Thoughts on #PitchMe Submissions

 I've now read all 251--or all 249, as there were several duplicates--of your amazing #PitchMe entries. *collapses on sofa* And my goodness, you guys didn't make it easy on me! Of the 249 submissions, I probably flagged at least a third and maybe up to half of them to consider for our spots. As I narrow down the list, here's a little food for thought:

Overall Impressions

• If you have a connection to your plot or characters--say, if you and your MC are both retired detectives or Chinese Americans--make that connection very clear. Many writers did this well, but several queries made me wonder why this writer was the one telling this story through this lens. Don't ever make an agent guess!
• Most queries ended with the Query Shark-approved "Thank you for your time and consideration," but many also added something along the lines of "I look forward to hearing from you." In an era when more agents are using auto-responders and simultaneously adopting a no-response-means-no policy, this line may come across as vaguely passive-aggressive. Just something to keep in mind.
• FANTASY was, by far, the most represented genre across every category. That's not an awful thing, per se--I happen to love fantasy--but because of the volume, submissions within this genre had to work even harder to stand out. Several things that caught my eye: a fascinating world, an uncommon superpower, an especially high concept, or a unique genre mashup.
• POST-APOCALYPTIC SETTINGS, especially in YA and adult, sort of caught me by surprise. At first, they struck me as fresh, but as I encountered more and more, they became strikes against their projects instead of points for them.
• Another plot device I bumped into more than once was THE ENEMIES-TO-LOVERS TROPE, and not only in romance. Some of my favorite entries happened to use this plot device, and I know tropes are tropes in part because they're evergreen. But if you're going for unique, especially if you're writing romance, you might want to use another.
• I also encountered lots of WITCHES across the novel categories and quite a few SECRET SOCIETIES in YA and adult.
• Fairy tale retellings, or retellings of the classics, weren't nearly as abundant in MG or YA as they probably would have been a handful of years ago, which I think is a good thing and lines up with market trends. Conversely, in PB, I encountered quite a few FAIRY TALE AND/OR NURSERY RHYME REFERENCES. Unless you approach these stories in an unexpected way (and to be honest, several did), I fear they might not stand out. 
• Finally, I couldn't help but notice several uses of free cities--like the Free City of Detroit, a futuristic city-state. I was surprised to see this concept used by more than one writer, and now that Free Guy has come out, it might show up even more.

PB Notes

• Per my tweet last week, there were 58 submissions within this category.
• I have four young kids, including a three-year-old, so I've read quite a few PBs. When the text of a PB flows, even if it's not in VERSE, it's a delight to read out loud. And when it doesn't flow? It's not. You would think a verse would help, but unless it was consistent and the syllables lined up, I thought the verse fell kind of flat. In fact, in many instances, I thought the verse did a disservice to an otherwise great plot.

And now in Tara's words: "I would say that we were blown away by the entries and really looked for something that stood out to us because we know that's what will stand out to an agent...whether it made us laugh, cry or was just completely unique. Stories that were well-written perhaps did not ultimately get selected as winners if they were too didactic or did not have a completely unique element. Agents want to be able to brand you (your books are funny, sweet, lyrical, family-driven, own voices, etc.), so if they ask you to submit additional picture books, they are going to expect that your additional submissions are similar in tone/theme. I would hold off on querying (we had several submissions where people said they had one great idea and no other books) until you have 3-5 fully polished manuscripts in case (and when!) an agent asks you for more work.

"Some of the PBs had a lot of introduction and didn't get right into the action, which meant that the start was a little slow. Some of them did not have much dialogue throughout the story, and that would make a child potentially less interested. Some of them were much too long for a PB (we had a few that said they were over 800 words), and so really knowing that agents are looking to make offers on books that are approximately 500 words would be helpful for some writers. Some indicated in the query that they had a surprise, twisty ending, but since we only allowed a sample of the story we didn't see that awesome ending and that was unfortunate."

MG Notes

• Per my tweet last week, there were 34 submissions within this category.
• BULLYING was an extremely common theme among the MG submissions, so if that's your only hook, you might want to add another.

YA Notes

• There were 74 submissions within this category, which is one less than I reported last week, as there was a duplicate.
• SIRENS seemed to be the paranormal soupe du jour among the YA entries. I came across VAMPIRES, too, but they weren't as prominent, perhaps because their vampirism didn't play as large a role in how their stories rolled out.  

Adult Notes

• There were 83 submissions within this category, which is one less than I reported last week, as there was a duplicate.
• Of all the categories, this one was the most varied. I'm not sure why that would be, but I thought I'd point it out!
• One question I kept asking as I read these entries was, "Does this love story work in a #metoo-mindful world?" Sadly, in some cases, the answer was simply no.

Lastly, I wanted to say something about the nature of this contest and the issues it creates. Because I want to give the agents a unique and balanced list, I put these projects head to head far more often than I'd like. Do I pick this thriller or that one, and which of these fantasies with a shapeshifting raccoon do I think is very best? An agent can request them all, but I'm a lot more limited, so if you don't make it in, please know that I saw positives in every one of these entries and won't be able to include a lot of really awesome work.

Until next week!