Hi All, Two of our very giving and exceptionally talented Nestpitch Team Members, Sharon Johnston and E.L Wicker, have contributed to an anthology and I am very honoured and happy to help them (and the other authors involved) promote Never … Continue reading
Nestpitch2015 has been a lot of work and a lot of fun. It’s also been a wonderful opportunity to ‘meet’ a lot of talented people from across the globe.
The Teams have worked hard, both whittling down the submissions and then working with their authors.
And now is the Agent Round –WooHoo!
A special thank you to all the agents who have given or their time – without you guys there would be no #nestpitch.
Each Team has Mentored a group of talented authors for the past month or so and now it’s time to show off our simply smawesome submissions.
You’ll find each teams submissions on the links below.
Agents, let your tempting chocolate treats flow.
Authors, get ready for the best part of the Nestpitch cycle
And twitter/blog followers, feel free to show your support via facebook, twitter or leave a supportive message here for your favourite submissions.
Here we go!
| #TeamPlotBunnies | |
| #TeamEvilBunny | |
| #TeamUnbreakable | |
| #TeamBasketCase | |
| #TeamEggslent | |
| #TeamHotCrossBooks | |
| #TeamSugarRush | |
| #TeamOneBasket | |
| #Team2Beat |
And don’t forget to check out the Unmask the Agent comp. It starts in a few days & there’s a $20 Amazon gift voucher up for grabs!
Thank you to everyone who submitted, we have been blown away with your talent and creativity! – #Nestpitch2015 is now CLOSED
To all who submitted, keep an eye out in the next week as Teams will be requesting more material and any author may get requests from more than one Team
GOOD LUCK EVERYONE – YOU’RE ALL SMAWESOME!
So have you prepared your emails, checked them twice… ‘cos we want your pitches, both naughty and nice…
Oh wait, that’s the wrong jingle isn’t it? You know what? It’s my blog and I’ll mix jingles if I want to – 🙂
Time to hit that SEND button – because the Submission Window for #Nestpitch2015 is NOW OPEN! I have created an auto-reply (sorry it says vacation reply that was the only option), therefore everyone should get a reply confirming their submission has been received. I will be checking JUNK MAIL also (just in case). If your email ends up in junk mail, I’ll move it over & send you a quick reply. Please note, a second email from the same email address in the same day WILL NOT get a second auto reply.
Submission Window Closes Good Friday (Friday 3rd April 2015)
10pm Aust. Eastern Standard Time
7am USA New York Time
12 noon London UK Time
For Complete Guidelines please refer to the post a few weeks back which you’ll find in the recent posts list along the side, however I have also included a brief overview below:
How to submit your Pitch:
Email address: nestpitch@outlook.com
Please follow the guidelines. Last year some people put their first 300 words at the top or mixed up the order. Please do not do this. There is a reason for the order and failure to follow the below will likely mean your submission will not pass Round#1 (refer below).
Send the following in your email:
In the Subject line: Nestpitch2015 Sub and your name/author name
In the body of the email type these words:
By submitting this pitch + first 300 words I agree to allow the Nestpitch blog and/or any other affiliated blogs to post my submission on an open forum for the purposes of critique and feedback. I understand this can be for the life of the blog(s).
Manuscript Title:
Category/ Genre:
Word Count:
35-word Pitch:
QU (in your MC’s voice), if your MC was an Easter Egg, what flavour would s/he be?:
*First 300-words of your MS:
*1st 300 = if your MS has a prologue, then your 1st 300 starts from your prologue. Also, finish at the end of a sentence. This is 300-word MAX, so your last word is 300-words. If your sentence finishes on 292-words, submit that. If your sentences run into 30 or more words, then you might want to rethink the length of your sentence(s). Broken sentences do no one favours.
Example of a Submission:
Subject line: Nestpitch2015 Sub – Nikola Vukoja
By submitting this pitch + first 300 words I agree to allow the Nestpitch blog and/or any other affiliated blogs to post my submission on an open forum for the purposes of critique and feedback. I understand this can be for the life of the blog(s).
Manuscript Title: Easter Bunny goes to Vegas
Category/ Genre: MG/ Fantasy
Word Count: 26,000
35-word Pitch: After losing all his eggs in a card game to March Hare, the Easter Bunny heads for Las Vegas where he plans to win enough money to buy back the world’s Easter Eggs.
If your MC was an Easter Egg, what flavour would s/he be? I’d be every flavour, colour, shape and size imaginable; I’m the Easter Bunny… geez!
