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Friday, December 5, 2014

December 2014's #PitchMAS: Final Submission Guidelines and EMAIL ADDRESS

SUNDAY 12/7/14 - MONDAY 12/8/14
*SUBMISSION WINDOW
*

We will be accepting your 35-word pitch submissions VIA EMAIL ONLY, beginning Sunday 12/7/14 at 9:00am PST until Monday 12/8/14 at 6:00pm PST

We will delete any submissions received before or after that submission window. No excuses, no exceptions. YOU are responsible for figuring out the time zones.

Submission emails MUST look like this:

Email subject line: 
PitchMAS Blog Pitch Submission: [title]

Body of email:
Name: [your name]
Title: [title of your manuscript. ex: DIVIDE]
Category/Genre*: [your category and genre, ex: YA/Fantasy, Fairytale Redux]
Manuscript Word Count: [word count]
Pitch: [your 35-word blog pitch. ex: Things not on Holland Briggs' senior year plan: burning her ex's house down, poisoning her ex-best friend, or turning into the Beast from fairytale lore. But that's exactly what happens.]

(No, you don't have to use brackets.)

*Please know the difference between category and genre. Category is basically age group (MG, YA, Adult, etc). Genre is anything after that (contemporary, romance, steampunk, chick lit, etc)

Please email your 35-word or less BLOG PITCHES to this email address: pitchMAS@gmail.com 

PLEASE NOTE:
  • PitchMAS submission window opens at 9:00am pacific time, Sunday, December 7th. Submissions received before that time will be deleted. 
  • PitchMAS submission window closes at 6:00pm pacific time, Monday, December 8th. Submissions received after that time will be deleted.
  • Your email MUST be formatted exactly like the example above (minus the brackets). Submissions that are not formatted correctly will instantly be disqualified. You will NOT be notified if you are disqualified. 
  • PitchMAS is for completed manuscripts only. The only works we are closed to at this time are poetry, graphic novels and short stories/anthologies. (Though we do hope to change that someday.) 
  • You are welcome to pitch more than one manuscript, but each must completed and polished, AND must be in its own submission email. (This goes for Twitter pitching as well. Please Twitter-pitch no more than two times per hour, per manuscript.)
  • We will read through all submissions and post the TOP 50 right here on the blog on Thursday, December 11thPLEASE DO NOT COMMENT on the pitches we post UNLESS you are an agent or editor, OR unless an agent or editor asks you a specific question. 
  • TWITTER PITCHES: If you do not get through to the top 50, and even if you do, please join us for the Twitter Pitch Party on Friday, December 12th. This will go on all day long, and agents/editors will respond to the pitches they want to request. Twitter pitch parties are a LOT of fun, but please don't get carried away. TWO PITCHES PER HOUR, PER MANUSCRIPT is plenty, and doesn't bog down the feed. Please respect your fellow writers by respecting these rules. You are welcome to pitch more than one manuscript, but please only pitch EACH manuscript no more than TWICE per hour
Follow along on Twitter with the hashtag: #PitchMAS

For the list of this year's awesome participating agents and editors, please go HERE

PLEASE ask any and all questions in the comments below or tweet using the hashtag, or tweet directly to us on twitter (@feakysnucker or @jessarusso)! 
One of us will respond as soon as we can. 

XO,
Jessa & Tamara 

26 comments:

  1. Under "twitter pitches" you say "if you do not get through to the top 75." Does that mean you will only take the first 75 sent in?

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    1. Whoops! That's a typo, and I apologize. We used to select 75 blog pitches, but we only choose 50 now. I need to fix that. But, to clarify, we read each email submission, selecting our 50 favorites, then those post on the blog. Whether or not you make it into those Top 50 pitches, we invite (an advise) you to pitch during the Twitter event as well. You just never know what someone might be looking for, or who might pop in that day--might be EXACTLY the agent or editor meant for you.

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  2. For the twitter pitch party next week, will those agents/editors you listed above be the only ones participating? Or will that part be open to whichever agents/editors happen to see the hashtags? (Not a knock on the agents participating! I am trying to decide if I need to use a different twitter pitch next week since I just did PitMad.) Thanks!

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    1. The Twitter event will be open to all agents and editors. For that portion, however, we advise that you do you research. Just because someone requests, does not mean they're right for you. With the blog portion of PitchMAS, we research the professionals we invite to participate, in hopes that we are connecting writers to agencies and pub houses that have great track records, sales, and feedback. Tamara did a LOT of background work this year!

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  3. First PitchMAS, apologies if this is a redundant question. Can I submit pitches for books already self-published through CreateSpace?

    Thank You

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    1. As a general rule, agents and editors are looking for unpublished works. We hope you'll join us when you have something ready to query!

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  4. I'm assuming that we are only to email one 35-word pitch? Or can we submit multiple versions?

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    1. One pitch per manuscript for the blog pitch, though you may enter more than one MS. Just give each their own email. For the twitter pitches, feel free to mix things up with varied pitches.

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  5. Have you got a list of genres you want people to use?

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    1. Read the judges' wish lists for this information. :)

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  6. I'm sure I'm being blind, but I'm totally stressing about calculating the time difference between Aust and PST.... exactly what time are the pitches opening and closing? Thanks for running the comp - so much fun (in a weirdly masochistic, hand me that birch bundle, kind of way!)

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    1. It says right up there that submissions open at nine AM Sunday and close 6 pm Monday. Don't stress about it just send your email at a time you'll know it'll be accepted. The difference is only three hours.

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    2. In Brisbane (where I am), I believe the submission window opens at 3am tonight (or more accurately, 3am Monday morning on 8th December). So if you are on daylight saving time, then I guess that makes it 4am???

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    3. Thanks Yanicke and Jack, but I actually meant the hours for the TwitterPitch party.... Pitmad went from 8am, just wondering if this is starting at 8am, or at 1 minute past midnight. You know, lost opportunities, and all that....

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    4. The Twitter pitch party runs all day. Just check the feed from time to time--agents and editors tend to announce when they're around, and we try to announce as well.

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    5. So I guess that means a midnight start? That's cool - 24 hours of pitching :D

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  8. MS Word says "17-year-old" counts as one word. Do you say it counts as one word?

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  10. Are picture books okay to pitch?

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    1. I looked through the archive to see what pitches at the last Pitchmas were working and there were picture books. You should look back to last December in the blog to see what is working for them! (:

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    2. We are open to everything, except short stories, poetry, and graphic novels. If you're unsure, though, please check the post with the agent/editor wishlists.

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  11. Hello there! I have a question. I would love to submit a pitch for my YA/ Contemporary. The problem is my manuscript is not complete. (Well, it is and isn't). May I still participate, knowing I willnot be chosen, but just to get the experience and be involved in the Webinar,(even as a silent listener)?

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    1. I'm not sure what webinar you're referring to, but its not something we offer. And unfortunately, we do ask that you only participate if you have a completed manuscript. We hope you'll join us next year!

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