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Monday, November 27, 2017

A Note from Jessa and Tamara

After five years of hosting #PitchMAS, with its many successes and occasional headaches, we've  helped people find their dream agents, connected them with their dream editors, and helped many new writers form new relationships with critique partners and beta readers. We hope that we've made a lasting impact on the writing community as a whole, and that your memories of #PitchMAS are positive ones, even if you didn't get signed... sometimes its the connections made that end up making the most out of your journey. 

With that said, it is with much deliberation and consideration that we have decided to end our #PitchMAS journey. 

We have truly enjoyed being able to give back to this community we love so much. We've made friends and built relationships within the community that are priceless and treasured, and for that we are forever grateful. 

PitchMAS was just ONE contest in a sea of many. We hope that you will all continue entering contests and plugging away at this dream of yours. 

Thank you for your support and understanding. We wish you the very best in life and in your journey to publication. Stick with it and never ever give up on your dream.

XOXO,
Jessa & Tamara 

Friday, December 16, 2016

It's Twitter Pitching Time! PitchMAS 2016

IT'S TIME FOR OUR TWITTER PITCH PARTY!!!

*Throws confetti and glitter*



WOOHOOO! It's time! It's time! 


--->We go live at 6:00 AM pacific time on 12/16/16, and the pitching will continue all day long. The agents/editors will usually respond to the pitches they want to request. IF an agent or editor does not respond, but favorites your pitch instead, please view their feed to see if they've mentioned what they want from starred pitches, OR ASK ONE OF US FOR HELP.

-->NEVER NEVER NEVER pitch directly to an agent or editor UNLESS THEY HAVE ASKED. 
Please follow this simple rule . . . at all times, not just during pitch events.

--->If you did not get through to the Top 50 blog pitches, and even if you did, please join us for the Twitter Pitch Party!
ANYONE can participate!

--->BUT, your manuscript MUST BE COMPLETED AND POLISHED.

Did you read that last one? Go back and read it again. 
We'll wait. 
*whistles*

Completed and polished. Please, please, please do not pitch a bare-bones idea/concept or a half-written manuscript. No one will sign that, and they'll just be disappointed when they request pages that don't exist. This makes us all sad.

--->Twitter pitches MUST BE 140 Characters or Less, and they HAVE TO INCLUDE THE #PitchMAS HASHTAG. Don't make the agents and editors work to read what you're pitching because you've broken your pitch into more than one tweet. Don't make them follow a link. Just, NO. That will annoy them, irritate your fellow pitchers, and ensure that your pitch gets lost among the others.

--->Please keep your Twitter pitching to no more than TWO PITCHES PER HOUR, per manuscript. 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--which I know you don't really want to do, do you? (Plus, people WILL remember you for it.)

---> IF you can include a category and/or genre hashtag, DO IT! But it is not a requirement. 
Some examples:
#A for Adult
#WF for Women's Fiction
#YA for Young Adult
#YASF for Young Adult SciFi
Etc. Etc. Etc. 




Twitter pitch parties are a LOT of fun--trust us, we've both done many as both hosts and pitchers--but please don't get carried away. TWO PITCHES PER HOUR is plenty, and doesn't bog down the feed.

Please respect us, the agents and editors participating, and 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 with the hashtag: #PitchMAS

Make sure you follow us on Twitter. (We often post the same #PitchMAS related info, but you never know when only one of us will tweet something important, AND we tend to tweet from our personal accounts way more frequently than our poor, neglected PitchMAS account.)

#PitchMAS

Tamara

Jessa

For the list of awesome participating agents and editors, please go HERE.

PLEASE ask any and all questions in the comments below or by tweeting to us directly (@feakysnucker or @jessarusso)! One of us will respond as soon as we can.

XO,
Jessa & Tamara

Thursday, December 15, 2016

December 2016: BONUS Entry!

Title: ONLINE

Category/Genre: MG Sci-Fi, #ownvoices

Manuscript Word Count: 49,000 words

Pitch: Harper's birthmark is meant to show her soulmate but when it leads to the troll stalking her in YouTube, it's getting removed.

December 2016: BONUS Entry!