First 300-words of your MS:
Easter Bunny Blah Blah…
Send your submission to: Nestpitch@outlook.com (please note the submission close above, submissions emailed after the submission window closes will not be accepted)
Formatting: Either Times Roman or Arial (we are aware that there may be issues with some email accounts regarding font, please do your best to use either Times Roman or Arial, or something as close as possible to these two). No indentions. Single spacing. One space between each Paragraph.
Prologues: Your prologue is where your first 300 words begin.
Word Count: Rounded to nearest 1000. For example, 86,000 not 85,798 and 72,000 not 72,221
*And remember, its one submission per Author, in any genre for the following categories MG, YA, NA, Adult. No picture books, memoirs, chap or chapter books, or short story anthologies & only NOVEL FICTION (not novella). – & please do not forget we want Category & Genre.
As with last year, your manuscript must be polished and as grammar/spelling perfect as is humanly possible. And, aside from twitter pitches, critique groups and workshops, your pitch + first page(s) cannot have been featured in another pitching to agents style contest in the last 12 months (#PitchSlam 2015 is an exception, please read guidelines and/or ask questions if in doubt).
OK, so that’s all the technical stuff out of the way. Now for the fun!
We are all super excited to see what lands in the email box of the next 48 hours & can’t wait to get our hands on your words! Good luck to everyone … and remember… everything is subjective and everything has a home; somewhere. #Pitch comps are but one way to find an agent and/or move forward with your writing career.
Play nice, its fun but its also a lot of work for the Team, all of whom have given of their time for free, and the impression you want to leave is a positive, professional one; so again… play nice 🙂
Firstly Post-It-Forward.
The submission window open
March 8th and is only open for 12 hours so don’t miss out! Go here: https://nestpitch.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/post-it-forward-2015/ for more info.
So what’s #Nestpitch ?
It’s a writers comp based on a special Easter tradition throughout central and northern Croatia – making Easter Nests. On the afternoon or eve of Easter Saturday children go out into the garden and collect leaves, grass, twigs, flowers and then make a “nest” for the Easter Bunny – that’s where he places his Easter-Egg-Presents. The children go to bed that eve wondering if the Easter Bunny will like or love their nest, because the best nest gets the best and biggest eggs!
With that in mind, we’ve structured #Nestpitch where the ‘NEST’ is your pitch + 300. You ‘pitch’ your nest to the Secret Bunny Agents. If they like your ‘nest’ they’ll leave you a request ‘treat’ – in other words the best nests get the most and biggest pitch-treats 🙂
How does it work?
You will send your pitch + 300 (refer below for full instructions) and the Mentor + their team of Slushies will selected their favourites to go to Round Two*
*Yes we’ve changed the rules a little – this year there will be two rounds and the Mentoring TEAMS will work closely with their final selections to help their authors strengthen each authors manuscript.
The first is the Mentor/Team System.
In 2014 we had some AWESOME submissions however, there were a few agents who, on requesting pages and query letters, felt the quality/voice and even lack of grammatical errors (etc.) did not translate beyond page one, two or three.
So this got me thinking.
The concept of Easter Nests & Secret Bunny Agents will remain, however the selection process will be MUCH TOUGHER.
This year there will be TEAMS. One Mentor + two Slushies.
Each Team will read all the submissions* and from those will select their top 5-8 submissions.
Each Team will then request the first 2,500-words of each manuscript from their chosen 5-8 pitches; and, after much discussion, and perhaps requests for more information/pages, each Team will pick 4-5 submissions to go into the final round (the agent round).
Prior to being open to agents, each Team will work closely with their 4-5 author’s, helping them polish their first 2,500-words, giving feedback and critique.
The author’s will then take what they have learned and revise the rest of their manuscript – before the agent round.
*Please follow the submission guidelines. Entries who fail to do so may have their submission voided. Although this may seem tough, it’s a fact of a writer’s life, submission guidelines are there for a reason, whether they are competition, agent or publisher guidelines.
You will find a comprehensive rules & conditions guideline post one week before submission date (April 1st), however, below is a brief overview to give you all a head start.
A list of the Teams & the participating agents will be posted right after #Post-it-Forward – look out for it!
How do you play?
First and foremost FOLLOW THE RULES – as mentioned, they will be updated a week before submission date – however below is an overall run down:
#NestPitch
This year we will be open to all categories EXCEPT Picture Books (MG, YA, NA & Adult)
The Pitch window will be open for 48 hours, thereby allowing everyone, regardless of where you live in the world, to prepare and submit a pitch.
The Pitch will be made up of three parts.
(i) a 35-word pitch
(ii) answer to a question (in your main characters voice)
(iii) the first 300-words of your manuscript
There will an email address dedicated #nestpitch – this will form part of the RULES.
