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Entries in pitch fest (6)

Monday
01Feb2010

Pitchfest Post-Mortem

AuthorElana Roth DateMonday, February 1, 2010 at 6:38PM Comment27 Comments

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...

Click to read more ...

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Monday
01Feb2010

Pitchfest and other updates

AuthorCaren Estesen DateMonday, February 1, 2010 at 12:15PM Comment2 Comments

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

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Friday
29Jan2010

Today is the Day - Pitchfest

AuthorElana Roth DateFriday, January 29, 2010 at 8:13AM Comment12 Comments

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

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Thursday
28Jan2010

Pitchfest - UPDATES

AuthorElana Roth DateThursday, January 28, 2010 at 8:45AM Comment8 Comments

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 

 

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Monday
25Jan2010

Pitchfest: Details and Instructions 

AuthorElana Roth DateMonday, January 25, 2010 at 8:07AM Comment26 Comments

Hello everyone,

Thanks for all your great responses so far on this week's pitchfest we'll be hosting here at CJLA. As promised, here are the details and rules of how to participate.

  1. Post your pitch on the CJLA FORUM (www.johnsonliterary.com/forum) on Thursday, January 28th. This means 12AM until the following 11:59PM. No exceptions. Any pitches posted outside of those time stamps won't be responded to. (We have to draw the line somewhere.)
  2. Your pitch should be no more than 100 words long and tell us the overall concept/hook of your book. We do not want to hear the whole plot. This is good for us, and good for you. (For tidbits on how to pitch tightly, please see this previous blog post of mine.)
  3. You may only pitch one project.
  4. You may only pitch to one of us. (Since we overlap in YA, please take a closer look at the types of YA Caren and I each represent. She tends toward more paranormal and romance, I tend towards more speculative and high-concept.)
  5. Your book needs to be finished, because we'll be requesting material from this session.

Other things:

  • We don't care what country you're in.
  • Pitching a project during this session in no way precludes you from querying us on another project in the future. So if we don't request your book this time around, the door is not closed for you to approach with another one via the usual submission process.
  • If you're confused about what categories we're accepting, just look over our list again, and go with your gut. 

Caren and I will be responding live on Friday beginning at 10AM. We hope to get through them by noon (fingers crossed), but that will of course depend on how many pitches there. So please check back then.

Also, we will be giving some general feedback and advice, so be prepared for that. We hope this will help you in your pitching skills, so that even if we don't request your book, you'll be able to go out and find the right agent for you more confidently.

Any other questions? I'll answer a limited number of them in the comments to this post. 

Good luck!

~Elana

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