Title: VERY CAREFULLY AND NOT ALL AT ONCE

Category/Genre: YA Contemporary

Manuscript Word Count: 50,000

Pitch: Geeky Thea just wants to nab her crush and get her driver’s license, but a hot new guy's arrival is going to make her junior year more complicated than explaining emotions to a Vulcan.

December 2016: BONUS Entry!

Title: THE CANDY CANE CONSPIRACY


Category/Genre: MG/Adventure


Manuscript Word Count: 85,000 words


Pitch: Rise of the Guardians meets Artemis Fowl. After a school trip to the North Pole goes awry, an aspiring journalist who saw too much must bring down Santa's global surveillance program or lose her memories.

December 2016: BONUS Entry!

Title: NPC

Category/Genre: Young Adult/Science Fiction

Manuscript Word Count: 72,000

Pitch: Natalie joins a total immersion virtual reality game to earn money for her poor family. When a glitch labels her as an NPC, she risks criminal charges to trick players out of their fantasy gold.

December 2016: BONUS Entry!

Title:  LET'S NOT GO TO THE MOVIES

Category/Genre:  Picture Book/Character-driven

Manuscript Word Count: 650

Pitch: Nessa's fed up with Nina's constant refrain: "Not going." Who doesn't love amusement parks & sleepovers? But seeing Nina’s drawings, she realizes her idea of “fun” can be a nightmare to the socially anxious.

December 2016: BONUS Entry!

Title: ARGENT GLASS

Category/Genre*: YA/Science Fiction

Manuscript Word Count: 72,000

Pitch: Teens Andrew and Evan investigate a no-fly zone near their homes for a fun weekend adventure and discover a desert biome filled with deadly secrets. And a girl who wants out.

December 2016: BONUS Entry!

Title: BABY TEETH

Category/Genre: Adult/Psychological Suspense

Manuscript Word Count: 99,000

Pitch: Overwhelmed by her mute, defiant seven-year-old, Suzette worries that Hanna is a "bad seed." Resentful of Mommy's efforts to "fix" her, Hanna vows revenge. Their battles escalate, but only one will win the mother-daughter war.

December 2016: BONUS Entry!

Title: Robin & Stealin'

Category: YA / Contemporary

Word count: 72K

Pitch: Robin steals from classmates to help a girl with cancer. Chase obsesses about being a detective to find his missing father. High school relationships are hard, especially when your first date includes breaking and entering.

December 2016: BONUS Entry!

Title: THE FEASTING VIRGIN

Category/Genre: Adult/Upmarket Women’s Culinary Fiction with Magical Realism, LGBT

Manuscript Word Count: 95,000

Pitch: 38-year-old Xeni is secretly praying for a virgin birth, but when she unexpectedly falls for a free-spirited new mom during sumptuous Greek cooking lessons she must reconcile her religious beliefs with her emerging sexuality. 

December 2016: BONUS Entry!

Title: REX THE…WE DON’T KNOW

Category/Genre: Children's Picture Book

Manuscript Word Count: 744

Pitch: What's fluffy and green, has a long-curly tail, a sparkly-white horn, AND breathes fire? A trip to the pound lands Max and his family with this one-of-a-kind pet! One chaotic day soon becomes everlasting friendship.

December 2016: Entry 50

Title: THE STUDENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

Category/Genre: YA/Contemporary

Manuscript Word Count: 57k

Pitch: Amara plans a heist to pay tuition. If she's caught, it's jail - or worse: de-enrollment. However, a new boyfriend threatens her plan; the son of the store she plans to rob, to be exact.

December 2016: Entry 49

Title: One Thousand Stars That Bind  


Category/Genre*: YA Historical Fairytale Retelling


Manuscript Word Count: 73,600


Pitch: Gender-bent, steampunk’d ALADDIN set during the fall of Romanian communist dictator Ceausescu. Street-rat Alina finds a rusty—magical—oil lamp, crosses paths with the runaway Prince Iulian, and ignites a love greater than social class.

December 2016: Entry 48

Title : DEVASURA 

Category/ Genre : MG Horror

Manuscript word count : 50,000 words
Pitch: STRANGER THINGS meets ASIAN MYTHS. Zhen Yu must destroy the entity that possessed him and trapped his soul in the ghost plane before it attacks his sister and best friend.

