Pitch Wars Sophomore

Last fall, I participated in Brenda Drake’s Pitch Wars and didn’t get a mentor. This summer, I’m back, armed with a different manuscript and everything I learned last year. (If you want more information on the writing contest, go here.)

What I learned last year:

•        Every writer needs critique partners. Plural. Maybe this is obvious to some people, but when I began looking at the mentor list last year, I had no idea what critique partners were. Yes, I’d lived in a writer bubble for years. I’d only been on Twitter a couple of months and I was basically as clueless as you can get. Good news: I found my critique partners through the contest.

•        You have to know when you and your MS are ready. Last year, I wasn’t ready and neither was my MS. I didn’t know this. I only discovered it through the rejection email from one of my mentors. The mentor was right: I had errant dialogue tags, character flaws, a plot hole, and a desperate need for some kind of adverb-destroying device. Luckily, I had critique partners to help me make my MS better.

•        Choose your mentors very carefully, after days of reflection, blog reading, and Twitter stalking. In the rejection emails I got last year, two of my mentors, though so helpful and positive, told me that my MS wasn’t what they were looking for. If I’d looked closer at their wish lists, if I’d stalked them properly on Twitter, I would have known. I didn’t.

•         A mentor picking you has nothing to do with the odds. It doesn’t matter if the mentor gets ten or a hundred submissions. They’re going to pick the best ones: those they like, those they think the agents will like, and those they believe are the most marketable. Because if the book’s not going to sell, no one’s going to want to represent it.

•        The mentors will tease you like crazy if you follow the contest hashtag on Twitter. Not that they’re teasing you specifically. They’re teasing anyone and everyone. There’s no way around this. They know what kinds of submissions they have and they’re going to tweet as mysteriously as possible. They want to keep you interested, to keep you hoping. Also, they want to have fun. Don’t let it drive you crazy.

•        Big Brother is watching. And everyone else, too. So mind what you say. I’ve taken to deleting any negative tweets before I tweet them. Yes, I still get all nervous and freaked out and feel the desperate need to vent or connect with other writers in similar situations, but I bury those thoughts or save them for blog posts. In blog posts, I take the time to rationalize my thoughts and find the positive spin, thereby (theoretically) negating anything too negative.

•        Not everyone who gets a mentor gets an agent. Similarly, writers who don’t get mentors still get agents. Enough said, yes?

What I’m doing differently this year:

•        It takes a writing community to write a query letter. At this point, I’ve already had three mentors, three mentees, three non-writer friends, and two critique partners look at my query. It’s not quite there, but I’ve still a few days to work on it and at least one more person (a critique partner) who’ll need to read it.
 
• Submissions for Pitch Wars aren’t just query letters; you have to also send your first chapter. So I’ve had three critique partners, two mentees, and one mentor read the beginning of my MS. Three critique partners have also read the rest. I’ve revised, tweaked, and fretted over all the words. It’s not perfect—it may never be perfect—but it’s ready for mentor scrutiny.

•        I’m asking questions. I’m talking to mentors. I’m commenting on their blogs and joining conversations on Twitter. I’m putting my name and my MS out there so they’ll both be recognizable when the mentors get my submission in their hands (or in front of their faces).

•        I’m in this for a mentor, but unlike last year, I don’t have all my hopes pinned on this. With all the awesomeness out there, I know I might not get picked. Which is okay. Because after the contest, I’ll have a great pitch for agents. And ultimately, my goal isn’t to win Pitch Wars; it’s to find an agent and publish a book. (But yeah, I still want a mentor :)