Writer's Resource: Twitter Pitch Contests

You probably know that Twitter can be an excellent resource for writers (if not, this earlier post might change your mind).

But did you know that you can regularly find pitch contests on Twitter, where agents and/or editors peruse a certain hashtag at a certain time to find material they'd like to request?

One of the big Twitter pitch contests, the one affiliated with the blog contest Pitch Madness, is coming up next week on March 25th. If you're interested in participating, the details are on the contest organizer Brenda Drake's blog here (scroll down to find the section about the Twitter contest).

I've personally participated in three Twitter pitch contests, and I received several agent and editor requests to see my partial or full manuscript. Even better, I connected with like-minded writers when they complimented my pitch, or when I saw one that looked similar to mine and complimented theirs. I got a great critique partner that way!

Of course, a Twitter contest means that the entries have to be formatted so they're under the 140-character limit for a tweet. If the very idea has you screaming in terror, this post might be helpful: Writing a Short Pitch.

Twitter contests are often associated with blog contests like Pitch Madness. Follow writers like Brenda Drake (@brendadrake) or read threads like this one on the Absolute Write forums to find more!

How to Criticize Constructively

If you've ever been involved in a critique group, put your work up for public critique in a forum, or submitted to contests, you're probably familiar with the term "constructive criticism."

The definition of constructive criticism, from Dictionary.com: "criticism or advice that is useful and intended to help or improve something, often with an offer of possible solutions."

Raise your hand if you've experienced criticism that was not, ah, quite so constructive.

Yeah, I thought so.

If you're getting your work out there, bad critiques are unavoidable. But you can take steps to make sure your notes on others' work are as constructive as possible.

One method is the sandwich technique. This means to buffer each piece of negative feedback with two compliments.

Okay, maybe not quite like the graphic. But the sandwich method can be a way to soften the blow of relaying legitimate problems with the manuscript. If you don't tell the writer anything but the parts that weren't working, he or she will probably feel like you hated everything about the work, which usually isn't the case.

Another important point to remember when critiquing is to be specific. There's very little worse than getting notes back on your chapters or manuscript like "I just found the main character very unlikeable" or "the plot seemed unbelievable." 

Of course, it's great to give the writer your gut reactions, but then follow it up by pointing out specific parts in the manuscript that caused that reaction (e.g. "After he punched his grandmother in the face, I found that I didn't like him much anymore"). Rule of thumb: specific feedback gives the writer things to fix.

Be specific. Very specific.

And finally, be polite. Apply the golden rule and ask yourself honestly how you would react to notes like the ones you're about to send. Are they helpful? Do they mention what you liked as well as what you didn't? Are they specific? 

October Contests & New Blog Schedule

New Post Schedule

Some of you may have noticed some changes to our blog schedule.  Mondays will now rotate between the Industry Month in Review, Writers Resource, Villain of the Month, and the YA Book Pick of the month.  Wednesdays Lauren, Jenn, Triona and myself will wax poetically about writing, life and everything in between.

Hope you enjoy!
  

October Contests 

I'm just starting to come down from my GUTGAA high (thank you to Deana Barnhart for hosting and organizing!) There were soooo many amazing entries - I don't know how the judges and agents picked.  (a special congrats to our very own Triona who got THREE requests from the agent portion of the contest!)

Congrats to everyone who participated in GUTGAA, and best of luck to those who have moved onto the Small Press Pitch contest - my fingers and toes are crossed for you!

If you're looking for something to fill that GUTGAA void, there are some fantastic contests coming up for the month of October.  I've heard of six so far (six!!)  If you know of any others, please post in the comments section and I will update the list.

Oct. 13 - Hook, Line and Sinker

Oct. 13-16 - Spooktacular Pitch Extravaganza (Both participating agents were part of GUTGAA, so this contest is great for those that didn't make it into the agent round.)

Oct.15 - Get Your Pitch On

Oct. 15-19 - Pitch Live

Oct 24 - Trick or Treat with an Agent

Oct. 30 - Third Annual Baker's Dozen

As if I needed another reason to love the month of October (any other Halloween geeks out there?)

Hope to see you at a few of them!

Twitter-ific: Twitter for Writers

Once upon a time, I kind of looked down on people who were obsessed with Twitter. Guess they don't have anything better to do than tell a bunch of people what they're eating for breakfast, was generally how my thought process went.

Then I joined Twitter to participate in an agent contest, about three months ago.

Ahem. 1900 tweets later, I would like to sincerely apologize for those uncharitable thoughts. I get it now.

