The Pitch Madness submission window will be open for 24 hours on February 26!
Pitch Madness is a contest to win a request from one or more of the participating agents. I will have an agent introduction post up soon.
The submission window will be open from 12:01 AM EST on February 26 until 11:59PM EST. You should have plenty of time to get your submissions in. There is no limit of how many entries will be accepted. Please note: All entries sent before or after the allotted times will be deleted.
There will be 60 finalists moving onto the agent round. Pitch Madness will accept Middle Grade, Young Adult, New Adult, and Adult completed fiction, novel length (no novellas) completed and polished manuscripts only. This time around we will not accept non-fiction. Only one entry per writer this round.
What do you need to enter? A 35-word (max) pitch and the first 250 words of your finished manuscript. If the 250th word falls in the middle of a sentence, go to the end of the sentence. I will post formatting instructions before the submission window opens. There will be a form on the submission post to enter your pitch into.
Pitch Madness will be on four blogs and each blog host will have a co-host helping them choose their top 15 entries. I will have a post up soon to introduce the teams and slush readers.
We’ll have a small team of first readers checking for formatting and putting their top picks through to the hosts. This time around, the hosts and co-hosts of each blog will choose their team of slush readers for the second round. Some blog teams may opt out of having slush readers. So I won’t be choosing all the slush readers this go around.
All the twitter fun will be happening on the hashtag #PitchMadness!
Here are the links to the blogs joining me for the contest:
Summer Heacock’s blog (aka @Fizzygrrl) Co-hosted with Dee Romito (aka @writeforapples)
Sharon Johnston’s blog (aka @S_M_Johnston) Co-hosting with Jeyn Roberts (aka @JeynRoberts)
Rebecca Weston’s blog (aka @callmebecks) Co-hosted with Marieke Nijkamp (aka @mariekeyn)
And Brenda’s own Co-host:
Kimberly P. Chase (aka@kpchase817)
Here’s the schedule …
- Round One Readers Introduction on February 15
- Team Introductions throughout the day on February 16
- Agent Introduction on February 17
- Rules of the Game on February 19
- Formatting Instructions February 23
- Submission window will be on February 26 and will be open for 24 hours
- The top 60 picks for the agent round will go up on the blogs on March 9 at 12:01AM EST (NY time)
- March 11 at 12PM EDT (Noon) the agents requests are revealed, and right afterward is the tying agents challenge round. This year the agents will have 24 hours to respond to challenges (tie-breakers)
- There will be a #PitMad Twitter Pitch Party on March 17 from 8AM to 8PM EST. Check here for rules of the Twitter Pitch Contest.
That’s it for now. Come back on the mentioned dates to learn more about the slush readers, hosts, and agents!
30 Comments
Chris Sarantopoulos · January 27, 2016 at 3:27 am
I read the rules from the link you provided, but here’s a question: is it ok if we have already or are going to enter other online contests as well as Pitch Madness? Some other contests state that submitted stories must not be in an agent round of any other contest.
Thank you.
Heather Cashman · January 27, 2016 at 9:54 am
Our only restrictions with other contests are for Pitch Wars, so go for it!
Chris Sarantopoulos · February 15, 2016 at 10:04 am
Even if Pitch Wars is in six months from this event?
Laura Lashley · February 16, 2016 at 7:51 am
Yes, same question–if you submitted to Pitch Wars LAST August, are you prevented from submitting to this one, or is it that if you choose Pitch Madness now, you’re prevented from entering Pitch Wars this August?
Jami Nord · February 19, 2016 at 11:28 pm
Brenda can trump this, of course, but my understanding was the only people who aren’t allowed to enter pitch madness were those who GOT INTO pitchwars (as in they were selected last year as mentees).
Jami Nord · February 19, 2016 at 11:31 pm
Addendum: Though it can be to your disadvantage if you’ve entered a lot of contests where your work is posted in an easily searchable way with the same work. There’s less likelihood you’ll end up picked, historically, if it’s noticed that you’ve been featured for a lot of other contests frequented by the same agents.
Misty · February 8, 2016 at 1:30 pm
At last! Someone who unrndstaeds! Thanks for posting!
Melissa Miles · February 15, 2016 at 8:38 am
This sounds awesome. A thirty five word pitch will be a nightmare for me, but I’m game for a challenge! :)Thanks to everyone who is putting so much work into this contest.
Meghan Molin · February 15, 2016 at 11:53 am
Quick clarification: we can submit an entry for each finished manuscript we have, but only one of ours can move on to the next round, correct?
Kerry E.B. Black · February 17, 2016 at 11:21 pm
What are the minimum word counts for each genre, please? I’ve read so many varied interpretations.
Jami Nord · February 24, 2016 at 9:46 pm
There really aren’t any STRICT rules (And there are always exceptions to even the general guidelines). But http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/07/word-count.html is what I generally advise people to aim for.
Angela Greenman · February 21, 2016 at 3:19 pm
I’m confused about the role the four blogs play. When we submit our 35 word pitch do we have to select a blog to pitch to?
Jami Nord · February 24, 2016 at 9:47 pm
No, you’ll just enter your pitch, genre, and the first 250 words of your MS. The bloggers will pick their entries, not the other way around.
JC · February 26, 2016 at 10:01 pm
But where specifically? Because there is limited time left, and some of the blogs look like they haven’t been updated since last year.
Nic · February 22, 2016 at 9:32 am
This is all so exciting! Did the full rules get posted and I’m somehow not seeing them, or are they not up yet?
Jacob Marchitell · February 25, 2016 at 9:33 am
How do I enter my submission? send a file to an email? if so, whats the address i send it to? Thanks!
Nicole · February 25, 2016 at 11:42 am
hi Jacob
I emailed and asked the same question
here is Brenda’s response.
“Pitch Madness submission form will be on a post that will go live this Friday on February 26 for 24 hours. You’ll just enter the form and following the instructions. #PitMad is a separate event that happens on March 17 from 8AM to 8PM EST. It’s where you enter a Twitter pitch. You can find information about the contests on tags at the top of my blog.”
Heather Cashman · February 25, 2016 at 5:31 pm
The only way to submit is to fill out the submission form on this post.
JC · February 26, 2016 at 10:07 pm
Too bad there’s no actual submission form, as advertised. I’ve checked here and all 4 blogs. I suppose I’ll just submit my book the old fashioned way. It worked the first time.
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