post. At midnight on February 9th, I will turn off comments and no other entries will be accepted. The winner will get a full manuscript request!

I will announce our spectacular judging agent sometime prior to the contest, so keep an eye out!

This contest is open to unagented, completed and polished manuscripts in the genres of:

• Offbeat, literary, and graphic YA
• New Adult
• Upmarket Women's Fiction with a twist
• Commercial Fiction

NO middle grade, science fiction, or category romance.

To be eligible, you must:

• Follow this blog - go ahead and click "Join this Site" on the right if you haven't already
• Follow me on Twitter
• Spread the word! Tweet, Blog, or mention on Facebook about the contest linking back to this post

Not necessary, but in the spirit of paying it forward:

• Friend me on Goodreads
• Like my Facebook Author Page

So, don't forget: Three sentences, two days to enter, one agent will judge. Good luck, everyone. Can't wait to read all your pitches. See you back here on the 8th of February! :)

Winner of the Three Two One Pitch Contest

And we have a winner!

First of all, I'd like to thank literary agent Marie Lamba of the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency for participating in November's Three Two One Pitch contest. Marie is purely delightful, and it was fun having her involved. I'd also like to thank everyone who participated. It was fun reading all the interesting pitches, and I truly hope some of those stories make it to the book shelves one day.

So without further ado, the winner of the pitch contest is:

Donea Lee Weaver!

Here's Donea's pitch:

The Graves
MG: Paranormal Mystery
60K

Three sentence pitch: 12-year-old, Charlie Graves, stumbles across a dead girl while playing hide and seek with his best friend in the cemetery behind his house. He’s surprised when her ghost appears to him and asks his help in finding her killer – not so surprised when he finds out that his grave-robbing father is the prime suspect. When his dad is convicted of the crime, but the ghost still lingers, Charlie races against time to find the real killer or risks becoming the next victim.

Congratulations, Donea! Please email Marie at marie.jdlit [at] gmail.com and submit your full manuscript as an attachment, along with a brief synopsis and bio. Please mention this contest in the email and put "Requested Material: Pitch Contest Winner" in the subject line. And good luck!

Keep following the blog, everyone. We'll be having another pitch contest early next year. :)

Pitch Contest Success Story

I love when paying it forward pays big. So when I got a message from Caitlin Whitaker telling me she got her agent through one of my contests, I had to let out a major squee.

Here's her story:

Ladies and gentlemen, I am now represented by the fantabulous Ms. Bree Ogden of D4EO Literary Agency.

First, some numbers. I sent out a grand total of 37 queries, never heard back on 14 of them, was rejected 12 times, and had 15 submission requests. I know the numbers don't add up. Some of my submission requests were from contests so there wasn't an official query involved.

Bree was one of my non-query submissions.

I started querying at the end of July and the very first one I sent was answered with a request for my full manuscript. Over the next few weeks, I sent out two and three queries at a time and entered contests to distract myself from obsessing over my submissions.

The first contest I entered was Dorothy Dreyer's 3-2-1 Pitch Contest; three sentences, two days to enter, one agent judging the entries. The agent judging the August 3-2-1 Pitch Contest was Bree Ogden, who is ridiculously awesome on so many levels. I was pretty darn sure I wouldn't win but I loved the idea of whittling my pitch down to three little sentences so I went for it. I labeled it New Adult because the option was there. It's a tricky issue for me because my MC is a little older but the MS feels very YA. I've had mixed messages from agents on this one so I thought it was safer calling it NA than risking the old "Maggie's too old for YA" response. I spent maybe fifteen minutes condensing my query down to this;

"Maggie inherited a lot from her grandma-- her brown eyes, her sense of humor, and her cause of death. Unaware she's starting the countdown to a reenactment of her grandma's death by fire, Maggie spends the summer with her hot-as-hell boyfriend and accidentally sets off an unstable stalker.

It's only a matter of time before Maggie Parrish is going to burn."

And then I waited. Six days later, I wasn't the winner. I assumed Bree wasn't interested. (WRONG)

A bizarre email showed up in my inbox early the week after. Someone claiming to be Bree's executive assistant requested my first fifty pages and synopsis, saying Bree had instructed her to do so following the 3-2-1 Pitch Contest. Instead of her email address ending in @D4EO.com, it was (redacted).D4EO@gmail.com. Her first name was EXACTLY THE SAME as mine. Think hard-- how many Caitlins do you know? Not Katelyns or Caitlynns, but Caitlins. No one knew how to pronounce my name when I was little. Every substitute teacher called me Cat Lynn. I hated it. But I digress.

Because I'm such a confident, secure person, I assumed the almighty Bree-Freaking-Ogden was way out of my league and the email was a scam. This psycho "Caitlin" chick swiped my email address off the contest entry and wanted to steal my baby. Bree, with her red lipstick fetish and love of things dark and wonderful, would never be interested in some loser stay-at-home mom with a minivan and a Diet Cherry Coke addiction.

