Pitch Madness is fast approaching and we have a crazy, awesome line up of agents competing for your pitches!
For those of you not familiar with Pitch Madness, Pitch Madness is a contest where agents compete in a game against their peers for pitches. This time the game is 
. If you haven’t been a part of a Pitch Madness challenge before, please check out this post here for more information. The submission window is open for 24 hours (12:01AM EST to 11:59PM EST) on March 10. Our slush readers will read through the pitches and pick the top 60 pitches for the agent round starting on March 18. We try to get a good mix of various genres, but the writing comes first. Basically, if the submissions aren’t ready, it’s a pass.
And here are our fantabulous agents …
Maria Vincente
Maria is actively looking for literary and commercial fiction, young adult, middle grade, illustrated picture books, and nonfiction projects in the pop culture, pop psychology, design, and lifestyle categories. She has affinities for literary writing, strong character development, and original storytelling formats.
Jessica Sinsheimer
Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency
Jessica represents literary, women’s, young adult, middle grade, and nonfiction. She loves smart, dynamic female characters—especially if there’s a hint of mischief, otherwise fun bad behavior, or justified violence involved. Romance and erotica, or elements of these, would be wonderful. She loves women’s fiction that sets itself apart from other works in the genre. She welcomes all brands of YA and thinks she’s starting to go through a fantasy phase. Please note, though, that she needs a large dose of intellect with her fantasy to feel grounded in this new world. Honestly, though, she’s open to all genres. She likes pleasant surprises.
Uwe Stender
Uwe is always open to any strong fiction (his current focus in fiction is YA, middle grade, Women’s Fiction, Literary Fiction and Mysteries) and all non-fiction projects. In YA, Uwe likes novels with great story and well drawn protagonists (think “Thirteen Reasons Why,” “Looking For Alaska,” “The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight”). For younger audiences, any MG with an authentic voice will get his attention. In mystery, he is a big fan of both cozies and noir, but he needs a unique hook to get him interested.
Laurie McLean
Laurie specializes in genre fiction–meaning romance, fantasy, science fiction, horror, mysteries, suspense, thrillers, etc.–as well as children’s middle-grade and young-adult books. Projects from her clients must have stellar world building, characters that leap off the page, pacing that is relentless and a story that entices the reader to take its journey with the characters.
Carrie Howland
Carrie represents literary fiction and non-fiction as well as young adult fiction.
Peter Knapp
Pete is actively looking for middle grade and young adult fiction, as well as suspense and thrillers for all ages. He will consider select adult fiction, including psychological suspense and mysteries, and plot-driven literary fiction.
Melissa Jeglinski
Melissa is currently seeking projects in the following areas: Romance (contemporary, category, historical, inspirational) Young Adult, Middle Grade, Women’s Fiction and Mystery.
Christa Heschke
Christa is actively looking for picture books, middle grade, young adult and new adult projects and is currently building her list. She is a fan of new adult and young adult novels with a romantic angle, and strong, quirky protagonists. In young and new adult, Christa is especially interested in contemporary fiction, horror and thrillers/mysteries. She’d also like to see any steampunk and fantasy (urban and high), that pushes the boundaries of what’s currently on the shelves, perhaps a new take on these genres that has yet to be seen. As for middle grade, Christa enjoys humorous contemporary, adventure and magical realism for boys and girls.
Sean McCarthy
Sean accepts submissions across all genres and age ranges in children’s books.
Jordy Albert
The Booker Albert Literary Agency
Jordy is seeking the following … Middle Grade: contemporary, fantasy, action/adventure, or historical. YA: Open to pretty much any genre; however, she’s looking especially for YA that has a very strong romantic element–or which romance plays an integral part in the plot. And New Adult romance and romance (again, open to pretty much any genre.
Lara Perkins
Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Inc.
Lara represents all categories of children’s literature, from picture books to young adult. For middle grade, she’s particularly looking for compelling, unexpected mysteries, stories set in fascinating, unexpected worlds (real or imagined), and stories that hit home in their depiction of ending/changing friendships or family shifts. Humor is always welcome. For young adult, Lara is looking for heart-breaking but very funny contemporary (or contemporary with a fantasy or paranormal twist) novels. She loves a bittersweet romance when it’s solidly grounded in reality between believable, memorable characters. She’s also drawn to character-driven fantasy with striking world building, and whip-smart, page-turning psychological mysteries.
Rena Rossner
Rena’s actively seeking picture books, middle grade and young adult books, science fiction and fantasy for all ages (kids and adult) – in adult books her tastes skew more towards the literary, but she’s open to falling in love with something in any genre. She has a particular interest in Jewish themed, Israeli or biblically related books.While she’s not based in the USA, what she offers is a global perspective. she travels to the US and goes to many book fairs all over Europe and the world and she specializes in foreign rights.
Pam Van Hylckama Vlieg
Pam is looking for high concept young adult. Some of Pam’s favorite recent YA books are: The Masque of the Red Death, Cinder, Shadow and Bone, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Small Damages, and Insignia. Middle grade in these genres: fantasy, contemporary, literary. Pam’s recent favorite MG books are: The Peculiar, The Emerald Atlas, Storybound, The Prince Who Fell from the Sky, and Icefall. Romance in these categories: historical and contemporary. Pam’s favorite romance titles released recently are: Loving Lady Marcia, Be My Prince, Rogue’s Pawn, and The Siren. Genre fiction: urban fantasy, paranormal, and epic/high fantasy.
Mr. Boddy (aka Secret Agent)
Mr. Boddy represents young adult, middle grade, new adult, and commercial fiction, including romance.
And the Butler (aka Secret Agent) will be serving up requests on a silver tray as she tries to figure out what crookedly evil guest committed some of the most horrendous crimes.
Today is one of our hosts birthdays. Happy Birthday Rebecca! Everyone go over to Twitter and give her some birthday love!
Rebecca Weston (@callmebecks)
Here’s the Pitch Madness schedule …
- Hosts and their teams Introduction on March 3
- Agent Introduction on March 4
- Rules of the Game on March 6
- Formatting Instructions March 7
- Submission window will be on March 10 and will be open for 24 hours
- The first slush round will be March 11-12
- The final round will be March 13-17
- The top 60 picks for the agent round will go up on the blogs on March 18 at 12:01AM EST (NY time)
- March 20 at 12PM EDT (Noon) the agents requests are revealed, and right afterward is the tying agents challenge round
- There will be a #PitMad Twitter Pitch Party on March 25 from 8AM to 8PM EST. Check here for rules of the Twitter Pitch Contest.
That’s it for now. Come back March 6 for the game rules!
4 Comments
Jan Watford · March 16, 2014 at 2:27 pm
This is a great idea. I just saw this and it is 3/16. I am guessing that it is too late to submit. Wish I had seen it earlier.
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[…] contest, Brenda Drake, is hosting a month-long Pitch Madness contest with a fantastic Clue theme. The agents are being revealed today. If you have a COMPLETED AND POLISHED manuscript that is of the Middle Grade, Young Adult, New […]
Jess Metts · March 5, 2014 at 2:50 pm
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Pitch Madness Clue Edition ... game on! - Brenda Drake | Brenda Drake · March 18, 2014 at 8:00 am
[…] It’s been a long week of reading through all the amazing pitches. Our wonderful readers have narrowed the slush, and your game hosts have chosen sixty pitches for the game. For those of you not familiar with Pitch Madness, it’s a contest where agents compete in a game against their peers for pitches. This time the game is . To meet the slush readers, agent insiders, and the blog teams go here. And you can find out more about the amazing agents playing the game on this post here. […]
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