December 2016: Entry 47

Title: GIRL IN THE MACHINE

Category/Genre: YA/Psychological Thriller

Manuscript Word Count: 78,000

Pitch: To imitate humans, cyborg Delta’s given a dead girl’s memories. Discovering the girl isn't dead, Delta risks destruction to find the teen—confronting her creators, rape culture, and her own twisted relationship with the girl.

December 2016: Entry 46

Title: BLOOD KING

Category/Genre: Adult/Urban Fantasy

Manuscript word count: 75,000

Pitch: A romance novel loving psychic working as a spirit bounty hunter teams up with a reformed monster to discover why a drug kingpin can’t be killed. The Sookie Stackhouse series meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

December 2016: Entry 45

Title: Bound by Fire


Category: Young Adult, Fantasy


Wordcount: 75k

Pitch: In a story spanning kingdoms and parallel universes, girl born of privilege finds herself in a competition against the worst of the Empire. Though a Fire Render, she’s never used magic as a weapon.

December 2016: Entry 44

Title: A Trick of the Light

Category/Genre*: YA Historical Fic

Manuscript Word Count: 66,000


Pitch: Mama might come home if Hazel finds fame on the radio, but a shortcut to stardom means selling her mentor's past...and ignoring her feelings for an actress on the show.

December 2016: Entry 43

Title: SHADOWS OF A STORM

Category/Genre: MG/Dark Fantasy, Humorous Fiction

Manuscript Word Count: 79,000 

Pitch: When it’s a choice between an asylum’s padded cell and hitchhiking to freedom in a casket, Rose opts for the getaway hearse. The twist? It’s been commandeered by the friends she thought were imaginary.

December 2016: Entry 42

Title: GIRL OF A THOUSAND SHADOWS

Category/Genre: YA/Speculative Fiction/Alternate History with diversity

Manuscript Word Count: 87k

Pitch: Traveling inside people’s shadows along their timeline makes Astrid’s science-geek heart flutter. Having to save her family by stopping JFK from nuking Cuba, while keeping Dylan from sabotaging everything…that’s one massive headache.

December 2016: Entry 41

Title: HOUSE BROKEN

Category/Genre: A/Women's Fiction

Manuscript Word Count: 95 000 words

Pitch: Upon learning of her beloved uncle’s sudden death, cubicle-zombie Milly’s grounded and safe world view crumbles as she sets out to fulfill his final wishes by taking over his PI firm complete with resident ghost.

December 2016: Entry 40

Title: WHEN LILIES BLOOM

Category/Genre*: Adult/Women's Fiction

Manuscript Word Count: 70K

Pitch: Eve's cancer diagnosis comes with a proposal from her doctor, only he's after more than her heart and it could cost Eve her life. Steel Magnolias' southern wit and charm plus Safe Haven's romantic suspense.

December 2016: Entry 39

Title: BOURBON BLOOD 

Category/Genre*: NA/Dark Fantasy, LGBT 

Manuscript Word Count: 95,000 

Pitch: Armed with sarcasm and liquor, a demon, valkyrie and nymph resurrected from mythology have to stop an apocalypse without spilling their drinks, and hopefully still find the time to cure their hangovers.

December 2016: Entry 38

Title: THIS BOOK IS SPINELESS

Category/Genre: PB/Interactive, Meta

Manuscript Word Count: 420

Pitch: THIS BOOK IS SPINELESS and has no sense of adventure. It feels, hears, sees, smells, and tastes something lurking on its pages. It's scared of what’s there, but faces fears with the reader.

December 2016: Entry 37

Title: THE RULES - MARSHALL

Category: Adult, Erotic Romance

Manuscript Word Count: 56k

Pitch: Clandestine, professional Dominant with elite clients worldwide, chased by his government and his demons. When a jet-setting exec in Valentinos becomes more lover than client, can he give up his identity to keep her?

December 2016: Entry 36

Title: THE OZ LEGACY

Category/Genre: New Adult/Urban Fantasy, LGBT

Manuscript Word Count: 87,000 words

Pitch: Aspiring singer Ruby yearned for more but never bargained on accidentally inheriting Oz’s magic. She must repair the crumbling yellow brick road before wicked witches rip her apart. The deadliest of them? Her former crush.

