Pitch Contests: Beware...

Today I’m nursing a gig hangover (i.e. my fingers are blistered from playing bass, my hair is wider than it is long and my eye makeup has migrated beneath my eyes in a mirror image of what it was last night), so I’ll keep this quick. I want to share something I learnt from entering a pitch contest recently, in the hope that no-one makes the same mistake I did. I’ll admit this is pretty basic stuff but probably something easily overlooked, so I’m glad I got the reminder and happy to share.

See I ended up in the top ten entries for a recent pitch contest but one little word planted considerable doubt in the judges, and that’s hardly what you want when the prize is a full request from an acquisitions editor. The offending word was ‘urban’, because I’d listed my entry as urban fantasy when it read as fantasy alone. Given my pitch (which I’ve included below along with the judges’ comments), they were right to assume I’d mislabelled it. The trouble is my story is urban fantasy. It’s set in suburban Wales, where two ordinary suburban kids get roped into learning a crash course in defensive magic from two medieval stowaways who are trying to stop an ancient war. They go to school, do their homework and use the internet (and time travel) to solve the mystery which can save their bloodlines, so I’ve been told by many that it is urban fantasy and I was just sticking to that.

Understandably, I banged my head against a brick wall for about three days afterwards. But once I got over my head wall hangover, I figured you’ve just got to be flexible with the genre you list in these competitions (as I know there are heaps out there and they usually follow this format). Of course you have to be true to the book, because an agent or editor may be looking for a certain genre when they judge these contests and you don’t want to mess them around, but look out for grey areas in your work. I never would have noticed the ambiguity in mine, but now I know it’s there I’ll stick to fantasy as an easy middle ground.

And that’s it. Annoying, I know, but at least I learnt something from my mistake. And what about you guys? What’s your contest stuff up? (Or is it too painful to relive…?)

Kat

P.S. Speaking of contests, next week I'm hosting one you can't stuff up, but you can win yourself a $30 book voucher and signed book from my interview guest! Looking forward to seeing you there. :)

5. Name: Katherine Amabel - katherineamabel@gmail.com

Title: The Hourglass Bridge

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Word Count: 95, 000

Hauled into medieval Wales, a teenage history-buff must embrace her bloodline’s destructive powers to stop a war she potentially started.

Terri’s Vote: (a reserved) Yes

Terri’s Comment: The pitch is really good, though the story sounds a bit “and the kitchen sink” (I would have been happy without the magical powers). Personally, I would LOVE this if it was humorous/light hearted, but it sounds more on the serious/epic side of the genre. Just a note – this doesn’t sound like Urban Fantasy (?) – UF is set in a city, using involving a paranormal element, and usually in a contemporary setting.

Erin's Comment: Yes. I like the idea and I also like the way the sentence is written. This is not urban fantasy, though. Depending on how the time travel happens, it's either fantasy if it's a black box or done with magic, or science fiction if there is a reasonable explanation. This is basically the same type of story as A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court, which would probably have been published as fantasy if such genre distinctions had existed back then. I think you are confusing "urban fantasy" with "paranormal" which is easy to do since the publishing industry itself has confused the terms and allowed the one to morph into the other over time. "Paranormal" I will grant you, for the use of magic. Paranormal Science Fiction isn't actually a genre, though-- that's called fantasy. I have a particular love of time travel stories (as you could probably tell, since I was already publishing the Time Yarns Universe before I became Acquisitions Editor at Eternal Press and Damnation Books) and so I've seen lots of lots of time travel stories. This one doesn't sound exactly like any of the others, though. I would read this for publication.

And the winner is...

Ladies and gentleman, girls and boys. The winner, of our critique contest and giveaway...

*cut to ad break*

...is... 

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...the one and only...

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Please excuse my shaky, live action shot...

Stacey Trombley!!!

Congratulations Stacey! Please email me your first ten chapters and I'll forward them on to Lisa while I arrange your voucher. And to all our other participants, Lisa and I just want to thank you for getting so thoroughly involved - that bowl may not look full but due to your participation there are almost 500 individually cut and scrunched entries in there (yes I'm a hippie, so I made them all minuscule to save paper). 


It's been an honor to pull this together and I'll definitely do something similar in the future. In the meantime keep an eye out for some other awesome stuff coming up on the blog too (if I do say so myself, which I can, because it's mine and it's awesome!). I'll be talking cover design and self publishing with the fabulous Donna Hosie, author of Searching for Arthur, which I reviewed right here, (wink wink, go-and-support-her-and-check-it-out). I'll be using telesales tips to hook readers with more Beginner's Guide to Turning Boredom into Booyah, for the fledgling writers out there. And I'll be on a constant lookout for anything which could help promote your book -whether you're traditionally published or otherwise.


Basically, I'm super excited about where this blog can go. Hope you see you there!


Thanks,
Kat


P.S. For those of you who couldn't find the mystery mistake, here was my tweeted clue.


If you can’t find the mystery you so dearly prize, don’t feel crossed; the answer is there in your eyes.


And I was referring to this line from the original contest post.


Lisa, a journalist and newspaper editor with more than fifteen years’ experience, is offering a COMPLETE LINE EDIT for TEN CHAPTERS of your MS. So if your punctuation prowess doesn’t go further than dotting your t’s and crossing your i’s, Lisa can help fix it. 


So... who here is kicking themselves?

