#PitchWars

[displayheartcode]

someone pointed out that between nanowrimo (ai shills) and pitchwars (gone with the entire writing twitter ecosystem), the whole community aspect of being a fiction writer is vanishing online

[inkcurlsandknives]

Querying Stats for Saints!

This post originally went out via my author newsletter, but I realized that if I’m finally going to start using tumblr as an author platform that means I HAVE A BLOG AGAIN!! 

I  recently announced that Saints of Storm and Sorrow, my Filipino Epic Fantasy sold in a two book deal to Titan UK and will be coming out June of 2024. (if you’re interested in Submission Stats definitely go sign up for my newsletter as those stats will go out exclusively in this month’s newsletter. I also send out whatever Filipino recipe I’m tinkering with at the moment, this month is a mouthwatering Kang kong/water spinach adobo stirfry)

Saints was pitched as a Filipino EMPIRE OF SAND X POPPY WAR Lunurin, a mestiza stormcaller, hides in a convent—from the Inquisition branding her a witch, and the Goddess of Storms, who sings of drowning colonizers. When she’s discovered, a marriage-of-convenience might save her from the Church, but not her Goddess. A typhoon is brewing in Lunurin’s bones. Freeing it will destroy the violent colonizers, but also the family she found in the convent and her new marriage.  

QUERY STAT TIME!

I’d like to start by saying I did query 3 books in addition to Saints, And They Called Her Stormbringer (2018- Epic Fantasy), One Half a Dead Witch (2019-Contemporary Fantasy), and Mushroom ABCs (2022- Picture Book) and I’m glad to have signed with an agent who’s so supportive of my backlist. If I’m completely honest I sent my first query for And They Called Her Stormbringer, my freshman year of college in 2012 and received such a brutal (though personalized) rejection that I stopped querying for 6 years and creative writing for almost 2. I will admit now that the feedback was accurate, but as a young writer I had no idea what to do with it or how to revise as I had no writing partners or critique groups at the time.

Fast forward almost a decade. Saints of Storm and Sorrow was fast drafted all 131k words in 31 days for Nanowrimo 2020. I worked to revise it with help from beta readers and CPs from February through August of 2021, I’m a fast drafter and a slow reviser. I went through several rounds of revision. I started querying Saints in the fall of 2021. In Oct 2021 I learned I’d gotten into Pitchwars with my amazing mentor Michella Domenici <3 and I quickly pulled all my active queries and fulls promising to resend the manuscript after the revisions I’d complete during the Pitchwars Mentorship. I then spent the winter of 2021 in an absolute whirlwind of revisions that culminated in the PitchWars Showcase in February 2022. I got 15 requests!! I was thrilled and sure that my querying journey would soon be over!! Saints and I then entered the LONG WAIT. I went into and came out of several writing burn out funks. At no point in the last five years I’ve never written so little as I did in 2022, I found it very hard to write the wait for the first time in my querying journey. Every few months I’d drag myself out of my agonies of waiting and hurl out another thirty or forty queries. Over TEN months post PitchWars I sent a total of 164 queries for Saints of Storm and Sorrow, I received 50 full requests, 4 partial requests, and finally 3 offers. For those who like maths that’s a 33% request rate. In my low moments it started to feel like I’d written a great query but a terrible book! I was told the pacing was too slow and too fast, that the world building was too hard to grasp and not detailed enough! I completed a panic revision in September 2022 trying to address these issues. I nudged everyone who still had my full or partials with the revision, and low and behold two months later, Saints got its first offer on the week of Thanksgiving. I was ecstatic. I asked for three weeks to consider (on account of thanksgiving) and quickly sent out nudges for every open full (18!) AND every query remaining open (65!). OVER 80 emails/Query Tracker messages WOW. 10 more requests for fulls and extensions to read came in. I waited, my inbox rattling with news for almost three weeks. I don’t ever want to send that many emails again! My agent Ramona Pina with Bookends actually ended up requesting my full on my original decision date! But I’d been asked for an extension by a few other agents and let her know she had 3 more days if she wanted to read. Ramona read Saints in two days and the day before my extended decision date sent me her offer of rep. We hopped on a call and I quickly realized there was no way I could decide in 24 hours between such excellent agent choices. I reached out to the other offering agents requesting the weekend to consider and contacted several of Ramona’s clients to get their perspective. After a weekend of decision agony I made the best decision for me and Saints of Storm and Sorrow.