December 2016: Entry 35

Title: GIRL(DOT)COM

Category/Genre: Adult/Women's Fiction-Romantic Comedy

Manuscript Word Count: 87k

Pitch: In the '90s, Barrie's dot-com career, stock option millions, and burgeoning nerdy-co-worker romance may vaporize if she's sacked by company-invading Hollywood bigwigs. Her wits and webcam may help save -- and reboot -- all three.

December 2016: Entry 34

Title: THE BETRAYAL OF QUINN BISHOP 

Category/Genre: YA Contemporary

Word Count: 60,000

Pitch:  Quinn has two exes--her ex-boyfriend and ex-bestie who betrayed her together. Determined to move on, and distracted by an old crush, Quinn focuses on her music...until the truth derails her life again.

December 2016: Entry 33

Title: CHASING MY SHADOW

Category/Genre: YA/Psychological Thriller

Manuscript Word Count: 76,000

Pitch: While pursuing her missing pregnant twin, seventeen-year-old Violet discovers the parents who abandoned her and their dark family secret. Now she’ll need switchblades, acting skills, and every street trick she’s learned to survive. 

December 2016: Entry 32

Title: Sail Cowabunga! A Family’s Ten Years at Sea

Category/Genre: Adult / Memoir

Word count: 93,000 words

Pitch: Skeletal and fever-wracked, he was medevaced from Panama to France amidst the panic, days before the 1989 U.S. invasion. I'd have to cross the Canal alone now, on our boat with our two young boys.  

December 2016: Entry 31

Title: RISING

Category/Genre: A/ Historical Fantasy

Word Count: 80K

Pitch: The Irish Revolution, 1921. Ailis, a feisty young Irish woman battles to free her renegade fiancé from a British death sentence by uniting with an army of mystical forest folk and a ragtag militia. 

December 2016: Entry 30

Title: Spotless Sadie

Category/Genre*: Children’s, Picture Book 

Manuscript Word Count: 401

Pitch: Beautiful black spots were a marker of adulthood in Sadie’s town. Unfortunately, Sadie was the only ladybug without them! Unwilling to wait, Sadie takes matters into her own shell to become a “grown-up.”

December 2016: Entry 29

Title: LIFE'S MORE FUN WHEN YOU TALK TO STRANGERS

Category: Adult Memoir 

Word count: 90,000

Pitch: 
Closeted Midwestern pastor’s kid loses father to cancer then uses power of “the great American road trip” to find dad/himself. Story featured by the Washington Post, Guardian, USA Today and 100 others in 2016.

December 2016: Entry 28

Title: The Winchester Girls


Category/Genre*: YA LGTBQ/Paranormal 


Manuscript Word Count: 90,000


Pitch: Amidst the roar of the twenties, an heiress, demon, inventor and maid must band together to fight against the ghosts that plague the famed Winchester Mystery House or risk losing the house forever.

December 2016: Entry 27

Title: NIGHT PLAY


Category/Genre: YA/Historical Fantasy 


Manuscript Word Count: 77,000


Pitch: Ancient Asia. Yuri’s dynasty is falling. She faces a crossroads– forfeit her honor and spy for the new regime, or forfeit her life. AN EMBER IN THE ASHES meets DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE.

December 2016: Entry 26

Title: CHASING AUTUMN

Category/Genre*: YA Contemporary Romance

Manuscript Word Count: 70,000

Pitch: Handsprings-down, sixteen-year-old Autumn’s the top pick for the Olympic gymnastics team --- as long as she conquers a broken back in time and doesn’t let love get in her way.

December 2016: Entry 25

Title: Azrael


Category/Genre: Adult/Thriller


Manuscript Word Count: 66,000 words


Pitch: Emily thought her ordeal was over after she escaped a brutal kidnapping. She’s wrong. He’s coming for her again.

December 2016: Entry 24

Title: Calculated

Category/Genre*: YA/Thriller

Manuscript Word Count: 106K

Pitch: Eighteen-year-old math prodigy could predict all the possibilities around her—except the betrayal of her family. Now, exploited by smugglers, she discovers her gift can do more than make money. It’s also good for revenge.