Selection Process:
(i) All submissions will be read by me first to ensure each submission has followed the rules/guidelines.
Two main rules
a. Only manuscripts which HAVE NOT been featured in another online competition are eligible to enter. This DOES NOT include workshops, critique groups or similar. It also DOES NOT include twitter or any other tag-line style pitches either. Please feel free to ask if you’re in any doubt
b. Submission MUST follow the submission format. The format will form part of the rules & guidelines update a week before submission date. We accept that sometime email de-format fonts and tabs, this is fine. What we don’t want is people forgetting to put CATEGORY & GENRE (for example) or not answering the question; that sort of thing
(ii) All pitches who have followed the rules (#round1) will then be forwarded to each Team. Each Team will create a Team Name -For example#TeamWinnerWinnerChickenDinner that’s how you’ll be able to find them on Twitter or Facebook.
(iii) Each Team will select their top 5-8 submissions. Note: some teams may select the same pitch(es) so it is possible your pitch will be requested by more than one Team. Teams will contact the author’s that have made Round #2 and request the first 2,500-words
(iv) Internal cat-fight, erh discussions will take place and each Team will select their top 4-5 author submissions (#round3). Expect to also see teasers and cryptic clues via Twitter & Facebook (*don’t forget to follow the Mentors and Slushies, lots of fun to be had!)
(v) My Team #Team2Beat will be the Bandit Team. I bet all of you have a brother or sister who always stole your favourite Easter Eggs – well that’s what we’ll be doing – sort of. We will be looking for hidden or missed gems. They could be from the slush-pile or from #round2 & we’ll feature them. #Team2Beatmay have as few as one submission featured or as many as five – it all depends on how many diamonds in the rough we believe have been missed.
(vi) This year there will again be a Amazon Gift Voucher Prize for the submission with the highest number of requests and another for Matching the Agents with their Masks (more on that at agent reveal).
Below is an overview Schedule
Post-It-Forward 35-word Workshop opens 8th March
(for more info go to: https://nestpitch.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/post-it-forward-2015/ )
NESTPITCH:
Submission Window Opens April Fools Day (April 1st 2015)
10pm Aust. Eastern Standard Time
7am USA New York Time
12 noon London UK Time
Submission Window Closes Good Friday (April 3rd 2015)
10pm Aust. Eastern Standard Time
7am USA New York Time
12 noon London UK Time
Teams send out requests for 1st 2,500 words Sunday 12th April
Authors reply by Tuesday 14th April
Final Selection Sunday 10th May (Mother’s Day)
Agent request open Monday 11th May to Tuesday 12th May 2015
Agent request(s) sent out to authors Wednesday 13th May 2015
Authors to send requested pages to Agents by Friday 15th May 2015
Don’t forget to come back March 8th for your change to sharpen your 35-word pitch, it could be the difference between getting selected or not!
Hello all,
Well, I’ve been holding on to this news and been bursting at the seams to share… and at last I can; #Nestpitch 2014 First Success Story and I couldn’t be happier. So (whee I’m actually squealing here), let me introduce to you Ms. Kimberly Ito. 
Kimberly was one of the pitchee’s in Dannie Morin’s Team, though her pitch had more than one or two grabby-hands from the other Mentors. Kimberly’s entry was one of the 2-3 LGBT entries we got and I have to admit, when I saw we had LGBT entries, I kept my fingers crossed that at least one would be a knock out – and it was. To refresh your memories, here is the Entry (without the first 300-words)
Title: THE STARS MAY RISE AND FALL
Genre: Adult, commercial fiction (LGBT)
Word count: 88,000
Pitch: In this LGBT retelling of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, a Japanese glam
rocker must re-examine sexuality, career, and ideas of beauty when he falls for a scarred, disabled composer with ghosts of his own.
Answer to question:
He’s a fuchsia malted milk egg: flashy outside, sweet inside, with a surprisingly strong core.
Seriously, what’s NOT to like here? Not only did Kimberly follow all the guidelines (and people that’s a biggy) but she did exactly what a pitch should do. She told us enough to entice and created interest by showing what was unique. I mean come on, a re-tell of Phantom of the Opera, but with a Japanese Rocker and its LGBT, how could we not read on?
And we did, and so did a few of our Secret Bunny Agents. One of them, GinaPanettieri, President of Talcott Notch Literary Services, 
http://www.talcottnotch.net/ wasted no time in upgrading the partial to a full. She also passed on Kimberly’s full and profile to Jessica Negrón. When Kimberly emailed Dannie and me about the upgrade and Jessica, I remember nodding. Jessica is also Emmie Mears’ agent and I could see how Jessica’s taste and Kimberly’s style would work brilliantly together. It seems so could Jessica!