I can’t emphasis enough how much of this process depended on LUCK and GRIT. The Luck of finding a fellow Filipina mentor in Pitchwars who totally understood my vision for the book. The luck of getting Saints into the right hands at the right time. The GRIT to keep sending my query package out even though at points I was convinced far too many people had rejected it to ever find my yes. My book had to get in front of SO many eyes before I found the right ones, but if you’re in the trenches now remember it only takes one yes. Querying is a numbers game and a luck game more than one of skill. You may read about those unicorn authors who send out 15 queries on their first book and get 7 offers, remember they are the outliers. Their books had the exceptional luck of speaking to the market at the right time. Many many wonderful books, telling excellent stories, having great literary merit will struggle in the trenches for reasons that have nothing to do with the book, but everything to do with timing, a contracting market, layoffs of editors and closing of imprints for particular genres.

It can be so hard to remember that rejections can come on your manuscript that have nothing to do with the quality of your work, but I think it’s one of the essential skills that this long journey to become published forced me to learn.

[gollancz]

Heya, this is probably just in my head cause I've been typing up a story, but I've been writing books for years but have no clue how publishing works so other than typing one up out of my notebooks and currently working on typing up another nothing gets done with them.

If I wanted to like submit a novel to Gollancz to see if you'd publish it would I need like a writing agent or something?

Hi there! Congratulations on all your writing! Getting started is the hardest part, followed by actually finishing the dang thing (and then followed by whichever bit of editing the author is currently on and therefore hating the most)

We are occasionally open to unsolicited/unagented submissions, however as we are still (shamefully) working through our last batch - thanks to a grave underestimating of how many we would get, and overestimating of how much time we had around everything else - I can't say for certain when we plan to re-open them.

That said, even for authors we pick up through unagented submissions, we would generally recommend that they look into getting a literary agent, and often will refer them to agents we work with regularly! This is for a number of reasons that will benefit both you and us:

Your agent will have a broader knowledge of your genre pool, and be able to submit your work to editors within the field more broadly. If they've been around a while, they'll also have a sense of what each editor's tastes are so they know where it's worthwhile to try.

Your agent should be your biggest champion. They should have a good knowledge of publishing contracts, so they understand what's standard to be asked, and what is unusual. That helps manage expectations for both the author and the publisher in negotations.

They will act as a relationship buffer: when your book is acquired, it'll be based on passion and excitement, and - particularly if you're a debut author - it can be very hard to bring up things you're uncomfortable with for fear of rocking the boat or damaging the relationship with your editor. Your agent gets the lovely job of being able to be the person who can communicate any concerns or things you're upset with directly to your editor, without you having to feel like you have to throw your toys out of the pram directly. The nature of a go-between might feel like a bit of a game of Telephone, but it's actually really valuable to also take a step back from the situation and can often take the panic out of discussions. (Note: You should NEVER be in a situation where you feel like your editor is making you uncomfortable or that they wouldn't take feedback well, however the relationships between authors and editors and agents and editors are very different)

They can focus on the business administration side of things while you get to focus on the fun bit of actually being creative!

There are loads of ways you can pitch to agents - whether it's through one of the many pitching events (PitchWars, PitMad, specific pitching hashtags on twitter etc.), through writing competitions (The Future Worlds Prize is one we're directly involved with for unrepresented British SFF writers of colour) or as a direct submission. If you are submitting directly to an agent, make sure that you check:

Are they open to submissions?

Do they represent books in your area?

What are their submission guidelines?

Most agents will get inundated with submissions - more than it's feasible to read! And if you aren't in their genre, or don't follow their submission guidelines, it's a quick way to get your work disregarded without it even being looked at. Check out Manuscript wishlists, agent websites, and agents' social media to see what's going on!

On tumblr, @literaticat has a wonderful 'Ask the Agent' blog and I really recommend it. Agents on twitter often run AMAs as well, depending on what else is happening, so keep an eye out there.

I hope this is helpful! I'm always happy to answer publishing and writing questions, and good luck with your writing!

[tanviberwah]

first of all, i cannot believe i get to write the following words: my debut book is coming out from sourcebooks fire next year!!!!!!!

i have waited a decade to be at this point, persevering through a lot, writing and discarding so many words i don’t know if i could ever count them. but here is everything i worked for. a book!!!! 

my lovely publishers are doing something super cool to kick off the whole process and that is asking readers to choose a title. you can find a description (and read an excerpt!! the whole first chapter which i love!!) HERE.

if u like

angry girls

rivals to what are we

deadly races

monsters

the ocean!!

super cool shit like a glass maze!!!

i hope you’d consider voting for the title!! it’s a dream come true for me, and i’m SO, so excited to see what the title will be!

[malcolmschmitz]

It’s official, everyone- I’m a mentee for PitchWars 2020!

