#PitchMe Results + Feedback

Another year of #PitchMe is over, and our finalists killed it. Their pitches logged 84 total likes, several of which came from 2 additional agents who joined in on the fun. Here's a summary of the action:

#1 PB: DEAR MATH Anjanette Barr

#2 PB: BAD HAIRCUT Amy Nielsen

#3 PB: I AM JEWISH, I AM PROUD Callie Hansen

#4 PB: CLEVER & CRAFTY: HOW FRANCES GLESSNER LEE TAUGHT POLICE TO OBSERVE Amy Nielsen

#5 PB: MOSQUITO IN A BURRITO Amy Nielsen

#6 PB: ONIONS FOR BREAKFAST Anjanette Barr

#7 PB: 42 FOLDS Anjanette Barr

#8 MG: THE GHOST LIGHTS OF FROSTPROOF Shannon Hassan

#9 MG: ALEX BROOKSBY: BORN A THIEF Shannon Hassan, Amy Nielsen, Callie Hansen, Lindsay Auld

#10 MG: MERRYN ICEFALL AND THE DEEP Vicky Weber, Callie Hansen, Stefanie Molina-Santos, Andie Smith

#11 MG: SOS Michelle Hauck

#12 MG: JAREN SILVERWING AND THE FORBIDDEN SPELL Vicky Weber

#13 MG: GOOD NEWS FROM HIGHER GROUND Callie Hansen, Stefanie Molina-Santos

#14 YA: THE TAILOR OF BRIDEWATER BAY Vicky Weber

#15 YA: STORM, TEARS & STARLIGHT Vicky Weber, Shannon Hassan, Callie Hansen, Lindsay Auld, Michelle Hauck, Stefanie Molina-Santos

#16 YA: THANKS FOR WAITING Elisa Houot, Callie Hansen, Andie Smith

#17 YA: EVANGELINE AND THE HORRENDOUS UNDEAD Christina Lopez, Amy Giuffrida, Elisa Houot, Ann Leslie Tuttle, Lindsay Auld, Michelle Hauck

#18 YA: SANDALWOOD & ROSE Shari Maurer, Stefanie Molina-Santos

#19 YA: HORNED MOTHER, HUNGRY MOTHER, BRIDE OF THE WOODS Amy Nielsen, Ann Rose

#20 YA: AN INVITATION TO THE BANGTAIL Shannon Hassan, Callie Hansen, Kristin Ostby

#21 YA: SEND RUDES Ann Rose, Jen Nadol

#22 A: THE BLOODHOPPER WIVES Kimberly Fernando

#23 A: A HEALTHY BABY Anjanette Barr, Jen Nadol

#24 A: GALVESTON GOTHIC Christina Lopez, Vicky Weber, Shannon Hassan, Amy Giuffrida, Ann Leslie Tuttle, Michelle Hauck, Jenna Jankowski, Kristin Ostby, Kimberly Fernando

#25 A: THE FORGOTTEN INN Elisa Houot, Ann Leslie Tuttle, Jenna Jankowski, Stefanie Molina-Santos, Ann Rose

#26 A: ORDINARY CRIME Anjanette Barr, Kimberly Fernando

#27 A: BEYOND THE PAGE Kimberly Fernando, Shannon Hassan, Amy Giuffrida, Elisa Houot, Amy Nielsen, Callie Hansen, Ann Leslie Tuttle, Lindsay Auld, Kristin Ostby, Andie Smith

#28 A: THE GIRL WITH BLOOD ON HER DRESS Kimberly Fernando, Vicky Weber, Elisa Houot, Lindsay Auld, Stefanie Molina-Santos

#29 A: THE HAPPY EVER AFTER HOUSE Kimberly Fernando

#30 A: DUST IN THE LIGHT Amy Giuffrida, Elisa Houot, Lindsay Auld, Michelle Hauck

In addition, we had two finalists drop out of #PitchMe after accepting offers of representation in the last couple of weeks, but luckily, we had two alternates waiting in the wings!

Last but certainly not least, one last thank-you and shout-out to Tara Shiroff and Melissa Trempe for all their hard work. You ladies are amazing! And to everyone who entered, thank you so much for entrusting us with your work. If you'd like feedback on your entry, you're more than welcome to respond to your original submission with a request for notes, and I promise to get back to you as soon as I can.

A Couple of Notes on This Year's #PitchMe Entries

First off, thank you, thank you, thank you for submitting to #PitchMe. This contest doesn't work if we don't get a hefty batch of super promising submissions, and once again, you guys delivered. We've finalized most of our picks, but this year's entries were so great that we're still dilly-dallying over the last couple of slots.

