Pitch Wars 2017

I'm not in PitchWars this year, but I love reading all the tweets though!

BreeC said:

Such great thoughts, everyone. PW is a great avenue, but not the only avenue.

Does anyone have any tips for revision? I know that there isn't any one linear editing technique for everyone, so I'd love to hear what works for all of you.

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Heck if I know. I just rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. Until my CPs stop rolling their eyes so hard they go blind and my beta readers stop ditching me at ch1 ;-) at that point (to paraphrase Gene Wolfe) you then have a working first draft.

Step 1) Find a nice, sturdy wall.
Step B: bang head against wall until you get beta readers who don't hate you.
Part 3 - Do what the beta readers tell you and maybe fix some other stuff that jumps out at you.

helios said:

I worry a little that when mentors ask you what you think the strengths and weaknesses on your MS are, that being able to identify weaknesses might make the mentor not pick you because you seem to already know at least SOME things you can fix. And yet not listing all the weaknesses you can think of seems disingenuous. Thoughts?

Also I completely agree with those saying PW isn't the be all end all. Wasn't there a NYT bestselling author on twitter who said she didn't get into PW? Mentors can only pick one MS. They'll pick the one they resonate with best. Maybe they happen to really jive with a sci fi set on Pluto featuring space vampires. If so, that doesn't mean your epic Snow White rebelling isn't great.

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I think if you can identify weaknesses in such a way that lets them know they can help with those weaknesses, then they'd still be interested in being your mentor. So for example, I might say, I think one of my biggest weaknesses is transitions, and I could really benefit from someone noting and helping with any transitions that are too abrupt.

Yep, in addition to that bestselling author, some of the current mentors have mentioned that they didn't get picked in past PitchWars, and they went on to get an agent and get published.

BreeC said:

Such great thoughts, everyone. PW is a great avenue, but not the only avenue.

Does anyone have any tips for revision? I know that there isn't any one linear editing technique for everyone, so I'd love to hear what works for all of you.

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My only tip for revision is to get other eyes on it and revise accordingly. Otherwise you can keep revising something that was never going to work. The feedback from others can turn it all around and get you revising in a meaningful way.

Maggie Maxwell said:

Step 1) Find a nice, sturdy wall.
Step B: bang head against wall until you get beta readers who don't hate you.
Part 3 - Do what the beta readers tell you and maybe fix some other stuff that jumps out at you.

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BreeC said:

Such great thoughts, everyone. PW is a great avenue, but not the only avenue.

Does anyone have any tips for revision? I know that there isn't any one linear editing technique for everyone, so I'd love to hear what works for all of you.

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I'm a big fan of searching for filtering words. (ZOMG I had so many in a previous draft). Also for reading the whole manuscript out loud (and editing as you go).

Dmbeucler said:

I'm a big fan of searching for filtering words. (ZOMG I had so many in a previous draft). Also for reading the whole manuscript out loud (and editing as you go).

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Oh yeah, filtering words, and searching for overused words. There are websites where you can pop your novel and it'll tell you the most frequently used words. Like, I'd used "Back" over 300 times in mine. At least a third of them were cut-able.

I just wanted to poke my head in and wish y'all luck who entered! I was picked to be a mentee last year, and it was a fantastic, if exhausting, experience.

I wanted to echo what CJSimone said above. I think identifying weaknesses helps tell the mentor what you feel the manuscript needs help on, and they can further determine if they're qualified to help you. For example, I let the mentors who asked know that agent feedback so far had said they'd had trouble connecting with my FMC, so what could I do to fix that?

And this is absolutely not the only path to getting an agent or publication. I made a lot of writing friends in the run-up to PW last year, and some of those who didn't get in have agents and book deals by now. And this year is even bigger than last year. It's down to what MS a mentor falls in love with and really thinks they can help make better. I know a lot are already agonizing that they can only pick one. So not getting picked says NOTHING about the quality of your work.

