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, Christie--

See your first post for my reply as well.

[Leah Hultenschmidt]

This will be a little too young for me in YA, but I like that the stakes are clear and the timeline is tight.

[Georgia McBride]

PITCH-SLAM entrants: We are heading into our second weekend, and I wanted to let you know we are about to name FINALISTS. The post will come from me, so keep an eye out for my posts. If you haven't already, CLICK the blue RSS feed button on the bottom left of this page to keep updated with posts in THIS forum topic!

If when we announce finalists, you have NOT gotten a repsonse from ALL THREE judges, it could be for a number of reasons. 

1. the judge has already read your pitch, novel or query or is in the process of reading it via a direct submission you sent them previously. If this is the case, you will not receive a comment here.

2. the judge may have ALREADY given you feedback or, rejected the idea via email from a direct submission you sent them previously.

IF YOU ARE CHOSEN AS A FINALIST, please do not post thank you notes, or comments. If you have a question, you may send it to [e-mail]. PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL ME OR THE JUDGES with questions, comments, etc. YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. DO NOT SEND YOUR PITCH DIRECTLY TO A PANELIST. You will be given instructions on HOW to sub your re-submission HERE. 

PLEASE DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION. 

Please direct any questions to [e-mail]. PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL or DM saying, "I know you said not to email but..."

Thank you to the wonderful panelists: Rachael Dugas, Leah Hultenschmidt and Carlie Webber. 

[Georgia McBride]

Congratulations to all who entered the pitch-slam contest. You are all brave, talented and deserving. However, we must name finalists, as promised. 

 

IF YOU RECEIVED FEEDBACK WHICH INDICATED THE JUDGE WOULD LIKELY READ MORE, BUT, THERE WAS LITTLE TO CHANGE, AND YOU ARE NOT CONSIDERED A FINALIST, WE RECOMMEND YOU DO ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

 

1. Revise your entry based on the feedback given, and then submit your entry via YALITCHAT.ORG's submission mailbox. Your must be a Tier 2 member to do so. Members receive editorial advice on their query and first 500 words.

OR

2. Revise your entry based on the feedback given, and then submit your entry via the judge's submssions process, based on their individual submissions guidelines.

 

In both cases, when submitting directly to the judge, you should refer to the judge's comment regarding the strength of your work, and or, their interest in seeing/reading more.

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING REGARDING RULES FOR FINALISTS:

1. YOU MAY NOT RESUBMIT if you have not been named a finalist. YOU MAY ONLY RESUBMIT ONCE, and it must be a submission for the work named by the judge as the finalist winning entry.

 

2. Judges will review the resubmissions as stand alone entries. THEY ARE NOT CONCERNED NECESSARILY WITH HOW THE RESUBMISION DIFFERS FROM THE ORIGINAL. Your goal should be to submit a fully-realized, revised submission which seeks to represent the best version of your entry based on judge's feedback.

 

The following are official finalists and may resubmit their original entry through January 30, 2012. Any other submissions will be deleted. Additionally, PLEASE DO NOT ADD COMMENTS TO YOUR SUBMISSION, UNLESS A JUDGE ASKS YOU A QUESTION. ALL ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WILL BE DELTED--including thank-yous.

 

1. EXTRACTION by Stephanie Diaz
2. THE PACKING HOUSE by G. Donald Gibbs
3. KARNEPHEAR by Clifford Piel
4. AERIAL MYSTIQUE by Ryann Kerekes
5. MY SISTER'S REAPER by Dorothy Dreye
6. GOING DOWN IN FLAMES by Chris Canada
7. AERIAL MYSTIQUE by Ryann Kerekes (this entry received 2 votes)
8. OVER THE DEEP FRIED RAINBOW by Leslie Rose
9. GIDEON'S INN by Joe Richardson
10. SWEET AMBROSIA by Sophia Cheng

 

We may announce more finalists at the discretion of the judges. Congratulations to all who have achieved finalist status. We look forward to reading your resubmissions!

[Christine Canada]

GOING DOWN IN FLAMES by Chris Canada (revised)

Sixteen-year-old Bryn McKenna knows life isn’t a fairy tale, and she doesn’t expect to be treated like a princess, but finding out she’s a dragon is a shock. Breathing flames whenever she’s pissed off is a problem, but that doesn’t mean she’s happy about being shipped off to a school where she’ll either learn to control her new powers or be forced to wear a muzzle. It doesn’t help that the most powerful man in dragon society is the guy her mom jilted, and his son, Dante, who is also enrolled at the school, has made it his life’s mission to avenge his family’s honor by making her life as miserable as possible. Bryn fights Dante head on and works to expose the hypocrisy of the archaic dragon society, because if her life is going down in flames, she’s taking everyone with her. 

