Pitch Madness – Suddenly they all died. The end.

. . .but not for me. The emails are out, and I didn’t get one, which means I’m not moving on to the second round of Pitch Madness. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed, but I’d also be lying if I said I’d been holding my breath. My pitch needs work. Maybe I should have gone with my gut and used the short pitch I’ve got up on authonomy. But the competition was pretty stiff; 300 or so people were culled from the competition, so I’m hardly alone in my disappointment. Besides – I’ve made a bunch of new friends, and that is quite obviously the best part of these competitions. 🙂

So for me, it’s back to querying the old-fashioned way – research and submit, research and submit. Oh, and pray. Cuz, you know, you gotta pray. A lot. The competition out there is stiff, and marketing is not my strong suit (I’m working on that). Meanwhile, there’s always the #PitMad contest on Twitter next week… 😀

Congratulations to all those moving on, and good luck in the upcoming rounds. I’ll be cheering you on from the sidelines and doing my best to keep thinking positive while I hunt for agents to add to my query list.

Pitch madness! (suddenlytheyalldied.com)
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Artwork by Hazel Butler

That’s right, folks, I’ve got pitch madness! What, pray tell, is pitch madness? Why, it’s a lovely competition run by the lovely Brenda Drake and it’s happening right now! 🙂 Well, kind of. The submission window was yesterday and the task for those who chose to accept it was to submit a 35-word logline (a pitch) and the first 250 words of their completed novels. The slush zombies are currently wading through all the submissions and choosing who will advance to the next round.

Unlike during GUTGAA when I was on the edge of my seat, I was slightly more relaxed this time around because there was no entrant cap – everyone who entered during the window got in. But! That hasn’t stopped me from second-guessing every bit of my submission ever since I hit send yesterday morning.

I’ve been working over my pitch and my MS quite a bit over the course of the last six months, but that hasn’t stopped me from feeling insecure about the whole big mess, especially since I have a variety of short pitches in the works now. Do I use one of the ones I created for the #PitMad pitchfest last fall? Do I use the one I currently have up on authonomy? Do I use the one-sentence synopsis I spent a whole day trying to draft?