If you’ve never heard of Pitch Wars, then this is the blog for you.
Pitch Wars is an online competition where published and experienced authors/editors volunteer their time to give back to the writing community. How does it work?
An amazing author, Brenda Drake, came up with the idea—a way for those who’ve landed on the shore of success, in some fashion, to put up a light house for other aspiring novelists. It’s a huge online and Twitter event with an organized writing community of positive energy. Basically, authors apply, mentors pick and they work together on a manuscript for 3 months and then the author posts their log line, in the form of a Tweet, during a Pitch Wars agent Pitch Fest, hoping and praying an agent will ‘like’ their Tweet—which is basically an invitation to query the agent directly.
There are events year round, (check out the Pitch Wars website for more info) however, if you are looking to participate in the mentor/mentee collaborating experience, it starts with a mentor blog hop. The mentors create a blog post to advertise who they are and the kind of manuscript they’re interested in editing.
As an interested author, you read through the mentor blogs explaining what kind of editor/mentor they are and how they prefer to work/offer feedback. Finally, they describe their dream mentee. If you like all this, then you may choose to apply to this mentor.
There’s an application process and a submission date. (It’s actually amazingly similar to querying an agent, so it’s great practice!) For myself, having the Pitch Wars deadline prodded me into completing my query package.
I laboured over the mentor’s blogs, created a chart, waffled over my exact genre and finally picked four (you can only apply to four). The first time I applied, with a previous novel, in 2018, I addressed my query letter to Dear Mentee (forehead slap). My response was crickets.
It took a couple years to recover and then, in setting my recent writing goals, I figured, why not, let’s give it another crack. So, I made the decision to apply and started preparing. I didn’t complete my first draft as soon as I’d hoped. I hadn’t shared my novel with my desired number of critique partners prior to the deadline, but regardless, to prepare, I signed up for a query package boot camp and polished my pages.
Surprisingly on time, and yet still woefully unprepared, I entered all the documents requested into the Pitch Wars website, picked my mentors and pressed send. I immediately went on to Twitter and followed my chosen mentors and stalked their every comment for Pitch Wars teasers. Many of the mentors share things about their submissions, but on the whole, you can’t tell whose novel they are referencing. Then the posts started, declaring the mentors were sending out requests for full manuscripts and I waited. Again, crickets.
My Twitter stalking was getting obsessive, to the point I had to set a daily limit to the number of times I could check for a hint that a mentor had even read my submission materials. Eventually, as the days passed, my hope faded and I resolved myself to the fact that this would be a repeat of the year I heard nothing.
Then, the most amazing thing happened. In absolute shock and elation, I got an email from a mentor, asking if they could read my full manuscript!!!
It was as if I’d made the short list for the Giller Prize! Away at a writing retreat, working on my novel, I’d started to doubt my manuscript. A story so very dear to my heart, set at a veterinary college in a small Canadian city, about seemingly insignificant, yet unique part of the world. I’d started to worry I was to the only one to find this story interesting… and now, someone wanted to read it.
The validation of getting this request was immense. More than I can describe.
The mentors (it was a duo team), had a list of questions, which forced me to focus down to the strengths and weaknesses of my manuscript. In answering their email, I generated a grand ‘to do’ list for my novel—of which, I only revealed to them four or five, of the many improvements needed. I couldn’t possibly admit how much work I still needed to do. Who was I kidding?
I replied the next day, vowing to commit, to give them my every spare hour for the next three months, if they picked me. The announcement date approached and at midnight, the website was up and my name… wasn’t there.
I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t sad, but I do believe everything happens for a reason. My veterinary practice, in the midst of this pandemic, needs me. I would have torn myself in two, neglecting my family and my practice to participate to the level I’d committed. Further, I have no doubt that an editorial experience like Pitch Wars will serve my novel best, after I’ve exhausted my own ‘to do’ list.
Do I regret applying?
Not in the least!
Getting a full manuscript request, for this novel I love so dearly, has been an incredible confidence boost. Writing is a solitary hobby. In having this spark of interest, it has given me a beacon of light to chart across the foggy, vast ocean. So when the gales pick up and I fear cavitation, I can focus on that light and keep faith.
I have a polished query letter, a synopsis, the support of an amazing writing community and a ‘to do list’ of improvements for a novel I love. There’s no doubt about it — in the end, I’m a winner.
