Pitch Wars: A New Way to Publishing
What is Pitch Wars?
In short, Pitch Wars is the new way that publishers/agents are meeting with authors, and assisting them in the completion of a polished manuscript with the help of established mentors. Once complete, these manuscripts are submitted to agents, looking to represent authors.
It’s like walking on stage presenting your book idea, with published authors and agents in the audience, who want to represent you…at no cost to the writer.
How can Pitch Wars help Writers?
First…this is not a recipe for success, but it is better than a blind submissions (you will still have to do those. This is just another avenue). This can help motivate you. The Mentee that chooses your submission, will critique, assist you in editing, offer insight into building your characters and the world they live it, revise and rewrite until your manuscript is ready.
All this without compensation. It is a giving-back to the community of writing at large.
How it works / in a nutshell:
“W.A.I.T.”
You know, that four-letter word every author goes through; it will become a word you will know to great extent.
While Pitch Wars is a waiting game, it is not a waste of time. It gives you the drive and the motivation to push forward. It provides you a chance to create and to learn (and in some cases, to let go).
Head to Pitchwars.org to get started:
1st – You should have your manuscript ready. Polished as you can make it. It has to be unpublished.
2nd – You should have a 35-word pitch ready, as well as a 1-page synopsis and query letter
3rd – There are deadlines, not only for Mentors to request entry (see they WANT to help you), but also for Mentees to submit their manuscripts. This gives you a goal to reach each year.
4th – Once your manuscript is polished, it is pitched in a Twitter Hastag, where literary agents and publishers pick their favorite one
5th – Follow Social Media once you have submitted. There is a whole community waiting to trade manuscripts, view pitches of the past, assist in their experience, network with, and follow in their career. Remember: each mentee can someday be a mentor
Visit these hash tags
#Pitchwars #PitMad, #SFFpit: Twitter Parties
Why every writer should enter Pitch Wars
• The ratio of Submission to Representation is in your favor
o The margin is between 10-15% of entrees get Mentor/Publishing representation
o This is better than submitting your query to publishers directly, with less wait time
• Your pitch is exposed even after the contest is over
o So the fact that you may not have won at that moment, still leaves a chance you will be seen later
• Winning or not, it whips you into shape for finishing your work
o Contests will do that to a writer. It offers a deadline, and an opportunity to meet a community or writers who can advance your career to the next level.
o Deadlines push away the procrastination of finishing your work. And once you submit, there is a progression of submission/polishing/submission/polishing…that you go through that would never have happened on your own
o You submit your own unfinished work. Meaning, there are no specific topics/genres you have write under. Your own work has to stand out on its own merit
• The Critiques are invaluable
o Professional in the fields of publishing, writing, representing, and mentoring, will be providing free feedback to your work that is priceless
The Final Word
While this does not guarantee you will be picked up by a publisher, your odds are good that in the end, you will have a polished manuscript awaiting the next roll of pitches. Submitting to hashtags means more eyes can view your pitch, and you can polish yours and submit again. You also can see what agents are looking for authors, with randomly sending out queries blindly.
