Announcement! (A Little Late)

Oh, time to blog, where have you gone? Probably to things like the lab report I'm supposed to be writing right now. But! Procrastination is king in my world and writerly loves come first! So, that being said I have some exciting, if not a little late, news for you guys.

Remember how I talked about the awesomeness of WriteOnCon last year? Well, they have decided to do a mid-winter pitchfest! They are calling it the "Luck O' The Irish" pitchfest where agents, book bloggers, and authors will be joining forces to decide on the best pitches of 2013 so far. And since I have plenty of Irish blood running through my veins, I have decided to do what I can to help. 

Here's the official deets:

–Pitch-fest runs from March 18-22. Authors, book bloggers, readers, and our fabulous literary agents will be voting on the pitches. The favorites in each category will win prizes, including some great agent feedback or membership in the official WriteOnCon mentorship program!

–There will only be a limited number of pitches accepted. That number is unknown at this time, because it depends on how many agents attend. We’re still recruiting agents and will let you know the final numbers as soon as we do! Pitches will be selected randomly, so it doesn’t matter what time zone you live in.

–The agents have selected their top three genres, and pitches will ONLY be accepted in those genres. Again, all genres are unknown at this time as we’re still finalizing agents, but don’t worry. We will make announcements about genres and numbers as things solidify (sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss a thing!). At this time, we are only focusing on the children’s market, so you can know now that this pitch-fest will focus only on middle grade and young adult genres.

–We’re announcing this now, before all details are finalized, because we’re running a “perfect your pitch” workshop in February. This will take place in the WriteOnCon forums, and will work much the same as the query critique boards do during the annual WOC. You will post your pitch, and your peers will critique it. We will have posts from industry professionals on writing pitches and genre classification.

We’re doing this for a good reason. We want your pitch to be as perfect as possible once the submission window hits in March. We will only be accepting your entry for the pitch-fest one time. We will not change your genre or edit your pitch after it has been submitted. This workshop during February is the time for you to fine-tune your pitch and get feedback about which genre your novel really belongs in.

–Only one pitch per person. Put forth your best work.

–Pitches should be for polished and query-ready novels only. That means if you haven’t finished your novel yet, you shouldn’t pitch. Still revising? Don’t pitch. The agents attending are looking for material, and when they request, you want to be ready to send out your novel. We’re announcing early to give you time to finish!

Dates to know:

• February 18-March 10 – Forum peer pitch critiques (Carolin has the forum boards built! Check them out HERE)
• March 11-13 – Submission of final pitches (this will be done through a Google form, NOT in the forum–details to come!)
• March 14-17 – We build the boards in the forum (they will be hidden until March 18)
• March 18-22 – Voting and commenting by literary agents, mentor authors, and book bloggers

 Now, since I am neither an agent nor a published author *yet* I will be joining forces with WriteOnCon as a book blogger. Which means I will be posting about querying this month and hosting whatever posts they throw my way. I'll be jumping into the forums over the next week to give my thoughts on the pitches already out there. If you haven't posted yours yet, there's still time!