As it’s been just over two months since the requests went out, I expect to hear many more success stories after the (northern) summer, but for now, let’s woo-hoo Kimberly and Jessica and while we are at it, let’s get to know Kimberly better. (spoiler alert- some of you have surely seen the tweets about another success story – well it’s true! & we’ll have all the details in another Q&A soon)
Getting to know Kimberly Ito
Kimberly, aside from being an author, tell us a little about yourself, where you grew up, what you do that pays the bills, when and where you write, anything at all you’d care to share.
I grew up in the US, but I’ve lived in the Tokyo area for the past 12 or 13 years. I’m primarily a stay-at-home mom, but I do some freelance work: teaching English (as a foreign language), editing, proofreading, and translating Japanese to English. I usually write at home, after my kids are asleep. I 
don’t have a lot of time for hobbies, but I love cooking, butchering 8-minute-long power ballads at karaoke, and playing with my dog and kids. NOTE FROM NIK: take a look at how cute Kimberly’s dog – Holly – is!
Qu1. Nik: As I said above, your pitch and first page instantly stood out because it was so unique and yet also so universal, where did the idea come from?
Kimberly: Well, I’ve always been interested in PHANTOM – the book, the musical, quite a few of the movies – and Phantom retellings. Brian de Palma’s 1974 film, PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, has always been a favorite, and I just really enjoy seeing those themes explored in different eras and locations. As far as the setting, well, I live in Japan and actually met my husband in this particular subculture, so you might say it was a matter of “write what you know.”
NOTE FROM NIK: That last bit “write what you know” it may seem like a cliche but there was never been more truer advice, to make your scenes and character’s authentic you need to understand who and what you are writing about.
Qu2. Nik: Was this the first time you’d entered this manuscript into a pitch competition?
Kimberly: I had done a few Twitter pitch competitions, but this was the first and only time I did anything beyond 140 characters!
Qu3. Nik: Tell us about your experience with #Nestpitch and with Dannie, you’re Mentor.
Kimberly: I almost didn’t enter! My decision was really last-minute, and it all seemed to happen so fast. I did have a lot of fun watching the slush pile readers and then bloggers give vague hints about what they were choosing, and even more fun reading the other selected pitches. After a lot of querying and waiting, it was nice to feel like I was being active and DOING something to get my work out there. Dannie was great. She helped me fine-tune my pitch before it went live and was very encouraging and supportive throughout the contest, and beyond.
Qu4. Nik: I remember getting that first update when Gina requested the 25-page partial to a full and how happy I was for you. Tell us how it felt and (aside from doing a little happy dance) did you do anything before sending, like re-reading the manuscript?
Kimberly: Well, it was actually Jessica who requested the full, and I was thrilled and a little shocked (see answer #5), because she was someone I’d wanted to work with for awhile. As far as special preparation, I don’t think so. I’d been kind of fine-tuning for a couple of months, so I was pretty confident that it was ready to go. I emailed my CP to give her the good news, and then I attached the file and hit send!
NOTE FROM NIK: Again wonderful advice here folks. Don’t rush it, *if in doubt, leave it out* that goes for scenes and entering/submitting work.
Qu5. Nik: With regard to Jessica Negron, what was it like sending that first email to Jessica? Did you do any research beforehand or did you already know of her?
Kimberly: I had actually queried Jessica before! It was a rejection, but she gave me some great feedback which I used to completely overhaul my book, deleting large chunks and rewriting others. I remember feeling extremely disappointed at the time, because I really wanted an editorial agent, and felt like we would have clicked! Fortunately, she remembered me and saw that I had taken her advice, and it ended up being a match after all!
Qu6. Nik: Now I know that while you were waiting to hear back from Jessica, you also had interest from other agents. What was the waiting like? What did you do while you waited?
Kimberly: Well, I did keep querying other agents, and I also started a second book, which is nowhere near complete enough to talk about… but I kept querying, and I kept writing, and stuck to my writer friends for support!
NOTE FROM NIK: And here is another example of Kimberly being proactive. Even though she had requests from Nestpitch, she understood a request is not an offer, as I’ve said several times “It’s a long way from bended knee to altar.” Do not do yourself a disservice and put all your hopes in one basket, if an offer does come through, you can (and always should) approach the agents with partials or fulls at that point.
Qu7. Nik: OK, the one we have all been DYING to ask, tell us about THAT CALL, the one from Jessica, and please don’t leave anything out.