The thing no one told me: how many writers were on Twitter. How many talented, hilarious, kind, and - above all - supportive writers. I now am an active member of a large group of awesome people. We cheer the good news and boo the bad news together.

I had a very rejection-filled day a few weeks ago and was feeling pretty low.

This was me.

I tweeted about it - nothing too hopeless, just something like, "Why do all the rejections have to come at once?" Within minutes, I had a dozen replies from other writers, some who are right there in the query trenches with me and could completely relate, some who have agents and book deals and just wanted to tell me to hang in there, it gets better. It was the best pick-me-up I could have imagined.

Beyond the support system, Twitter is also an excellent source of valuable information for writers at any stage of the process. I follow many agents and editors who are founts of tips and inside scoops on what they're looking for (and what they're rejecting). Even if a Twitter newbie didn't feel comfortable putting out tweets of their own, there's a whole lot to be learned just by following a bunch of reputable agents and editors and doing some "listening."

My advice to new writers who want to be Twitter-ers (I'm still not totally hep to the lingo, obviously!) is to first follow as many industry-professionals as you can. They usually list their Twitter handles on their blogs or websites.

Then keep an eye out for Twitter contests. Even if you don't participate, it's a great way to find other writers who are at the same stage of the process as you. One of my best Twitter friends (now a real-life friend who I met up with at a recent conference!) made the first contact by telling me she loved my contest entry. I've now done the same thing to others several times.

So if you're an aspiring writer and have been wondering if Twitter can help you: the answer is yes. Try it out and see if you like it!

And for the record: I'm @trionabmurphy if you want to say hi.

Writer's Resource: Savvy Authors Pitch Contests

There have been tons of blog-hosted writing contests over the last few months (Cupid's Literary Connection, Miss Snark's First Victim, and Operation Awesome, to name a few.)  I've been in revisions mode for the last few months, and while it's been soooooo tempting to enter some of them, I've held off.  I learned the hard way that if you enter a contest there's a very real chance you might win, and if you win a page critique or manuscript request from an agent before your manuscript is ready, well...that's one agent you can scratch off your list come query time.

A few weeks ago I finally finished my revisions, and now it's time to bring on the contests!

*runs off to dance jig to secret favorite song Call Me Maybe*

During my contest research, I stumbled upon a great site called Savvy Authors.  Admittedly I'm still checking this resource out, but one section was so exciting that I just had to share - they have an entire section of the site dedicated to regular pitch contests, and they pull in some stellar agents.

It's free to sign up for the basic site package, which is the only requirement to enter the contests (that I've seen so far.)  Below is a list of the upcoming pitch opportunities:

July 13 - Share your one line pitch with Jill Marsal of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency
July 16 - Share your one line pitch with Laurie McLean of Larsen Pomada
July 23 - Share your one line pitch with Peter Knapp of Park Literary Group
July 27 - Share your FIRST PAGE with Nicole Resciniti of The Seymour Agency 

And that's just July!

Check out the pitch section of the site for more details.  As always, make sure you check the agent's list of wants and repped genres before submitting.

Now that I'm in contest/submission mode, I'll plan to share contests as I find them.  If you have any good ones you'd like to recommend, please post them into the comments section.

Happy Writing (and contest entering, and submitting, and jig dancing...)

Stacy

Writing a Short Pitch

I'm currently in the middle of querying my third novel, and this time I'm doing it right--sending out queries in small batches, waiting for responses, and tweaking my query and pages based on the feedback I receive. But as I'm sure Tom Petty would agree, the waiting is the hardest part.

One of the things that helps pass the time is entering writing contests. These are a recent discovery of mine. Fabulous people in the online writing community generously donate their time to run contests on their websites, blogs, or even Twitter.

I've participated in four contests over the past month and have gotten several requests from agents to see partial or full manuscripts, which is super-exciting (and helps ease the pain of waiting for query responses!).

A lot of my waiting time has been taken up with putting together pitches that fit the guidelines of each contest. I thought it might be fun to take a look at a few of them.

My comments on each pitch are in blue.

First, for comparative purposes, here's my long pitch (the one that goes in my query letter).

Long Pitch:

Remy Bardin’s parents invented a drug that extends human life by two hundred years—as long as you can pay the Company for those daily pills. Society has fragmented into the long-timers who live in constant fear of losing everything, and the short-timers who would do anything for a few extra years.

Remy isn’t worried—he’ll have a guaranteed supply of the drug when he comes of age next year. But his perfect life dissolves when an old man who threatens to expose his father’s secrets winds up dead. Remy can’t help but wonder what his parents had to do with the old man’s death, and what secrets they could be trying to protect.