[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.

[Clifford Piel]

KARNEPHEAR by Clifford Piel

Struggling with abusive parents and unable to shake his visions of a world ruled by cannibalistic creatures, fifteen-year-old Xander Gerber has immersed himself in alcohol and depression. He’s convinced that killing himself is the only way out, but when his suicide attempt ends in a bloody fight with his father, Xander returns to where the complications of his life started—through a portal to Dark World, where the creatures of his visions have been awaiting his return. Xander soon realizes he is the key that unlocks the gates between worlds and in order to prevent an attack on Earth he must first embrace his own internal darkness.

 

[Stephanie Diaz]

EXTRACTION by Stephanie Diaz (revised)

On the planet Surface, kids are killed off at twenty, but at sixteen, Clementine is one of the lucky ones picked to stay alive. When she impresses the adult Developers who rule the planet on Extraction Day, her prize is a transfer to the underground colony in the Core, where she doesn't have to be afraid of hunger, officials, or the moon's deadly acid. But the acid in the sky is growing stronger day by day, threatening to destroy the planet's protective shield. A plan the Developers have to protect civilians only includes those who, like Clementine, are lucky enough to reside in the Core. Terrified of losing the boy she loves but left behind in the Surface slums, Clementine must find a way to free him or halt the acid before the Developers take something else she can't afford to lose: her freedom of mind.

[Leslie Rose]

OVER THE DEEP FRIED RAINBOW by Leslie Rose

Sixteen-year-old, Sidney O’Sullivan is crushed when she believes her dreamboat “almost” boyfriend, Jon Dorsey, has asked the flirty junior class she-weasel, Peri Elwood, to the prom. To avoid a summer of high school humiliation, Sidney flees from California, flying over the deep fried rainbow, to wallow in misery with her wacky Kentucky kin. She is about to drown in the culture shock of pickled pig’s feet, over-sexed cousins, and a psychotic rooster when Sweet Buttered Jesus, a hunky farm boy nearly shoos away all her thoughts of Jon Dorsey.

[Dorothy Dreyer]

MY SISTER'S REAPER by Dorothy Dreyer

Sixteen-year-old Zadie’s first mistake was telling the boy she liked she could bring her dead sister back to life. Her second mistake was actually doing it. When Zadie accidentally messes with the Reaper’s Rite that should have claimed her sister Mara, things go horribly wrong. Mara isn’t the same anymore—Zadie isn’t even sure she’s completely human, and to top it off, a Reaper is determined to collect Mara's soul. Now Zadie must figure out how to defeat her sister’s Reaper or let Mara die … this time for good.

[G. Donald Cribbs]

THE PACKING HOUSE by G. Donald Cribbs (revision)

Sixteen-year-old Joel Scrivener has two choices: continue to run from his problems, or man-up and face them, and only one choice will keep Amber Walker in his life. Running has been his go-to option since his parents divorced, his mom has taken to dating every jerk in a fifty-mile radius, and he’s basically failing his sophomore year of high school because his mother makes them move all the time. If he retreats to his books and poetry now though, he’ll lose everything, including Amber, the girl he’s secretly loved since he was a kid. If he faces his problems, he’ll uncover the root cause of his recurring nightmares and a secret from his past so terrible, it may prevent him from being the man he realizes Amber needs. What Joel decides to do with his problems will determine whether he will finally win Amber's heart, or lose her forever.

[Ryann Kerekes]

AERIAL MYSTIQUE by Ryann Kerekes (revised)

When a teenage ballerina is dismissed from her ballet contract, she auditions for the cirque, and wins a spot in the knife-throwing act. Being the eye candy in the risky act isn’t her idea of fun, but there’s something unmistakably dangerous yet tempting about her brooding partner’s tattoos and sky blue eyes that sear into hers when he’s throwing the knives. When she learns he’s on the run from the law, solving the mystery of his past proves to be just the distraction she needs to postpone dealing with her parents as she gets swept away in the cirque and a romance with a boy her parents would never approve of.