Today is November 1st. For some writers that means the start of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). But for me, it’s the first day of the Pitch Wars agent showcase for the adult entries. And my mentee, along with many other amazing authors and books, are going to be featured over the next few days for agents to read their novel pitches and request to read more pages. The mentor/mentee pairings have spent the past two months toiling away at major revisions–I’m talking “rip the book apart and rewrite significant amounts” kind of revisions. This contest is not for the faint of heart.
But this week is the culmination of all that hard work. It’s also a frenzy of nerves and excitement and dreams coming true.
I was fortunate enough to be selected as a mentee by fellow Tall Poppy Writer Karma Brown back in 2014 for my now-published book, The Secret Ingredient of Wishes, and will be the first to say what an amazing–and sanity-stealing–experience Pitch Wars is. And while I didn’t get my agent directly through the contest, I did sign with her because of it. No question. And I’m so grateful to get to help other authors make their books shine. In between meetings at my day job and deadlines for my own books, I will be eagerly refreshing my mentee’s post to see if this book I adore catches the attention of agents too.
If you’re curious about the entire Pitch Wars process, you can check out the website. And if you want to follow along with all the fun this week as agents “war” over the manuscripts they think *could* be the next big thing, go here. (You can also show some love for your favorites by sharing the links on Twitter.)
Susan Bishop Crispell earned a BFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Born and raised in the mountains of Tennessee, she now lives twenty minutes from the beach in North Carolina with her husband and their literary-named cat. She is very fond of pie and is always on the lookout for hints of magic in the real world. She is the author of The Secret Ingredient of Wishes (September 2016) and Dreaming in Chocolate (February 2018).