Genre: YA contemporary
Word Count: 75,000
Pitch: Lindy’s killed all her ex-boyfriends but, this time, she’s found the One. Meanwhile, her detective daddy closes in on a killer of teenage girls – Lindy’s new boyfriend.
Excerpt:
We’re going to break up, so I’ve brought my gun with me. It’s been in arm’s reach since I saw him with Jenna at the mall on Wednesday. When he blew me off that night – homework, lame excuse – I went home and loaded it.
Three bullets. Two for him, one spare. Just in case.
He called me ten minutes ago, as usual. Must have nearly chickened out this time, though: the first text came through just before midnight. He hoped I’d be asleep. Should have known I wouldn’t be. My market value is sky-high on Friday nights. I jumped straight out of bed and put on the dress he likes. Easy but not cheap. I hope.
When I see him, I know it’s hopeless. Our eyes lock and his face drops. Barely a second, but enough. It’s over.
I sit on his bed while he fusses. He slams a drawer shut – his finger with it – and swears. Pretend casual: “What’re you doing?”
“Nothing.” He turns towards me then quickly away. I don’t blame him. The dress is cut high and low in the wrong places. Very distracting. “Getting ready for tomorrow.”
“Today.” I gesture at the clock. Tick tock. “Coach said early night.”
He smiles. Smirks. “You know me.”
“Yeah. I do.” I cross my legs. The dress is rebelling in every direction, and there’s no cosmetic way to adjust it. “I was surprised to hear from you.”
Playing dumb: “You were?”
I smile sweetly. Playing, too. “I missed you.”
CLUE: Mr. Boddy is found in the kitchen, his throat neatly slit, a pool of blood formed
Word Count: 60,000
The submission window for Pitch Madness is this Monday, March 10,
and will be open for 24 hours (12:01AM EST to 11:59PM EST). There
will be no cut off number. Everyone who submits during the window will
make it into the contest. You will receive a receipt, if you don’t,
check with me here on the blog or with Brenda on Twitter (@brendadrake).
For those of you not familiar with Pitch Madness, it’s a contest
where agents compete in a game against their peers for pitches. This
time the game is . If you haven’t been a part of a Pitch
Madness challenge before, please check out this post here for more information. The submission window is
open for 24 hours (12:01AM EST to 11:59PM EST)
on March 10. Our slush readers will read through the pitches and
pick the top 60 pitches for the agent round starting on March 18. We try
to get a good mix of various genres, but the writing comes first.
Basically, if the submissions aren’t ready, it’s a pass.
The agents will be playing a fun game of for your pitches this round of Pitch
Madness. Keep an eye out on the Twitter hashtag
#PitchMadness for slush readers’ comments as they
search for the best of the best. And on reveal day, March 20 at 12AM EST
(Noon – NY time), to watch the challenge rounds between the agents go down.
Here’s the rules of submission . . .
This is for completed, unpublished fiction manuscripts (no picture
books, chapter books, non-fiction, or novellas). The categories are
Adult, New Adult, Young Adult, and Middle Grade. Any genres. One
manuscript per writer. The winners will not be notified before the agent
round. (All submissions sent before or after the window time slot will
be deleted.)
The email for submissions is brendadrakecontests@gmail.com –
NO ATTACHMENTS – All pitches must be embedded in the email.
Please format your entries like this …
Email subject line: Pitch Madness: TITLE OF MANUSCRIPT
Name: Your name
Title: TITLE OF MANUSCRIPT
Genre: Category/genre of your manuscript (ie. YA Fantasy)
Word Count: Word count (round to the nearest 1000th – ie. 70,000)
Pitch: 35word (max) logline. Do not go over even one word. Single
spaced. Times New Roman 12pt. No indentions.
Excerpt: The first 250 words of your manuscript. If the 250th word falls
in the middle of a sentence, go to the end of that sentence. Your pitch
should be Times New Roman 12pt, single spaced, one space between
paragraphs, no paragraph indentions.
Make sure the formatting is done
correctly, but if the email transfer messes it up we will still take it.
There’s a #PitMad Twitter Pitch Party!
And, if you don’t make it into Pitch Madness (everyone is welcome to
join in) we’re holding another Twitter Pitch Party on March
25. So get your 140 word pitch ready and make sure to include
the hashtag #PitMad and category (#YA, #Adult, #MG, #NA, #PB, and so
on).
All categories and genres welcomed. Tweet your pitch when you see
an agent come on but don’t do it too obsessively. Twice an hour is a
good amount. The agents will read the feed.
Phew … that’s it.
Oh, wait. Here’s the Pitch Madness schedule again …
Now, that’s it for now. See you all on March 10 for submission
day. Good luck, everyone!
Agents won’t only be competing for requests, but for gift cards, too! We
figured that it’s a lot of work playing a game, so we decided to reward
the winners as an extra incentive and bragging rights. The winning
agent, grand crime solver, ruler of the slush pile will receive a $50
gift card from either Amazon or Barnes & Noble (winners choice) with
two runners-up receiving $25 gift cards. Each agent will get an entry
into the drawing for the gift cards for just participating. For each
pitch the agent wins, he/she will get another entry into the drawing for
the gift cards. We decided to do a drawing since not all agents are
looking for all the categories/genres in the game and felt this would be
a fair way to handle that issue.
Could the maid (aka Pam van Hylckama Vlieg) be secretly conniving with the murderer or could she be more sinister than she would have us believe? The suspects will have to be on their toes or she just might swipe all the requests from them.
The suspects (agents) …
Here’s the Pitch Madness schedule …
That’s it for now. Come back tomorrow for the formatting
instructions!