Blog

I wanted to do a quick post on the stats for the entries I received in Pitch Wars (an online writing contest, for those curious minds who haven’t heard of it). I’ll touch on genre breakdowns, what genres I am requesting, and the quality of queries I saw. I’m not going to post my overall submission numbers, because as it turns out, Pitch Wars mentors are just as human (and therefore susceptible to the agonies and ecstasies of comparison) as the mentees are. What I will say is that if you subbed to me, barring the possibility of a battle for my final entry, you have a 1.7% chance of becoming my mentee. Which sounds terrible, unless you then realize that when you query an agent, you have around a .03% chance of signing with them. And if you get... Read More

Today I’m talking agenting life with the multi-talented Jennifer Johnson-Blalock of Liza Dawson Associates. This is her first year on the star-studded agent lineup for Pitch Wars, and she has some juicy teasers at the end of this interview about what she’s hoping to find amongst the mentee manuscripts.   What is your favorite part of being an agent? Unquestionably, my favorite part of being an agent is getting to work with my clients. They’re the talent. I facilitate bringing their work to a bigger audience, but this business begins and ends with the writers. There’s no feeling of excitement that quite matches the one I have when I’m reading a manuscript and start to think, “This is really good… I think I might love this.” And in addition to being talented, my clients are kind, supportive, generous people. I’ve... Read More

I am going to tell you how to win PitchWars. Why? Because I want everyone to win! And while you can’t all be my mentee this year, you can ALL get agents. When I mentored in contests in the past, it broke my heart to see great writers with huge potential being held back by preventable mistakes. So I’m going to make it really easy on you (and really hard on me) by telling you all the tricks I use to decide which entries I don’t want. First, objective things. These are the things agents will also be looking for, and other mentors. This is good SH*T to know, whether you are submitting your manuscript to me for the PitchWars contest or not. Objective Things –Word Count: Know your genre and RESEARCH what is an acceptable word count for your... Read More