Critique Contest Now Closed

Wow, the contest is officially over! I just want to take a second to thank you all for your enthusiasm and support and say how thrilled I am at what we managed to achieve together. Things took off in a way Lisa and I never could have expected – my blog hits went from tens to thousands, my inbox was flooded with twitter email notifications, and my mum genuinely thought we’d become online stars (although given that she once declared that my sister’s homemade youtube video had ‘gone viral’ after it received 300 hits, mostly from her, I didn’t exactly start practicing my autograph).

Anyway, I hope you all had as much fun as I did. And now, on to the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

Unfortunately Lisa has had to go away for a few days, and I need her statistics on entries before I can run the draw, so I’ll have to ask for your patience for a little bit longer. In the meantime there are a few entries in the critique session I didn’t get to look at and I know Lisa has some catching up to do too, so keep an eye out for more feedback and we’ll announce the winner as soon as possible.

Thanks again!

And we’re on the home straight!

The competition is nearly at its close, so I just thought I’d let you know how you’re all going.

Currently the highest number of entries in the draw is a whopping 46 (and no, they haven’t been stocking up on tesserae). If you think about it, there are 39 entries to be gained just by critiquing all 13 posts from the critique session. Add 5 entries to that for each blog you follow and you could be in the lead over the dozens of competitors who’ve tweeted to say they’re in. And feel free to search through Lisa's or my tweets and RT any contest shout-out which tickles your fancy. With an extra entry up for grabs for every RT, who knows? That one extra tweet could be your winning ticket… 

Critique contest Entry no. 13

Many thanks to this author for submitting to our critique contest. For your own chance to win a 10 chapter professional manuscript edit and $20 ebook voucher, follow @katherineamabel and @lisaslanding on twitter and tweet "I'm in!" Share your thoughts here for extra entries in the draw, and check out the rules to score even more! (http://beyondthehourglassbridge.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/critique-contest-and-giveaway.html)

Title: The Butterfly Effect
Genre: YA Paranormal
Query pitch:

Matt should be dead. When he walks in on the murder of his best friend’s father, Matt’s split-second decision to interfere costs him the man’s life, his best friend, and his own safety. But when the evidence points to a dead man, the police refuse to chase a ghost, and Matt is forced into therapy. Now, the killer is back, targeting Matt and his friends in order to take what he failed to collect the first time – their place in the afterlife.

David can’t know the truth about what Matt saw that night, but he already knows more about the reason behind his father’s murder than he lets on. The distance between the former friends turns into hate, but when David is pushed to the edge by everyone’s pity on the anniversary of his father’s death, Matt is the only one he can turn to. Together with Sinead, Matt’s not-so-secret crush, and two mysterious transfer students, they head out on a fateful ride that ends in the deaths of all but the driver.

Sinead makes it out alive and manages to get help, but an even greater danger lies in wait at the hospital - and the only person who can help her is supposed to be dead. When the four teens find themselves inexplicably alive, it's a race to stop the killer from switching Sinead's departing soul with his own. Matt may not have been able to save David's father, his friends, or himself, but nothing will stop him from saving her. Not even death.

Critique contest Entry no. 12

Many thanks to this author for submitting to our critique contest. For your own chance to win a 10 chapter professional manuscript edit and $20 ebook voucher, follow @katherineamabel and @lisaslanding on twitter and tweet "I'm in!" Share your thoughts here for extra entries in the draw, and check out the rules to score even more! (http://beyondthehourglassbridge.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/critique-contest-and-giveaway.html)

Title: Beneath The City Of Lights
Genre: Thriller
First Page:

PROLOGUE

The thickness in the air clung to him like a jacket that was a size too small. His breath was ragged and bounced off the stone walls, echoing like he was breathing through a megaphone. The walls felt like they were closing in, getting ready to crush anything that dared to pass. It was forbidden to come down here this deep. Now he knew why and wished he would've listened. His legs were heavy, as if two lead weights had replaced where his feet should be. His knees were bloody from crawling through rock and bone and whatever else was down here. How long had he been down here? A day, maybe even a week? He had lost all sense of perception at about 250ft below the city streets. He was now at almost 400ft and the only option was to go deeper.

That familiar cold chill enveloped him and he knew he had to move. Someone was coming. Or something. He wasn't sure, but even in the darkness he could feel its eyes on him. He slung his backpack onto his shoulder and pointed the video camera straight ahead. The damn thing had outlasted all his flashlights and was now his only and final source of light. It was stupid, really. Running for his life while carting a 20-pound, professional videographer camera around because his damn journalist brother wanted the story of his career. It wouldn't be seeing the light of day if he didn't get out of here alive, so he centered it in front of him and kept moving.

The water had to be as deep as he was tall, so it was a balancing act on rocks and debris to keep from slipping into the murky depths. There was a hum behind him, chasing him. A sound like he'd never heard before. So tonal and constant it was almost as if it was burrowing itself through his skull and into his brain. He squinted his eyes together, moving faster and trying to focus. Suddenly there was a loud splash to his left, startling him and sending him flying onto a patch of rock. The camera flew out of his hand, landing sideways, the light still dimly shining on him. A shriek of pain escaped his lips as he tried to get up. His ankle was twisted, maybe broken. He wasn't sure which of the two but he knew that he wouldn't be walking on it anytime soon.

He was chilled to the bone now, shaking. His entire body was caked in dirt and dried blood. He felt like just lying down on the mossy rocks and dying. He wanted death, welcomed it. There was no way he was getting out of here alive now. He was stranded and no one was stupid enough to search for him. The humming was becoming deafening, ringing off of the walls and hitting him like a bullet. Then suddenly it stopped.