WriteOnCon online kidlit writers' conference

Ooh, the ninjas are already lurking? Exciting.

I only have a WIP this year, but here's the query if anyone wants to take a look. I'll try to look at some of yours tomorrow; I think my brain has shut off for the night.

I'm talking a look at everyone's stuff now. I've had a personally hellish day, so it's taken me forever to get to the con, but I'm hoping I'm not too late to be of use (at the very least, I can bump your stuff back to the first page, ha)!

EDIT: I should not have said "everyone's" stuff. I only managed a few of your works, but I do hope to get to the rest tomorrow!

I've already run into a few of you guys in the wild on the forum, but here the links to my things all the same:

Query
First 250 words
First 5 pages

I can't wait to read what you've all posted!

I'm probably not at a point where I should be posting stuff from my WIP, since it's still a mess, but this opportunity only comes once a year, so I figured I should go ahead and join in the fun.

I threw up my first 250

I'm also Sofia.E over there. I'm going to try to start going through everyone's tonight (even though it's almost 1am and my brain is in constant typo mode). Everyone's talent level is super impressive!

It's entirely pitch events, and largely on Twitter (which I dumped a year ago because time-suck). That's ... Disappointing.

Oh, me too! me too!

My Query.

I'm looking forward to reading what you've all posted! I'm gonna start critiquing again pretty soon!

KateSmash said:

It's entirely pitch events, and largely on Twitter (which I dumped a year ago because time-suck). That's ... Disappointing.

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Just get a temp one....

I can't even participate because I go to school/intern.

KateSmash said:

It's entirely pitch events, and largely on Twitter (which I dumped a year ago because time-suck). That's ... Disappointing.

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Yeah, that's really disappointing. I was confused at first, I mean, where are all the interesting articles and vids?
Unfortunately, this means I won't be joining this year.

Day one has arrived and the Ninjas are trolling. Excited I am *yodavoice*

So excited for my first Writeoncon! Off to post more crits...

My Query

First 250 Words

First 5 Pages

The forum is NOT working at all. I guess too many people are on it at the same time.

I didn't know this whole con was just Twitter pitches. I was wondering if there would be a forum thread to post our finished queries.

I also don't understand how the pitch events work? How do you know if an agent wants to see more of your work? I assumed (foolishly perhaps) that an agent would PM us if interested. But do I have to comb through Twitter entire to find out if anyone is interested? I'm also not ON Twitter, do you have to have an account?

There are spots on the forum for your query, 1st 250 words and 1st 5 pages as long as the book is YA, MG or PB.

Athena Solomon said:

Yeah, that's really disappointing. I was confused at first, I mean, where are all the interesting articles and vids?
Unfortunately, this means I won't be joining this year.

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Me too. I enjoy reading other people's pitches and stuff on the forums, etc., but I wish there were some classes or discussion sessions or something. Unless I'm missing them?

Good luck to all of you who have stuff up in the forums!

Netz said:

Added you too, Sofia.

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Thanks for doing all this, Netz!

I'm trying to crit stuff but the forums are being such a pain. Grr.

CheG, from what I've seen, you don't need to be on twitter to participate in the twitter pitches because you submit your pitch directly to WriteOnCon and then they tweet it for you. That way, it's a blind contest. There's more info about it here: http://writeoncon.com/08/26/live-event-instructions/

I'm disappointed by this year too. I sent in my pitch yesterday. Today, I looked at the agents listed and no one is accepting chapter books. That means my one submission was probably wasted.

I got a Twitter account last night just to do WriteOnCon. Don't know if I'll manage to post anything to their forums. I'll let you know if I do. Of course, I'll crit you too. I have no idea what I put in last year.

I wonder if one of the folks running it had some personal matters to handle that caused them to scale down this year. I hope not.

While I do think the random nature of the twitter pitch thing is kinda disappointing, I still think the best part of the 'conference' is the forums. I've seen a ton of great stuff in there, gotten great feedback, and still hold out hope that a Ninja agent might stop by and share more gems. It's a little like an intense AW Share Your Work session

Yeah BBBurke, I'm having the same experience. I will admit, I've been kind of surprised at how little agent feedback there's been. Not sure what I was expecting, but thought they would generally comment, even if not particularly interested? Or is this them mostly just requesting pages and such? As a con newb I might not have understood the deal.

snowpea said:

Just get a temp one....

I can't even participate because I go to school/intern.

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Meh? The disappoint comes more from having "attended" previous WOCs that featured blogs and vlogs full of craft and publishing info. Plus being introduced to authors I probably wouldn't have picked up on my own.

Doesn't seem worth it to follow tweets on pitches that, by nature of the platform, can't really get into the meat of the agent/editors reasoning and advice. Especially when I've got nothing I particularly want to pitch. :shrug:

Hey I think I got to everyone, but let me know if I missed you and I'll head over.

I also posted a majorly revised query and would love thoughts if you've got a chance to take a gander.

New query

I'd heard really good things about this event before but I'm feeling it's a bit anemic. Spent too much time in the forums and on twitter today--going back to my revisions tomorrow.

I've never done this con before but it does seem to be entirely Twitter pitches. Which is fine if you are a genius at Twitter pitches AND IF (big 'if') your pitch is picked.

I too was hoping for more video blogs, and such.

I guess I just don't understand the point of twitter pitches. The agent doing them now keeps asking for more details. I'm not sure what can be learned from it unless your pitch is selected. I don't know - I'm not ready to pitch myself and wouldn't be able to get it into a tweet if I were.

The query critique forum moves too fast for me - I started trying to look for interesting ones, but got overwhelmed. It feels like being in a crowded room.

Still, I've had some feedback on my first ever query, so I figure the main value for me is as a dry-run for that, so I don't embarrass myself too badly when I get around to posting in QLH.