Good luck, everyone, and stay sane!

If anyone is interested:

Jeneral said:

Good luck, everyone, and stay sane!

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Thank you, Jeneral!

Filigree said:

Or you might decide, after much consideration and experience, that the hunt for an agent is no longer worth the continued effort, which might be better spent writing and/or prepping for self-publishing.

I'm still a champion for the 'aim high' approach. Having competent agent representation can unlock doors closed to all but a few slushpile discoveries. But realistically, if you've polished the mms as much as you can, and already queried several hundred agents over multiple manuscripts, and still only 'come close' or not at all...it might be time to rethink publishing goals.

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This is exactly where I'm at. I just don't know if I'm ready to give up on The Dream, you know? Gah, this industry. 'Twill be the death of me!

Maggie Maxwell said:

Oh yeah, filtering words, and searching for overused words. There are websites where you can pop your novel and it'll tell you the most frequently used words. Like, I'd used "Back" over 300 times in mine. At least a third of them were cut-able.

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....can I steal a link to one of those websites. I already know I need it.

sockycat said:

....can I steal a link to one of those websites. I already know I need it.

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Yeah, no problem. https://wordcounter.com/ lets you pick how many words you want displayed (top 25, 50, 100, or 200) and whether or not to include smaller words like "the". You can find more by searching "word frequency counter" or "common word counter" or something of that variant.

*peeking in to lurk*

I'm not doing PW, but hubby is so I'm following by proxy.

This thread's been pretty quiet. How are you guys holding up. The decisions have to be finalized by tomorrow, right? With decisions announced the day after?

I didn't get a pitchwars request, but did get another full request from elsewhere, so am happy with that, ish. (Ish because I anticipate rejection as I don't think I'm done enough still.)

Shoeless said:

This thread's been pretty quiet. How are you guys holding up. The decisions have to be finalized by tomorrow, right? With decisions announced the day after?

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I'm feeling fine, pretty meh about the contest. I haven't gotten any requests so I've been considering PW as over for me for a while now. Wishing everyone else well and good luck!

I started out pretty que sera sera, but I've been more anxious as the deadline gets closer. But then, school starts tomorrow for my kid, and things have been stressful preparing for that, so it's both helped and hindered.

I only got a partial request, so I don't expect to be listed anywhere on Thursday. It was a fun experience, though. Just ready to know for sure and move on now.

Wishing everybody luck, not only with Pitchwars, but going forward! It must be incredibly hard to pick with so many choices!!! It's very generous of the Mentors! I bow to them and us all! Big hugs to us all!

Um, not sure how I'm doing. Excited, stressed, confused, happy, sad... Received more mentor questions tonight I still have to answer. If I'm chosen, some content will most likely have to change, which I'm okay with, except I'm not sure what those things are exactly (there are a few possibilities / multiple things I can think of). I only know it might be too edgy (which she loves, but it might need to be different). And my story doesn't really fit in the current YA market, but might be good enough as a "stand out" but is a risk and might not get a Pitch Wars agent request because of the content/edginess/not standard YA... But she still loves it and loves the voice and has ideas to maybe make it more marketable, but she'd still want to keep a lot of its edge and it would still be a risk, so she's waiting for my answers and making her final decision (she has others in the running as well).


So, I've always known the story is a risk and one some people wouldn't / shouldn't read, and I've always anticipated some changes might need to be made. I'm open to making changes and I really like this mentor/author and her style / what I've seen of her books. But I am worried about what changes will be expected and how exactly to respond.

This is completely unrelated, but someone brought up school, and my baby is starting kindergarten soon and I don't know how this happened so fast. Not happy about this!

Harlequin, congrats on the full request from elsewhere!

ETA: I've sent my responses, so now I've just gotta wait... Man, it's gonna be disappointing if I come so close and don't get picked. But I believe it will go how it's meant to go. The 23rd is gonna be a long day I think.