Overall Impressions

• Maybe it's because I've gotten used to reading queries, but so many of the little things that stuck out to me last year didn't stick out to me this one. I didn't notice or care how you spelled my name (or didn't), whether you admitted you're a first-time novelist, or even how you closed your query. I scanned for title, word count, category, and genre, then dove straight into the summary. If the author's bio paragraph connected their lived experience to their book's subject matter, that was certainly a plus, but if a query happened to skip over that pesky bio paragraph, I honestly might not have noticed. The story itself was king.
• Established, best-selling authors can write anything they want, and publishers will throw money at it, but break-in stories have to clear a much, much, much, much higher bar. Write what you love, they say, and let your passion sell itself, but a part of me wonders how much experience such authors have with not selling anything. If you've been at this for a while, if agents and editors compliment your writing but never give you the time of day, it may be because your concepts aren't standing out.

PB Notes

• There were 84 submissions within this category.
• My #PitchMe spreadsheet has two columns for note-taking on each entry: "Pros" and "Cons." Too often, I found myself typing "Good query" under "Pros" and "Concept may not stand out enough" under "Cons." It's clear that so many of you are seasoned writers who've learned how to craft pitch-perfect queries and even manuscripts, but if agents have seen your concept over and over again, it may not matter how strong your query or even your manuscript is. Tara agreed. She pointed out that several of these entries were exceptionally well-written--but about a dog or cat.
• On the whole, Tara thought these entries were really, really strong. In more than one case, she decided not to pick an entry simply because she didn't think it needed #PitchMe's help.
• She--and I--also shied away from rhyming picture books because they're hard to critique and really have to be pitch-perfect to catch an agent's eye. If the verse is on, it's ON, but if the meter is off by even a single syllable, the whole thing kind of falls apart.

MG Notes

• There were 44 submissions within this category.
• And more than half of them--28, to be precise--were some kind of fantasy. Throw in the horrors with fantastical elements, and the number would be well over 30. Nothing wrong with fantasy, of course, and I loved some of these entries, but MG in general and MG fantasy in particular has become quite tricky to sell, so your project really has to go above and beyond.
• Maybe it's just the time of year, but I also came across enough ghost stories in these entries that I started to take note. Here again, some of these ghost stories were my very favorite entries, but it also made me wonder if our agents might be experiencing ghost-story fatigue. 
• Lastly, multiple stories started on the first or last day of school, so those first pages had to work even harder to stand out.

YA Notes

• There were 49 submissions within this category.
• And quite a few of them were also fantasies. That said, there weren't nearly as many, but there were certainly enough to make me jot down a note.

Adult Notes

• There were 84 submissions within this category.
• And on the whole, I'd say that the adult submissions featured a better mix of genres. That said, experience has taught me that my fantasy and sci-fi tastes don't match up very well with what agents are looking for--which has everything to do with me and absolutely nothing to do with the amazing fantasy and sci-fi authors #PitchMe has featured in the past--so those ones really had to wow me to make it onto my longlist.

You may have done the math yourself, but of the 14 awesome agents and 5 lurking editors who will be checking in on #PitchMe, 6 will be looking for PB, 13 for MG, 13 for YA, and 11 for adult.

Please meet me back here tomorrow for the list of finalists!

Thoughts on This Year's #PitchMe Entries

I've now read every entry, and once again, you guys didn't make it easy on me! Multiple times, I added six or seven entries in a row to the longlist I was building, which made me keep wondering how I'd ever trim it down. As we make our final choices, here's a little food for thought:

Overall Impressions

• Longtime agent Donald Maass has written multiple books about writing breakout novels, but writing break-IN novels--and especially PBs--is probably even harder. Established authors can write to trends and cover previously trod ground because they have relationships with agents and editors--and because those agents and editors know that their names alone sell books. For emerging authors, though, a PB about a dog or a YA about a boarding school may not generate interest.
• 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." I brought this up last year, and I'm bringing it up again because I firmly believe queries shouldn't include this line. It can sound passive-aggressive if an agent has established a no-response-means-no policy, which is never a great look. Save this line for when you send agents requested material (because I firmly believe agents owe writers responses once they've requested your work).
• It felt like roughly half of the novel-length entries were contemporaries while the other half were fantasies. This isn't good or bad--it's simply what the breakdown was--but if you're querying a manuscript in one of these two genres, you may be giving yourself a lot of extra competition.
• More than one query admitted that this project was the first thing its author had ever written. Don't tell agents this upfront! The first thing most writers write is destined for the deep, dark drawer where people keep their old retainers and junior high-era school pictures, so don't make it easier for someone to reject your work.
• And on a related note, you almost certainly don't need to tell agents that this manuscript would be your debut. If you don't mention other books that you've previously published, agents will assume it will be:)

