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

[Rachael Dugas]

Hi, Brian--

I love the idea of the bottles of liquid time and I get a nice picture of the world you've created here. I'd definitely read more. Nice job!

[Sabrina H Solomiany]

Dreamwalker by Sabrina Solomiany

Seventeen-year-old Reece Brenner and her fifteen-year-old sister Jillian had always believed that their ability to enter people’s dreams was just harmless fun...until their power gets them into serious trouble    That's when they decide to attend Dreamwalker training camp.  But when they learn the true reason for their training – to help hunt down and fight others of their kind who wish to control people through their dreams, they realize that having this gift is much more dangerous than they could have ever imagined.  

[Carlie Webber]

Another overall good one. Clear premise, high stakes. If I could nitpick, I'd say take the ellipses and em-dashes out. You don't need them. Also, I feel like your last sentence could be much stronger. It's not enough for them to "realize" something. More action, less feelings.

[Leah Hultenschmidt]

I'm with Carlie in the "realize." I also think "decide to attend" could be beefed up into something more action-oriented.  But that's pretty nitpicky for an overall strong pitch.

[Rachael Dugas]

Hi, Sabrina--

This is well done. My only complaint would be that I have already received a small handful of "dreamwalker" query in my relatively short tenure as an agent, but I'd definitely read more to see what you've done with it.

[Carlie Webber]

This one is too short and the last half of the second sentence is very awkward. You've told me about, but not shown me, the actions taken by Jennifer and the peripheral characters, and "descends into a world of pain" isn't clear enough on what will happen to her.

[Leah Hultenschmidt]

I think we're going to need more than "awkward moment" to really get a feel for what makes this book particularly unique.

[Rachael Dugas]

Hi, Lisa--

This is too vague and, without further clarification, sounds simply grounded in teen angst. t sounds like the kind of novel where I'd want to shake the protagonist and tell her to get over herself. IAn awkward moment isn't enough to ruin someone's life--even teenagers aren't QUITE that dramatic.

[Lisa Kelleher]

When sixteen-year-old Jennifer Cast is caught at a party with the school's loser on top of her, cell phones record the whole event.  As the pictures circulate, her reputation of being a geek changes to being a slut. As naked pictures of her submerge throughout the year, Jen begins to lose her grip on reality and lives in a world where physical pain is the only thing that makes her feel good. Parents, teachers and even her best friend lets her down to the point where she doesn’t want to live.

Better?

[Joe Richardson]

Gideon's Inn by Joe Richardson

Samantha Gideon grew up scavenging riverboat wrecks with her Grandpa Jake. A charlatan and savant in the antique trade, Jake taught her to salvage, swindle and steal. Now Jake has gone missing--his trail ending at a steamboat that vanished from the Mississippi River nearly two centuries ago. As Samantha sifts through legend, lore and gone-to-rust riverfronts in search of her grandfather, she'll need every trick Jake taught her to outfox a killer who prefers the past remain dead and buried.

[Carlie Webber]

I like this pitch. You introduce the setting and then tell us how it's important to the characters and the plot, then leave us to wonder how Samantha will outwit the killer.

[Leah Hultenschmidt]

Well done. I get a sense of the characters, the story feels different and the conflict is clear.