Big things are afoot over here on the CJLA blog. So this blog-post is just a little teaser to warn you about some awesome events coming up! They include...
contest, pitch fest Well that was an experiment, wasn't it? Big thanks a million times over to everyone to brave the agent-shark-infested waters. Seriously. For those of you who participated, we appreciate your pitches and effort and willingness to take a chance, regardless of outcome. So now that it's all over, I wanted to put together some thoughts and stats. Nothing too detailed. Caren received 216 pitches. I received 164. I'm not doing stats for Caren's stuff, and even mine are not scientific, nor to they really all add up, so just look at them as trends. Out of my 164...
Thank you to everyone who participated in pitchfest. We got a ton of great material! I'm excited to start making my way through the piles.
I'm going to close my submissions from here until April 1st. That way I can comfortably get through the manuscripts I've requested (not to mention that have been in my inbox for a few months). For those pitching to me, you'll receive an automatic reply asking you to resend your query in April when I have more time to read.
Elana will still be reading queries and requesting material. Please visit our submission page to see what she's looking for. To query her, email her directly at elana@johnsonliterary.com. Check the spelling if you're not clicking on the link!
Thanks again and we're looking forward to reading the material we received.
Caren
pitch fest, submissions info Good morning, all. Caren and I are just a few hours away from digging in to the nearly 400 pitches we received yesterday. Thanks to everyone who participated.
I already noticed that several pitches came in after I locked the pitch threads at midnight EST last night. Since the time-cap was the 24 hours of Thursday EST, I can't promise we'll respond to those. You sneaky people who tried to skirt the system...
So stay tuned. We have a long day ahead of us, and we'll update you if we need more time. You can also check my Twitter feed today, since I might post some sporadic updates as we go.
And next week I'll do a nice post-mortem blog post about this whole experiment.
~Elana
Hello everyone,
Thanks all who have already bravely posted their pitches in the forums!
Just some housekeeping notes to keep me sane:
1. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE post your pitch INSIDE either the PITCH CAREN or PITCH ELANA threads. Do not create your own thread in the main forum window. I will delete these. Why? Because it's cluttered and then Caren and I can't tell who you are pitching. If you are a guilty party, please go post your pitch in the proper place.
2. The pitchfest is not overriding or getting in the way of our normal query process. It's totally up to you.
3. We'll respond to them all tomorrow. You will likely get an email from one of us if we request your work. But check back in the forums as we comment on the pitches.
Thanks again!
Elana