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Monday, January 6, 2014

TRADING PLACES: NOTES FROM THE PITCHWARS SLUSH




When my first play was produced, I had the chance to sit on the other side of the audition table. This was a total Freaky Friday moment for me after many years as an actor. It was incredibly eye opening to see how often actors were rejected for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with their degree of talent.

I recently had another Freaky Friday experience as one of the middle grade mentors for Brenda Drake’s online contest PitchWars. In PitchWars, prospective participants submit queries and five pages to the mentors of their choice. As mentors, we had a few days to sort through our applicants and pick one—ONE!—and two alternates. We gave our mentees feedback on their full manuscripts, helped them craft their pitches, and later in January, the selected pitches and first pages will go up for an agent-judged contest.

As I sorted through the 65 middle grade applicants who had applied to have me as a mentor, I was suddenly on the other side of the audition table again. After years of my own querying journey, I had a condensed glimpse into the life of a literary agent—and I realized how it’s not always about being good enough or not.

A few observations that I hope might help querying writers:

·      I turned down a TON of great material. And I turned it down easily. The quality of my submissions was extremely high—there were only one or two who clearly had no idea what they were doing. Most were really solid. But once I’d read a couple that I absolutely adored, it became incredibly easy to pass on anything that didn’t surpass those. I feel like I better understand now how agents have to absolutely fall in love with something to take it on.

·      I read a lot of not-awesome queries followed by fantastic pages. There are a lot of resources out there for query critique, but I don’t think they’re being as well utilized as they could be. This is what I said over and over in my feedback to writers I didn’t select: Queries should sound like back jacket copy, not like a list of events that happen. Try to keep the whole thing around 250 words. Try to answer these questions: 1) What does your main character want/need? 2) What’s standing in their way? 3) What will they have to do to overcome it? (This format doesn't work for all manuscripts, but it worked for probably 95% of what I saw.)

·      I read many submissions with completely solid writing and very good voice, but the premise just didn’t feel fresh. Portal fantasies, dying races of magical creatures, feisty princesses, coming to terms with the death of a parent. You might have written a fantastic manuscript around one of these things—I’ve written about one of them myself—but you have to make sure that whatever sets your story apart really shines through in the query and first pages.

·      Following agent guidelines is important. SO important. I don’t want to undermine this. If an agent says “no horror” then by all means, don’t query them with horror. But if they don’t mention horror at all, and you think they might be a good fit? No harm in trying. My top pick was, not surprisingly from my wish list, a literary verse novel. But my two alternate picks were things I absolutely never would have predicted I would choose—super creepy & superheroes (not together). But great storytelling + terrific voice trumps all and those two pulled me in, despite having subject matter I wouldn't usually gravitate toward.

Have you ever had a Freaky Friday publishing moment? Have you gotten a valuable glimpse into a different position—an agent, an editor, a reviewer? Did you learn anything? How did it enrich your journey as a writer?

18 comments:

  1. Sometimes I can imagine how an agent or editor must feel whenever I'm trying to decide on what books to buy and read. There's an investment at stake so I find myself reading the blurbs and tossing aside best sellers or genre books I'm usually interested in in search for 'the one' I really can't do without.

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    1. Yes, and not just an investment of money but also time! There simply isn't time to read everything I want to read, much less put in the time involved in agenting or editing a manuscript.

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  2. Wonderful post, Joy. I bet you're a great mentor!

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    1. Thanks, Michael! I've sure had fun. I think the best thing to be gained by contests like these is the relationships.

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  3. I've never been a judge for a writing contest, but I did a query critique for someone who wasn't a critique partner a couple of months ago and it totally stressed me out. It's hard for me to make suggestions on a query when I haven't read the manuscript, but you're right, Joy~ the query is the first thing agents see, and it goes a long way of helping to get requests if that letter is as polished as your pages.

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    1. I think it's great to get query help from both people who have read the manuscript and people who haven't. People who have read may have a clearer idea of what's important to focus on in the query, etc., but sometimes people who've read the manuscript gloss over confusing bits of the query b/c they understand what really happens.

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  4. There is a ton of query help online and even then it's still tough! I revised mine so many times. There's not really a perfect query, but as long as you hit the main point of the book--and like you said, not a synopsis-like list of "and then this happens," that's pretty much the key.

    Another thing I learned (the hard way) was that sometimes a query can reveal weaknesses in a book. If your MC has no main goal and things just happen to them, that could be a sign of a larger issue with the manuscript.

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    1. Yes, absolutely. I like writing a query fairly early in the drafting process precisely because it can often help identify issues in the manuscript itself.

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  5. When I wrote (and rewrote and rewrote) a query for my second novel, it became apparent to me that my main character lacked a strong desire for something. Wanting to be left alone apparently is not a heart's desire! So I agree with Stephanie, above, the act of writing the query can be eye-opening. And then it's back to revising.

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    1. SO eye opening! I hope you found your character's strong desire!

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  6. Query is everything! If an agent is not comfortable with your 250 word query, how can they be comfortable with your 250 page novel? Such great observations! Lots of people favorited this post and for good reason! Thanks, Joy!

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    1. Thanks so much, Hilary. Yes, it seems like someone who's capable of writing a whole novel ought to be capable of distilling it into a compelling query, and yet that doesn't always seem to translate! Thankfully it's easier to find feedback on the query than the whole manuscript. :-)

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  7. Joy, this sounds like a really neat experience. And your advice is excellent. Sharing this all over ...

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    1. Thanks Dianne! It's been a terrific experience. I've made some wonderful new writing friends and really feel like I understand the agent/editor process so much better now (and have to remind myself that I only got the tiniest glimpse of what they go through!).

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  8. I don't know if this qualifies as a "Freaky Friday" experience, but recently I took an online writing class where I got to critique my classmates' work, and vice versa. Seeing some of the issues some of my classmates had helped me to recognize some of those same issues in my own writing.

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  9. Absolutely! Critiquing others' work is such a great way to improve in one's own writing. And likewise, critiquing query letters is SUCH a great way to learn the pitfalls and how to avoid them.

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  10. Wow. I just left a detailed rant of a comment, and it got eaten! Thanks, blogger.

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  11. Terrific post, Joy--such great insight!

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Thanks for adding to the mayhem!