December's #PitchMAS 2013 dates have been SET!

More details coming soon! 



FRIDAY 12/13/13

*PITCH-HONING WORKSHOP*

(A blog post will go LIVE on 12/13, right here on the PitchMAS blog, where you will post your pitches in the COMMENT SECTION. Your peers will then hop around and critique/advise you on what works/doesn't work. Tamara and Jessa WILL NOT be participating in the workshop; this is for peer critique/help only.)

SUNDAY 12/15/13 - MONDAY 12/16/13
*SUBMISSION WINDOW*
For this event, we will be accepting your 35-word pitch submissions VIA EMAIL ONLY. Submission window will be open from Sunday 12/15/13 at 9:00amPST until Monday 12/16/13 at 6:00pmPST. 

We will delete any submissions received before or after that submission window, and it is up to you to figure out your own time zone differences.

THURSDAY 12/19/13

BLOG PITCH PARTY
{35 Words or Less}

The TOP 75 pitches--(that's 25 more than our July event!)--will go live on the PitchMAS blog at MIDNIGHT on Thursday, 12/19/13. Agents and editors will have the entire day (as well as all day Friday!) to comment and make requests. 

Please do NOT comment if you are not an agent or editor. THE ONLY EXCEPTION TO THIS RULE is if an agent/editor has asked a SPECIFIC question. Any other non-agent/editor responses or comments will be deleted. 

FRIDAY 12/20/13
TWITTER PITCH PARTY
{140 Characters or Less}

All day long on Friday, 12/20/13, we will have our PitchMAS Twitter Party! Agents and editors will follow the hashtag #PitchMAS, reading your awesome pitches. ANYONE can participate, even if you didn't make it into the 75 selected blog pitches. However, your manuscript MUST BE COMPLETED and POLISHED. 

Twitter pitches MUST BE 140 Characters or Less and HAVE TO include the hashtag. Don't make the agents and editors work by breaking your pitch into more than one tweet. That will just annoy them and your fellow pitchers. 

Please keep your Twitter pitching to no more than TWO PER HOUR. Do not fill up the feed with your pitch over and over again. This too will annoy the agents and editors involved, as well as ruining it for everyone else and people WILL remember you for it. 

Follow along with the hashtag: #PitchMAS

Participating agents and editors will be announced soon! 

In the meantime, make sure you follow all of our blogs, and following us on Twitter probably wouldn't hurt either. (We often post the same #PitchMAS related info, but you never know when only one of us will tweet something important.)

#PitchMAS

Twitter

Blog

Tamara
Twitter
Blog

Jessa
Twitter
Blog

We've posted a few #PitchMAS success stories (more to come!) here on the blog as well, so if you're curious, click HERE to view them! 

#PitchMAS Success Story #4: Ryan Hill

For this fourth installment of WHY CONTESTS ARE SO AWESOME (ahem, especially #PitchMAS--though we may be biased), we're going to let Ryan tell you his story! Take it away, Ryan! And HUGE congratulations on your success!!! 


For the longest time, The Book of Bart felt like it would always be a
bridesmaid and never a bride. I'd enter it in contests and watch it go
all the way to the agent round, only for nothing to happen. It
frustrated me to no end. Bart just never seemed able to find the right
fit. Worst of all, I almost gave up on him.

Then Jessa and Feaky's PitchMAS contest came along. At first, I didn't
want to enter The Book of Bart. Tired of rejection, I decided to wait
until I had a new manuscript to pitch. My writing friend Karen Y.
Bynum (http://www.karenbynum.blogspot.com/) convinced me to enter, and
now here I am with a deal to have the book published through Curiosity
Quills. Sometimes the best things happen when you least expect it.

I first created the demon Bartholomew in a manuscript that didn't go
anywhere a few years ago. While writing it, I perked up every time I
got to one of his scenes. How could you not be excited to write about
a demon that chain-smokes, wears designer clothes, is full of sarcasm
and makes a game of everything? To me, he was like a well-dressed Han
Solo. I decided that Bartholomew deserved his own story; a combination
of snark and the novels of Christopher Moore, my favorite author. The
result was The Book of Bart.

Alison Heller of Curiosity Quills noticed my PitchMAS entry and asked
to see more. It didn't take long before she requested the full
manuscript, then an R&R for The Book of Bart. She loved it for all the
right reasons, and most of all she loved Bart.

I couldn't be more thankful for this opportunity. To say this is a
dream come true is an understatement. I'm so grateful to Jessa, Feaky,
and Alison. Drinks are on me if we ever meet in person!

It's hard out there for a writer. The journey has been the most
fulfilling of my life, but also the most difficult. Keep writing. Keep
reading. Keep learning about the craft. Get to know awesome peeps like
Jessa and Feaky. Contests like PitchMAS have made it easier than ever
to get your work in front of agents and editors. If it can happen to
me, it can happen to you.

You can follow me at:

Twitter: @J_Ryan
Blog: ryanhillwrites.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/ryanhillwrites