Guest Post: PitchWars Advice

If you’re entering a new MS in PitchWars, I have a special guest blogger today to share her wisdom from last year with you. Thanks so much for Sharon Johnston for stopping by. Here’s her wonderful advice:

Last year I was fortunate enough to be a mentor on Pitch Wars. There were so many amazing entries, so here’s some advice to help you stand out in the slush to the Pitch Wars mentees:

1)  Be professional: Your email should mimic what you would send to an agent. While the mentors are not agents, they are going to be presenting your work to agents. Agents what writers who behave professionally, so the mentors will be looking for that.

2)  Make your email personal: You’re only able to pitch to four (4) mentors. Mentors want to see that you have researched them to make sure your manuscript is a match for them. Adding a personal touch will show them you’ve done more than just read the Pitch Wars wish list post when considering your top three.

3)  Abide by the rules and requirements of the competition: There are hundreds of entries that come through Pitch Wars and mentors can receive in excess of 50 emails directly to them. An easy way to cull is to dismiss the entries that haven’t supplied the correct information.

4)  Get it right the first time (Pertains to above): With so many entries coming in, rework for the mentors comes across as unprofessional.

5)  Workshop your entry: There’s lots of critique forums out there. Hone your entry to make sure it pops. You need it to be perfect.

6)  Use comparisons: I described my mentee’s manuscript as Jane Eyre meets Supernatural and Crystal received a truckload of agent requests.

7)  Make sure your work is ready: Don’t enter a first draft. Don’t enter a second draft. You should have gone through your manuscript multiple times with beta editors/critique partners. If there’s a mistake in your sample work, it won’t bode well for you.

8)  Make sure your manuscript is REALLY ready: So many manuscripts are passed over in pitch contests because the word count doesn’t match the category/genre. If you have a YA contemporary with a word count in excess of 100K then the mentors may baulk, and I, personally, would question if you’ve edited your manuscript properly. Look at your manuscript and see how it compares to industry expectations. There will always be some that break the rules, but pitch contests are usually not the best place to test that.

So there’s some helpful (hopefully) information to help you with the upcoming pitch wars.

Sharon Johnston is a writer, publish relations executive and former publishing marketing director. She is also blogs with YAtopia and Aussie Owned & Read, as well as a regular host for the international agent query contest Pitch Madness. Her debut novel, SLEEPER, is out in December. Other women regularly stalk Sharon for her great taste in shoes.