[yogi-thee-bear]

Why You Should Try Pitchwars

What is Pitch Wars

Pitch Wars is an aspiring author mentorship program. That means people who have finished / almost finished a Manuscript can pitch their story to a mentor. This mentor acts as a super beta reader. They offer guidance in preparing your Manuscript for the showcase. This event is the boss battle of publishing. Many Editors attend the showcase in hopes of signing the next best-selling author.

How Pitch wars worked for me

I did not make it very far with Pitch Wars. The mentors I applied for didn’t enjoy my story. To be honest, I was very hurt by this and questioned if I should keep writing. After spending some time away from writing and rethinking my entire hobby, I came to a realization. One rejection does not define my worth, and it should not represent anyone else’s either. Depending on your genre, writing style, and discipline, you can further than I did.

The Deadline

I do not regret dedicating time to Pitch Wars. If not for the opportunity, I would have never finished my first Manuscript. Having to work towards an actual deadline gave me a goal to shoot for. I manage to write every day and plan out the story how I saw fit.

The Mentors

There are hundreds of writers who muster the courage to submit their Manuscript. It’s pretty competitive, and it isn’t a bad thing. Pitch Wars brings people together. If you use social media, you can reach out to people who enjoy the same genre as you. There is a wide range of mentors who are experts in their genre. These people are more than likely to have an already published book. Who better to learn from? If you can be on social media, you can ask them questions about their author’s journey. What kind of book would you like to submit to an editor or literary agent?

[typewritersounds]

Got selected for a first page and query critique from Pitch Wars, so I’ll be doing a little happy dance for the rest of the day 😊💃🏻

[shatteredsmooth]

Time to dive into my #pitchwars edit letter. I have my colorful pens, tea, and chocolate. #pitchwars2020 #pitchwarsmentee #writersofinstagram #writingcommunity #revision https://www.instagram.com/p/CH5ayXGgCUF/?igshid=1k7313i1s6w7b

[praazlwurm]

BLACKBLOOD

Charna is out for blood. Canceling the apocalypse is incidental. 

Until she sees something in humanity worth saving, all too late. A bronze-age political powderkeg, a warlord rising, and six chthonic mothers to raze it all. 

New #wip to work on until the next #pitmad #amwriting

[tourneyofashvara]

I entered PitchWars 

akjsdkhasks

[girlswillbeboys11]

Doing pitmad today! Would really appreciate a retweet. I need them to get my pitch circling.

Thank you guys🌻🌻🌻

[ditzydruid]

Day 19 #pwpoeprompts Main Character’s Aesthetic: Wild hair pulled back into a messy bun for hiking, kayaking, or waitressing. Fond of classic black dresses, her Brighid cross necklace, teacups, dream journals, and attempts at poetry. Will wear lace for the right person. Don’t look in her room; yarn and laundry everywhere! May be wet from falls in the river and encounters with strange mermaids. Often smells like a cafe, ritual bonfire, or her vanilla love potion. #pitchwars #mybook #mywriting https://www.instagram.com/p/B1XRkgWnjzw/?igshid=8b8bvk19brxb

[inkcurlsandknives]

Gonna be dropping London Launch pics for a while gang, I was so so so thrilled that my friend @sianmgilbert author of She Started It was able to make it to the Launch Party for Saints!! Waffle team for life!! 🧇🧇🧇 Sian and I met through PitchWars and she has always been such a delight I was so very glad to get the chance to meet her in person

Thank you again for coming!! It meant so much!

She Started it has been one of my favorite audiobooks to listen to in a while you should check it out!

[farbackroom]

#PWPoePrompts Day 12: Best advice I've gotten from a mentor in life. During an informal writing exchange where I was the oddball horror writer in a room of romance novelists, the facilitator advised me not to worry. That if I kept writing, my audience would find me. I kept at it and they did! #writingmentor #writing #advice #pitchwars (at Upper North Philadelphia) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1FLKAcAJpP/?igshid=12h9khs4b6sic

[tanviberwah]

IT’S OFFICIAL: I SOLD MY BOOK AND IT’S ON GOODREADS.

if u like

angry girls

rivals to what-are-we

deadly races

monsters

gigantism

the ocean!!

super cool shit like a glass maze!!!

there’s a long, long story behind this and maybe i’ll write about it? someday? the stuff about how the publisher decided on crowdsourcing the title, but also all that about querying, pitch wars, revising, crying and persevering, and one yes etc etc.

[sacredinkedblood]

You're born without shoes on your feet,

When you're branded with your 1st pair,

Practice to always wear least you meet your 1st defeat,

You may be born to a mother,

She thinks you're too much of

a bother so she leaves you to another,

Another sees you're to much of a burden to bear,

Your shoes you must always wear. ~Author Ven J. Arnold

©2018 #SacredInkedBlood #NightWriter_69