After breaking into their lab in the heavily-guarded Company stronghold, he finds out things that make him question the morality of his existence… and he must decide if a few hundred years can possibly be worth the price.

I've gotten a decent request rate on my queries, so I know this pitch isn't too bad, but way too long for most pitch contests.

Three Sentence Pitch:

Remy Bardin's parents invented a drug that extends human life by two hundred years, which is why society has fragmented into the long-timers who can afford the pills and the short-timers who would do anything for a few extra years.

Seventeen-year-old Remy's got a guaranteed lifetime supply of the drug, but his perfect world falls apart when an old man threatens to expose his father's secrets and then is murdered.

After breaking into his parents' lab, Remy finds out the horrible truth behind the drug... and he must decide if a few hundred years can possibly be worth the price.

I took out a few details from the first paragraph and combined two sentences into one. Not too bad.
The second paragraph was harder--I spent a good long while trying to figure out how to get all the details into one sentence. I had to cut the part about Remy wondering what secrets his parents are keeping, but I felt like it was at least implied by the shorter sentence.


The last paragraph was technically only one sentence already, but I felt like it was a bit long for a short pitch contest, so I tightened it up.
I must have done something right, because this pitch won me a blog contest and a full manuscript request from an awesome agent at a top agency!

One Sentence Pitch:

When a privileged teenage boy learns the horrific truth behind a miracle drug that prolongs the life of the rich, he must try to bring down the all-powerful Company from the inside.

Here's where it starts to get reeeallly tricky. Distilling the whole plot of a book down into a few paragraphs is hard enough--but when we're talking one sentence, it seems impossible.

What worked for me was to really think about the core of the story--what did I say when someone asked me what my novel was about? I wrote a line or two off the top of my head to answer that question.

Then I started looking at the individual words. In a pitch this short, every word counts. At first, it said "a spoiled teenage boy", but then I thought about the exact concept I wanted to get across and changed it to "privileged"--which really is a better representation of the character's background (and bonus: a less generic word).

Twitter Pitch:

A teenage boy learns the horrific secret behind a life-extending drug and must try to bring down his parents' company from the inside.

And you thought the last one was bad... this pitch, for a Twitter contest, had to be no more than 135 characters long (Twitter allows 140 characters, but 5 were needed for the contest's hashtag-identifier).

I started with my one sentence pitch and started cutting. But even after I got rid of all the extra words, I still had too many characters. Then it was time to look at shorter ways to say the same thing. "A miracle drug that prolongs the life of the rich" became "a life-extending drug". "The all-powerful Company" became "his parents' company", because I saved 4 characters!

This pitch also got me a request for material. Despite its length, I think I spent just as long on it as any of the others.

Have you had to work up short pitches for your manuscripts? Do you find them easy or difficult?

Writer's Resource: AgentQuery Connect Part 2, Community Resources

As I mentioned in my last post, AgentQuery Connect is an incredibly valuable resource that should be in every writer's toolkit.  Last time, we focused on query writing resources.  This time around, we're going to chat about some of the writing community resources and tools beyond query writing.

If you're new to the site, make sure to introduce yourself.  There is also a great section where newbies can ask questions to the group via the guppie pond.  Think your word count may be too high?  Want someone's opinion on how best to follow up to an agent?  Not sure where to start?  Post your question and let the vets respond.

In addition to writing resources, the site is an excellent way to connect with other writers.  Had a bad day or just need to vent some frustrations?  Check out the litter box.  Finally made it through your revisions, or received your first partial request from an agent?  Share your good news in the good news boast bar.  There are even boards for genre specific topics, where you can connect with other writers from your genre.

If you're starting your agent hunt, check out some of these handy sections:

1.  Agent Updates - this section includes updates on agency moves, blackout periods, new agents, etc.
2.  Agent Submission Process - this section allows you to post any and all questions about the submission process.  I'd recommend scrolling through the existing content before you post your question - there's a good chance you'll find your answer in the existing archives.
3.  Contests and Conferences - here you'll find posts about upcoming contests and conferences.  It's a great resource if you're interested in getting involved with some of the agent blog contests that happen each month.

If you're looking for a critique partner, or just need someone to review your first few chapters, check out the wanted ads.  There, you can post an ad or respond to other posts.  I've found a number of beta readers this way, and every one of them has been fantastic!

Every time I login to AgentQuery Connect I find something new - this post only begins to scratch the surface.  I hope you'll spend some time exploring the site and the wonderful community of writers you'll find there.  And don't be a lurker!  You'll get so much more from the site if you join in.

Happy Writing!