Kimberly: I think it was pretty typical, even if typical meant “terrifying” for me! Most of my writing friends I met online, so it had probably been a couple of years since I had actually talked about my writing, or even spoken my characters’ names aloud! But Jessica is SO nice, and that definitely calmed my nerves a little bit. The first thing I did was to give her a slightly more detailed version of the “how I came up with the idea” answer above. Then she told me what she liked about my novel, we discussed revisions, and then I had a chance to ask her some questions. I had a couple of days between when we scheduled the call and when it actually happened, so I had done my research, figured out what questions I needed to ask about her agenting style, and which questions could be answered just by reading her profile or existing interviews. I was getting a little bit teary eyed at one point, when she said she loved one of my characters particularly (and we were on Skype, doing a video chat, so I was really fighting not to let it show!). But other than that… Google “What to do when you get the call,” and that was pretty much what happened!
Qu8. Nik: After having gone through the query process and the #pitching competition process would you recommend your aspiring author friends do pitch competitions? And what advice would you give them?
Kimberly: I would, if they feel comfortable with it. One of the main reasons I almost *didn’t* do NestPitch was because I’m just usually very private with my writing. It definitely made me feel exposed to have even a small excerpt out there! So I do understand why some people don’t want to. However, it’s also a really great way to meet other writers, to get your pitch in front of a variety of agents in one shot, and to get some helpful feedback from mentors. The best advice I can think of (besides polishing your pitch to perfection, anyway) is to choose your pitch contests carefully. I entered NestPitch because the majority of the agents involved hadn’t seen my query yet, and because a few of them seemed like they were interested in similar projects. Don’t enter every contest you see, even if they’re legit! Be sure that at least a handful of participating agents rep your genre and
category, and haven’t already seen your query.
Qu9. Nik: What do you say to people who dismiss the Slush Pile and/or #pitching competitions in general?
Kimberly: Wow, are there still people who dismiss the slush pile? I’d say that every agented writer I personally know connected with their agent one of three ways: the slush pile, a pitch contest, or a conference. I know that some writers get their foot in the door by knowing someone who knows 
someone… but I think that’s actually a pretty small percentage. Especially if you’re not able to make it to conferences because of location, like me, or for any reason, pitching and querying are the best ways to make it happen!
Qu10. Nik: So what’s next, I mean after you’ve got over the giddiness and the copious congrats and thank-you’s, what happens now?
Kimberly: Well, edits, first! Jessica has some great ideas to strengthen my novel and I’m going work through those first… and then maybe again, and again, until we’re both completely happy with it. And then I suppose I get to go back to book #2 while she works her submission magic? Signing with an agent is definitely a big milestone, and it feels a little like reaching a goal… but our work definitely isn’t over!
Thank you so much for taking part in this Q&A Kimberly, I know the entire #Nestpitch Team are so very happy for you, and promise, when you have your first book deal, you’ll come back and visit (and share the cover too) 😉
If you want to follow Kimberly’s progress, you’ll find her on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/KimberlyIto and her blog. Kimberly actually wrote a great blog post on April 17th just before she submitted to #Nestpitch as to why she entered with us. The blog post is called: In which I enter #Nestpitch – and its a really interesting read. Some of her answers above are covered in this post, but if you’re an aspiring writer, reading this from her prospective prior to getting an offer is extremely interesting; especially her point about judging if the agents represented are ideal for your manuscript. Kimberly looked at it from the “have I submitted to most of these agents before” prospective – a very important point. Other factors should be “are there agents in this competition that cater to my category & genre” and (also mentioned by Kimberly) “is my manuscript truly ready” – perhaps the most important point.
And don’t forget to congratulate Kimberly’s awesome agent Jessica on her great taste and foresight – you’ll find Jessica on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/JesNx and Jessica also has a great section on her blog on how to submit to her called “How to Submit to me” that you’ll find here: http://www.jessicanegron.com/2013/07/how-to-query-me.html
Final thoughts: Pitch competitions DO WORK – period. No, they are not for everyone and no, not every pitch that is selected to be featured will result in an offer from an agent. Not even every pitch that has a request by an agent will end in an offer of representation, but as Kimberly pointed out, pitching competitions offer so much to all those who enter. You *meet other authors, people with whom you can form relationships, some of whom will become friends/BETA readers/CP partners. You extend your contact list to include successful authors and not just successful but successful generous authors who give freely of their time, people who are there for you well beyond the pitch-faze. You increase your presence on social media. You develop confidence.
These are all intangible but invaluable benefits to entering pitching competitions. Oh yes, and you might get yourself an agent too! So, as you look at upcoming events (and there are several excellent ones in the next 6-months which I will be posting updates on), and as you scroll through the Mentors and the Agents, don’t dismiss the opportunity and positive effect of #Pitch Competitions.
TheNovelAbode 