Pitch-Slam Weekend January 13-15, 2012 with Rachel Dugas, Leah Hultenschmidt and Carlie Webber

[Georgia McBride]

 

Pitch-slam weekend is here! Please read below for rules, and information on how to praticipate!

 

The pitches will be 4-5 lines in length and should be pasted in the COMMENTS section with your full name and title of the work. Nothing longer than 4-5 lines will be considered. The pitch should give the reader an idea of what the story is about. For example, below is a pitch for Harrry Potter.

 

"Harry Potter is the most miserable, lonely boy you can imagine. He’s shunned by his relatives,and forced to live in the cupboard under the stairs. Harry’s world gets turned upside down on his 11th birthday, when an invite to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry arrives. He learns of the evil Lord Voldemort who killed his parents, and then tried and failed to kill Harry when he was an infant. Harry later learns he was saved for a reason." -- from Wiki Summaries

 

Members will enter pitches beginning Friday January 13, 2012 at 3PM EST thru Sunday at midnight EST. Agents may read pitches at any time.

 

During the week of January 16-19 however, judges will read and respond to/comment on pitches.  

 

Judges will be looking for their top 5 pitches (per judge). A total of TEN members will have a chance to revise and resubmit based on agent feedback. These are the TEN finalists.

 

Upon completion of pitch review, judges will POST their top 5 pitches by author and title, establishing the top 15 finalists ON January 20 no later than 3PM EST. So be sure to check back then!

 

Once posted, those finalists will have a chance to resubmit and repost during the weekend of Jan 20-22, 2012. 

 

Judges will review the revised pitches and choose 1 (each judge) as winners: 1. The best and 2. A second best, and 3. Runner up, by Jan 23

 

The two who win the top designation will be awarded a full manuscript critique from whichever judge has chosen them. The 3rd will win a gift from Sourcebooks Fire and YALITCHAT.ORG, TBD.

 

Pitch-Slam Judge Profiles

 

Rachael Dugas

Rachael Dugas joined Talcott Notch Literary as an Associate Agent in June 2011. She earned her BA in English from Ithaca College and has worked as an editorial intern at Sourcebooks, where she assisted with their women's fiction, romance, and Jane Austen-related titles. Rachael currently represents cookbooks and young adult, middle grade, and adult fiction in the contemporary, paranormal, women's, and romance genres. She would also love a beautifully written historical and/or literary fiction, some really terrific memoir, and more fun, contemporary YA or adult fiction, especially pertaining to food or the performing arts. 

 

Website: www.talcottnotch.net

Twitter: @RachaelDugas

 

Carlie Webber

 

Carlie Webber refused to major in English in college because no one would let her read Stephen King or R.L. Stine for class. She took her love of young adult and genre fiction to the University of Pittsburgh, where she obtained a Master of Library and Information Science, and worked as a YA librarian and reviewer for publications including Kirkus Reviews. Wishing to explore her interest in the business side of books, she decided to switch from librarianship to publishing and enrolled in the Columbia Publishing Course. Now she is building her agenting career on her favorite genres: young adult, middle grade, romance, horror, mystery, suspense, thrillers, literary fiction, contemporary fantasy and women's fiction. Her ongoing submissions wishlist includes but is not limited to high-concept YA, literary suspense, grunge era nostalgia and things that go bump in the night. Carlie is also a member of the YALITCHAT.ORG Submissions Panel!

 

Website: Jane Rostrosen Literary Agency

 

 Leah Hultenschmidt

 (will not be offering editorial prizes, will read and comment on pitches)

Leah acquires YA fiction for the Sourcebooks Fire imprint, original single title romance for Sourcebooks Casablanca and select romance reprints for Casablanca Classics. She's looking for projects with a fresh premise, a lively pace and a solid marketing hook. YA should appeal to the older teen market with crossover adult potential.  The romance can be any subgenre: contemporary, paranormal, historical, romantic suspense, fantasy, time travel, or any combination thereof. Please submit cover letter in the body of an email with full manuscript (if available) or first 3 chapters and a synopsis attached as Word documents. Leah is also a member of the YALITCHAT.ORG Submissions Panel!

 

Website: www.sourcebooks.com

[Nicole Sobon]

Nicole Sobon

 

PROGRAM 13

 

Thirteen, one of the newer Program’s to be built at Vesta Corp, was content with what she was. She understood that she was not human, that she was built for a purpose. But when a hard drive evaluation goes wrong, and Thirteen’s readings begin to show signs of human activity…everything changes. Desperate for a second chance at the life which was stolen from her, Emile pushes her way back into her body, fighting back at Thirteen’s programming. But Charles McVeigh is not willing to let Thirteen go that easily, and he will stop at nothing to keep her within his grasp.

[Leah Hultenschmidt]

Great title, clear premise.  But I feel as though I've heard pieces of this before: what happens with a robot/cyborg starts to go against programming? What element makes this different from those?

[Nicole Sobon]

 

I’ll definitely make sure to mention what happens when Emile fights back against Thirteen’s programming, and why PROGRAM 13 is different from most cyborg stories.  Thank you for the feedback!

[Carlie Webber]

I like this concept (it reminds me a little of Blade Runner), and it does seem that cyborgs are the new vampires. But I'd like it even more if you were clear right from the start on who Emile is in relation to 13; I had to read this twice to figure out the distinction. 

[Rachael Dugas]

Hi, Nicole-

I definitely agree with Carlie that Emile thing need to be clarified. Otherwise, however, I thought you did a great job. It's compelling and strikes a nice balance between good color and superfluous language.

[Nicole Sobon]

Thank you for your feedback! I'll definitely go back and try to clarify that a bit more. :)

[Laura Louise Renegar]

INK by Laura Renegar

With a slip of paper and a lighter, Mazie ruined lives. With her sketch pad in a tattoo shop, she’ll try to save one. Fresh out of juvie for arson, fifteen year old Mazie is living on the streets and searching for a missing girl—the daughter of the firefighter who died in the flames. But finding Samantha means NOT laying low—a dangerous proposition considering a sexy tattooed stranger, maybe Samantha’s kidnapper, is hunting Mazie down.

[Leah Hultenschmidt]

Oooh, fabulous.  I would definitely read more.

[Laura Louise Renegar]

Thank you!

[Carlie Webber]

I'd like to see more of this.

[Laura Louise Renegar]

Yay! Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

[Rachael Dugas]

Hi, Laura--

Nicely done! Very dramatic, different, and the stakes are nice and high.