This page is dedicated to my Pitch Wars experience. Check back often as I update my journey toward possibly landing an agent!

What is Pitch Wars?

It is an opportunity for an aspiring writer to take their finished manuscript to the next level. With a finished manuscript in hand, each writer is able to submit to four mentors. Once the submission window closes, the mentors go to work and choose the story (and author) they want to help for the next five weeks, along with two alternate stories. During the five weeks, the mentor and his or her chosen authors will work together as a team to polish and shine the manuscripts they submitted to Pitch Wars. Come January, all the hard work each team put into their manuscripts could pay off in the form of an offer of representation from the literary agents participating in the agent round.

So, here’s my story…

On November 20, 2013, the fabulous Brenda Drake announced the Pitch Wars Mentors List. I dutifully went through each mentor that was accepting New Adult submissions. Lioness’s Bookshelf was a particularly helpful resource, as she had all the mentors categorized by genre.

As I researched each mentor’s likes and dislikes, I also edited my manuscript like crazy. I wanted to make sure it stood out and caught the attention of the four mentors I chose to submit to.

On December 2, 2013, I submitted my finished manuscript, THROUGH THE STORM, to four mentors. After I hit send on the last email, the waiting game began. The mentors wouldn’t be announcing the stories (and authors) they would be mentoring until December 11, 2013. In the meantime, I continued editing my manuscript and hung out on the Twitter Pitch Wars feed. On Twitter, I met so many new writer friends!

On December 10, 2013, around 3:00 p.m., the mentors announced their choices. At that time, I was getting my classroom of 4th graders ready for dismissal. As I helped my kids pack up, my phone started blowing up with Twitter announcements and congratulations. Just glancing at some of the comments, I was fairly certain that my story was chosen by a Pitch Wars mentor, but I wasn’t sure if I was an alternate or a first pick. It wasn’t until I got home from school that evening that I finally found out that my story was chosen as a first choice by none other than the lady whose website helped me with her categorized mentor lists, Lady Lioness! I couldn’t believe it, but even still, she saw something promising in my work! Under the guidance of our fearless mentor, Lady Lioness, The Pride of Pitch Wars was formed.

The Pride is a team of wonderful ladies working together to help each other polish our pitches and manuscripts so they are ready for the forthcoming agent round.

Meet The Pride

Sarah Blair: http://sarahleeblair.blogspot.com/

Follow Sarah on Twitter

Annie Rains: http://www.annierains.com/

Follow Annie on Twitter

Our Fierce Leader, Lady Lioness: http://lionessbookshelf.blogspot.com/

Follow Lioness on Twitter

Now, as of December 23, 2013, The Pride has been hard at work perfecting our pitches, bios, summaries, and manuscripts. Lioness is a dedicated and brilliant mentor, helping us polish our writing so it will roar with awesomeness during the agent round of Pitch Wars on January 22, 2014-January 23, 2014.

So, until January, I will be burning the midnight oil while I make revisions to THROUGH THE STORM. I was in love with my manuscript before Pitch Wars, but because of The Pride’s help, my story has truly come alive! I can’t thank Lady Lioness and The Pride enough. This experience is something that I will remember for the rest of my life! I hope to one day meet the ladies of The Pride in person, because I would love to give each of them a gigantic hug!!

I’ll keep you posted as the agent round nears!!

Until then, I’m working hard to make THROUGH THE STORM the best story it can be!

 

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UPDATE…I’ve signed with Agent Louise Fury of the Bent Agency!

I’ll keep you posted as THROUGH THE STORM goes out on submission!