December 2016: Entry 23

Title: TIM WILLOW and the SCOURGE OF ANEMOS GREEN
 
Category/Genre: Middle Grade Science Fiction
 
Manuscript Word Count: 57,000
 
Pitch: After accidentally releasing a synthetic virus that nearly wipes out humanity, 12-year-old Tim must repair the damage while avoiding the prehistoric-sized insects that hunt for him on the barren city streets.

December 2016: Entry 22

Title: I SOAR TO THE SKY

Category/Genre: Picture Book/Biography

Manuscript Word Count: 731

Pitch: Caroline Herschel was a tiny girl destined to be a servant. With big dreams, an escape to England, and a hand-made telescope, she propelled herself from Cinderella to history-making astronomer.

December 2016: Entry 21

Title: THINGS WE WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO KNOW

Category/Genre*: YA/ LGBT Mystery

Manuscript Word Count:64,000

Pitch: To fight their boarding school's book ban, rich-girl Elspeth and scholarship-girl Robin run an underground library. After the school's librarian is murdered, the girls try to discover if Holmes Academy is hiding more than novels.

December 2016: Entry 20

Title: THE WATER CHILD

Category/Genre: YA/Contemporary

Manuscript Word Count: 65,000

Pitch: When the 2011 Tsunami strikes Japan, wrenching Tora’s mother away, Tora must resurrect her pearl-diving heritage to comb the waves—and graves—to bring her mother home.

December 2016: Entry 19

Title: THE WINDUP

Category/Genre*: MG/Contemporary

Manuscript Word Count: 44,000

Pitch: After losing his twin brother and his right hand in a car crash, thirteen-year-old Kyle struggles to return to baseball and fulfill the dream he and his brother once shared—winning the Brookhaven Baseball Tournament.

December 2016: Entry 18

Title: DONOR

Category/Genre: YA Sci-fi

Manuscript Word Count:77,000
Pitch: Analeigh thought the Center’s lab-grown organ donors were mindless. Then she met Black, a soon-to-be-harvested donor who’s infatuated with the world. UNWIND meets NEVER LET ME GO

December 2016: Entry 17

Title: Dishonesty is Green

Category/Genre*: MG/mystery with a touch of magical realism

Manuscript Word Count: 35,000

Pitch: Eight is blue, Thursday is orange, and fear is red. Twelve-year old Ana Marquez has always had synesthesia, but her world turns upside down when she realizes she can see other people’s feelings… in color. 

December 2016: Entry 16

Title: WHAT LIES BETWEEN

Category/Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Manuscript Word Count: 75,000

Pitch: Grace sucks at math, but she’s pretty sure Seeing Monsters + Falling for a Hallucination = Crazy Squared. When latent magic threatens her BFF, Grace races to save her before her parents have her committed.

December 2016: Entry 15

Title: NO MORE SISTER!

Category/Genre*: PB Fiction

Manuscript Word Count: 409 words

Pitch: When CJ’s birthday wish for his pesky sister to disappear comes true, it’s the BEST. DAY. EVER.  But CJ soon realizes he actually misses Evie.  The only problem: how can you reverse a birthday wish?

December 2016: Entry 14

Title: The Phoenix Project

Category/Genre: Adult/Commercial Fiction-Suspense

Manuscript Word Count: 86,000

Pitch: Connor Reilly, innovative neurosurgeon, can remove his patients’ painful memories forever. But such an ability may come at the cost of his life, thanks to a death threat and his own torturous memories.

December 2016: Entry 13

Title: CONFESS, YOUR GRACE


Category/Genre*: Adult/Historical Romance


Manuscript Word Count: 85,000


Pitch: Immaculate, ludicrously handsome, and ever so correct, no one would expect the Duke of Westmead to be a member of London’s most exclusive private whipping club. Least of all: the woman he plans to marry.

December 2016: Entry 12

Title: CREATURE CATCHER

Category/Genre*: MG Contemporary Fantasy

Manuscript Word Count: 46,000 words

Pitch: 13yo creature catcher enlists HG Wells and his steam powered weapons to battle massive creature destroying 1920 NYC, but time is running out. Lockwood & Co meets The League of Beastly Dreadfuls.