I did what any sane person would do. I called Bree's executive assistant a manuscript-napping fraud and said she needed to get smacked around. Then I got this email;

"Ha ha! Yes, she is my assistant. And yes, I told her to request fifty pages. Thanks for checking!"

So I apologized to Caitlin for calling her a scam artist and accusing her of trying to hijack my story. I made such a splendid first impression, I figured I'd slaughtered any chance I had of landing Bree.

A bunch of other stuff happened. (I just saved you half an hour. You're welcome.)

All of a sudden, I had offers. It was an overnight thing and I'm still in shock. I wrote a bunch of "thank you for considering my MS, blah blah blah" emails and sent them to the agents who hadn't answered my query yet. To the agents who'd made submission requests, I gave them a heads up about my offers and got emails back, asking for a week to finish reviewing my MS. Bree was one of them.

Bree's offer was preceded by a middle of the night email, confessing she was (and I quote) "falling madly in love" with my manuscript. She sent an email the next day, asking if we could chat on the phone because she had an offer for me. I locked myself in my room and The Gunny hung out with the kids so I could have a semblance of privacy. We talked on the phone and she was every bit as jaw-droppingly cool as she seemed online. (Her hair changes color! Pink! Blue! Green!)

I have to add here how awesome my other offers were. This wasn't an easy decision. I didn't query every agent known to man-- just agents I really wanted to work with. Getting an agent is more than signing a contract. It's agreeing to a sort of partnership. It's finding someone who genuinely loves you and your work and will rave about you to publishers and fight for your manuscript's life. It's not something I took lightly when I sent queries. I think having this attitude made rejections easier for me. When I got a rejection that praised my writing but said they just didn't love it the way they needed to in order to represent me, I was cool with that. I was looking for love and I found it.

Congratulations, Caitlin! I'm so happy for you! I look forward to news of a book deal!

Official Entry Post for the Three Two One Pitch Contest

This contest is now closed. Thank you for all your entries. I will announce the winner as soon as literary agent Marie Lamba makes her decision. Stay tuned!

So you think you can pitch? It's time for aspiring writers everywhere to pitch to awesome literary agent Marie Lamba of the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency. The contest starts today, November 15th, and closes at midnight on the 16th. Just a reminder to those who haven't participated before, a Three-Two-One pitch contest goes like this:

THREE - Pitch your story in only three sentences. No run-ons!

TWO - Two days to enter: November 15th and 16th.

ONE - One agent, Marie Lamba, will judge and pick a winner.

This contest is open to unagented, completed and polished manuscripts in the genres of:

• YA
• MG
• Contemporary Fiction
• Women's Fiction
• Some memoir

Books that are moving and/or hilarious are especially welcome. NO picture books, science fiction, or high fantasy (though paranormal elements are acceptable), category romance (though romantic elements are welcome), non-fiction, or books that feature graphic violence.

Each contestant is allowed two entries.

To be eligible, you must:

• Follow this blog - go ahead and click "Join this Site" on the right if you haven't already
• Follow me on Twitter
• Spread the word! Tweet, Blog, or mention on Facebook about the contest linking back to this post

Not necessary, but in the spirit of paying it forward:

• Friend me on Goodreads
• Like my Facebook Author Page

Entries should be formulated in the following manner, right here in the comments section:

• Your name
• Your email
• Title of your manuscript
• Genre
• Word count
• Three-sentence pitch

So, don't forget: Three sentences, two days to enter, one agent will judge. Good luck, everyone. Can't wait to read all your pitches. On your mark, get set, GO!

Introducing the Judging Agent for November's Three Two One Pitch Contest

Our Three-Two-One Pitch contest will be taking place next week, and I bet you're all dying to know who the judging agent is. Well, I'm pleased to announce that I've lined up an awesome one for you, one I'm sure you'll be excited about.

Our judging agent is:
Marie Lamba of the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency!

Marie Lamba joined JDLA as an Associate Agent in 2011. She is the author of the young adult novel WHAT I MEANT . . . (Random House), and her work appears in the short story anthology LIAR LIAR (Mendacity Press) and the anthology CALL ME OKAASAN: ADVENTURES IN MULTICULTURAL MOTHERING (Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing). Marie's articles appear in more than 100 publications, including national magazines such as Writer's Digest, Garden Design, and RWR. She has worked as an editor, an award-winning public relations writer, and a book publicist, has taught classes on novel writing and author promotion, and is a member of Romance Writers of America and The Liars Club.

Here's what Marie says she's open to for the contest:

Young adult and middle-grade fiction, along with general and women's fiction and some memoir.  Books that are moving and/or hilarious are especially welcome.  I am NOT interested in picture books, science fiction, or high fantasy (though I am open to paranormal elements), category romance (though romantic elements are welcome), non-fiction, or in books that feature graphic violence.


The contest will take place November 15th and 16th. I will make an official entry post, and contestants will leave their three-sentence pitch in the comments section of that post. For more details, click here.

I'm very happy to have Marie judge this round. Be sure to follow the blog, and get those pitches ready, folks!