What is Pitch Madness? It’s a contest to win a request from one or more of the participating agents.
I will have an agent introduction post up soon.
The submission window will be open from 12:01 AM EST on February 20 until 11:59PM EST on February 23. You should have plenty of time to get your submissions in.
There is no limit of how many entries will be accepted. All entries sent before or after the allotted times will be deleted. Make sure to perfect your entry. If you make an error, you may not resend.
There will be 60 finalists moving onto the agent round. Pitch Madness will accept Middle Grade, Young Adult, New Adult, and Adult (never before published) fiction only, novel length (no novellas) completed and polished manuscripts only. All genres (i.e. fantasy, contemporary, sci-fi, and so on) are welcome to enter. This time around we will not accept non-fiction. Only one entry per writer.
What do you need to enter? A 35-word (max) pitch and the first 250 words of your finished manuscript. If the 250th word falls in the middle of a sentence, go to the end of the sentence. There will be a form on the submission post on Brenda Drake’s blog for you to fill out and submit your entry.
Please enter only once. You will not get an email receipt. Look for the notice after you submit that says it was received.
Pitch Madness will be on four blogs and each blog host will have a co-host helping them choose their top 15 entries.
We’ll have a team of first readers who will check for formatting, grammar, and content and put their top picks through to the hosts.
To meet the readers and the teams go to this post here.
Here are the host blogs …
Brenda Drake’s blog
All the twitter fun will happen on the hashtag
#PitchMadness!
The agents will be playing a game to win their top requests and have some time alone with them before they’re sent to the other requesting agents.
To meet our agents go to this post here.
Here are the rules of the SORRY! game the agents will play …
(Midnight to Midnight EST)Starting on March 2 just after Midnight EST and until the end of March 3 the agents will visit the host blogs, read the entries, and enter their moves (requests) for the pitches they want. The comments will be on moderate so that agents won’t see what the other agents are requesting. Highest move “request” wins.
- To place a partial request: Agents move their “pawn” the number of spaces they want to request. (Example: I move my pawn 1 space = 1 chapter). Agents can move their pawns up to 12 paces. Each partial will include the query. The agents don’t have any restrictions other than they can’t request more than 12 chapters or less than one chapter.*
- To place a full request: Agents move their “pawn” home. (Example: I move my pawn home = full request. Each full request will include the query.)*
- Highest request wins the play and an entry into the drawing referenced below.
*Only one request per agent for each pitch during the first round.
Second Round – March 4 at
12PM (Noon) EST
extra incentive and bragging rights.
gift cards. There will be a drawing for the winners of the gift cards. Just for participating the agents automatically get an entry into the drawing. For each win, the agents get another entry into the drawing.