Writing Contests Series Part 1

Hello Bookworms!

Sorry for the radio silence this summer. I’ve been kicking around some ideas for blog posts and…well, not actually writing any.

But today is a new day!

I have whipped up a brand new blog series that will make any aspiring author drool. This series will be five blog posts long. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the first competition.

This writing contest is an annual event with over 200 success stories since its founding in 2012. It’s created a Twitter-ific community of aspiring and published authors alike alongside industry professionals.

Drum roll please…. (Brought to you by giphy.com)

 

Pitch Wars!

Pitch Wars was created by Brenda Drake, author of the TOUCHING FATE and THIEF OF LIES. Here’s how the contest works:

1. Published authors and publishing industry professionals volunteer to be mentors.
2. The mentors guest post on Ms. Drake’s blog all summer, providing insight into what genres they are interested in and what their mentoring styles are like.
3. Aspiring authors gather intel on four mentors to whom they will submit a pitch (known as a query letter) for one of their completed manuscripts.
4. The submission form goes live and the Pitch Wars begins!
5. Mentors choose one mentee from the slush pile of pitches submitted to them.
6. Mentees are announced and the mentors have two months to help their aspiring authors revise their manuscripts and pitches for the Agent Showcase.
7. The Agent Showcase begins wherein literary agents and more publishing professionals will read through the mentee pitches with the potential for those aspiring authors to become published authors.

The submission form just went live yesterday and will be open until Saturday night! There are over 100 mentors this year looking for Middle Grade, Young Adult, New Adult and Adult genre categories.

I submitted a manuscript into the contest and will eagerly distract myself from the impatience of  waiting to find out whether or not I’m a mentee.

You can find all the details at Brenda Drake’s blog. Remember this is an annual contest so don’t worry if your manuscript isn’t ready. Feel free to check out the #PitchWars Twitter feed to see the writing community for yourself! Maybe you’ll spot a new book to read or an editor to submit to while you’re at it.

Have you entered or heard of Pitch Wars before? Let me know in the comments!