Friday, April 17, 2009

Pitch Contest

Now that we are approaching serious convention season, I thought I would do a bit of a open critique of those pitches.

Remember that a pitch is your chance to really demonstrate, in as few words as possible, what makes your pitch unique. What is it that will make me want to buy your book.

So here is your chance...

WHEN: April 20-24, 2009
WHAT: Send your pitch to me for a critique online here at the blog.
PARAMETERS: Send only a 1 paragraph pitch (75 words or less). Send the pitch to contests@greyhausagency.com.

Stories do not have to be romances but should be for a fiction novel of some sort. This is essentially the material that you would include in both a query letter as well as an in-person pitch.

I will not critique all but will find a few that demonstrate both the best and the worst.

There is no prize for this but a chance to get some feedback. No, I will not provide feedback for every entry, but hey, if it sounds good enough, I might ask to see more (no promises though).

Scott

14 comments:

  1. Do you want us to wait until the 20th to send?

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  2. This sounds like fun. And Jenn, what took you so long to ask?;)

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  3. Just to clarify. You are looking for a pitch on a completed MS, right?

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  4. Doesn't have to be finished. But the question is, why pitch something that isn't finished?

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  5. Touche’! What about for practice, as all my completed MS’s are being published at the moment. I um, also have a bridge in Brooklyn I’m trying to unload - anyone interested?

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  6. Brilliant! WIP works for me.
    Thanks Scott!

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  7. Cool, and if you've followed the Branford blog and his fifty-query contest, you've noticed that most of the writers said, "nuts to this, send 'em form rejections." How funny is that!
    It's an unpaid job. Who wants it?
    And moving books at the Highland games is a great idea, because the brother in law owns three sets of pipes, plays in two competition bands, and goes to the blockbuster of them all, Irishfest in Milwaukee, the biggest Gaelic fair in the world, they say, among other events. Why did I not think of this!! And my ms., full of sex and violence, hoo hah, is set in Scotland and England. Scott, you really are a genius under a kilt!
    What is with the kilt? Are you Gaelic? or just looking for some continual air circulation ?Whatever keeps you comfy, and thanks for the fine idea.
    ( And we own Irish wolfhounds.
    One at each side of the table, bigod, along with all of the family weapons and swords. )Beautiful.

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  8. Cool, and if you've followed the Branford blog and his fifty-query contest, you've noticed that most of the writers said, "nuts to this, send 'em form rejections." How funny is that!
    It's an unpaid job. Who wants it?
    And moving books at the Highland games is a great idea, because the brother in law owns three sets of pipes, plays in two competition bands, and goes to the blockbuster of them all, Irishfest in Milwaukee, the biggest Gaelic fair in the world, they say, among other events. Why did I not think of this!! And my ms., full of sex and violence, hoo hah, is set in Scotland and England. Scott, you really are a genius under a kilt!
    What is with the kilt? Are you Gaelic? or just looking for some continual air circulation ?Whatever keeps you comfy, and thanks for the fine idea.
    ( And we own Irish wolfhounds.
    One at each side of the table, bigod, along with all of the family weapons and swords. )Beautiful.

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  9. I'm referring to Queryfail and Agentfail, two funny as heck sites featuring unhappy writers and equally unhappy agents. Writers want more feedback-agents just want a break from Amateur Hour queries. Personally I think the entire query fixation is a form of mass hysteria. Once you have a book published, you'll likely do business the ol' tried and true way, a couple of suggestions over a cup of coffee, on the phone, on the computer. As one of the screenwriters in my books said, "DO NOT send me any queries. I don't have time for this stuff. Whose dumb idea was this anyway?" Darned if I know. And finally on line (YES!) agents are openly admitting that they hate to do pitches. And why not? What good is it to know someone has "an idea" ? The whole western world has "an idea." Now what? And there's a thousand dollars or much more gone that could be used to buy free time to write.And without leaving the driveway, it will STILL be a good "idea," that can be spoken about via mail or computer. And the agent won't be forced to spend hours pretending to be excited and enthusiastic for each comer.
    But we are in the middle of a glorious spring here, and the wolfhounds are laid out in the sun like so many 200 pound dead fish, and I am too happy to keep bitching away. Good luck to all of us poor deluded pitching and querying souls. May the best one win. Writing is an entirely admirable and worthwhile way to spend one's life. It's like buying a ticket for the lottery. SOMEBODY is definitely gonna' win the thing. Why not one of us? Yeah!

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  10. Anon, thanks for the clarification because I was doing the same thing, scratching my head when I read your comment. And it did make me wonder how you found the time to extract yourself from that cup of joe and all those deals you should be knitting together 'the ol’ tried and true way'. I mean, what the heck are you doing hanging around here when this is not where it's at? You know, pitching an idea that the ‘whole western world’ has, to an agent who isn’t interested in listening to it? Do you even read your comments before you post them?

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  11. I'm hanging around here cause I enjoy the heck out of this site, and really love the generous and thoughtful way in which Scott attempts to help the halt and lame, myself being among them. i freelanced fulltime for many years, then had a chance to move out to the west coast with the momentary love of my life, and do something beside feel like a monkey chained to a keyboard, No regrets.
    I always promised myself if I found a good plot for a novel, I would force myself to sit still and write it, and that is what I am doing now. But, BUT, has the field ever changed. I really think it used to be about the writing. Now it is very much about selling a product, and one hopes, a P well-written, as in Sarah Dunant, Philippa Gregory, Elizabeth Wein, Steven Pressfield, the really gorgeous writers in our world, at least to my mind.
    So, what happens to everyone else, given that most people I know would like to write a book?
    Yes! They write queries. For years and years and years and years.
    For instance, check out the Backspace conference in New York this spring. Look at the expensive seminar held just to teach people to write queries, which promptly sold out. Three hundred dollar a night hotel rooms, eating in New York restaurants, good god. The bookstores are full of books about writing queries, as well as the internet sites. The organizers have gotten a group rate, which helps a lot, and I believe that the seminar also discusses the first few pages of the proposal, but something about this reminds me of lemmings rushing to the sea to drown.The other choice is buying a two dollar cup of coffee at the local B & N and reading one of the books on writing queries (I recommend Elizabeth Lyon. Excellent.) and using that travel money to stay home and actually write, writers being the poorest people I know... Would it be a great week in NY? You bet. Would it change the odds of being published? Doubt it.Caren Johnson on her site says Nobody From Nowhere has at best a two per cent chance of being picked up by a real agent, with an unsolicited query. But if you have a couple of extra thousand at the end of the month, why not go.We have kids, pets, and elderly parents, so that is that.
    I dunno...we all must follow our own stars, however short-sighted and misguided they may be. If I had not already been published a lot, I might feel differently. I can only say that something about all this just feels ...wrong to me. Nevertheless, I wish everyone the best of luck, and may your own queries and proposals leave the agents jumping for joy.

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