PB Notes

• There were 142 submissions (!) within this category (one less than I reported a couple of weeks ago, as I found a duplicate).
• Far too many of these entries failed to credit illustrators of the comp titles they used. If there's one thing I've learned from Tara, it's ALWAYS CREDIT ILLUSTRATORS! They put the picture in PBs:)
• I also thought some of the bios in these entries were too long. (And this wasn't just confined to the picture books, mind you; it just seemed to be an issue among more of these entries.) Unless your name is Stephen King, your bio paragraph should be the shortest one in your query--and if your name IS Stephen King, your reputation precedes you. Definitely tell us if you have any other published books, any lived experience with what your book is about, or an exceptional platform. (Hint: I don't think my platform is exceptional enough to mention in the body of a query, though I always include links to my blog, Twitter, etc., in my signature block.) Above all, keep it short and sweet.
• A handful of these entries didn't mention their word counts, which made it really difficult to evaluate their marketability (especially in the context of this contest, as we may not have allowed you to send the full manuscript). If you want to give your picture book the best possible chance, keep your word count under 500. Nonfiction PBs have a lot more latitude--agents wouldn't bat an eye at anything under 1,000--but 500 words is a pretty firm ceiling in the current fiction market. 

I'll let Tara have the last word on the PBs: "Comp titles do not have to be about the same topic as your own book, i.e. TIGERS ARE AWESOME does not have to comp to TIGERS ARE CUTE, TIGERS ARE ORANGE, and TIGERS ARE TERRIFYING. You can comp to any book that has a similar theme to your story (friendship! forgiveness! kindness!) or the type of story (lyrical, humorous), but you don't need to strictly stick to the exact topic of your book.

"Please ensure your story is a story 'that's yours to tell.' I saw several PBs about neurodiversity where that was not the author's own background and some about disability because it was 'about my friend with a disability.' We need to leave room in the marketplace for stories from authors who have lived these experiences (neurodiversity, disability, etc.) themselves."

MG Notes

• There were 46 submissions within this category.
• There were also lots of fairies. And stories that revolved around the current climate crisis. There's nothing wrong with fairies or the climate crisis, right (or at least there's nothing wrong with centering a book around them!), but in this batch of MG queries, those plot elements stood out.

YA Notes

• There were 49 submissions within this category.
• I noticed lots of missions to avenge dead/missing parents in this batch of YA queries. (And when I say "lots," of course, I really mean, like, four or five, which isn't many in the end, but that plot point did stand out.) Same note as above: missions to avenge dead parents aren't dealbreakers on their own, but they may have made it harder for an entry to stand out.

Adult Notes

• There were 46 submissions within this category, which is actually one more than I told you two weeks ago. (Clearly, my counting skills need work...)
• This year, I tried to focus on the writing, writing, writing. I mean, I try to focus on the writing every year, but in the past, I've gotten wooed by super marketable concepts and kind of let the writing slide. This year, I said, "No more!" so if I didn't think the writing was ready for prime time, I forced myself to pass on super great ideas.

Lastly, I wanted to add that the nature of this contest creates some artificial issues that straight querying doesn't. Every agent who agreed to participate last year was looking for MG while significantly fewer were looking for adult. Conversely, almost every agent who's participating this year is looking for YA while significantly fewer are looking for PB. Since we want to feature projects that best match the agents' tastes, we have to choose fewer PBs than we otherwise would based on the number of entries (just like I had to choose fewer adults than I otherwise would have last year).

Finalists announced TOMORROW instead of on Wednesday!

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!

Are You Hooked?

I entered Bonnie's first page in this week's in-house critique session over at Authoress's blog. This story is probably closer to my own truth than any of the other stories I've written, and for the last couple of months, I've been seriously thinking about self-publishing it. If you have a few minutes, I'd love to hear what you think!

The Difference Between Good Writers and Good Editors

First off, I have to say that I love my critique partners. They're fantastic writers who are at once supportive and insightful. They read every manuscript I throw at them, and they always have something helpful to say. They're also fierce defenders of those manuscripts, so when I feel like chucking one over a cliff, they're always the ones who talk me down from the ledge.

But while my critique partners are great writers and have great editorial insights, they're still not editors. And the difference is profound. When Shauna first sent me notes, they literally knocked my socks off. (I'm using "literally" in its newest sense, which is actually equivalent to "metaphorically" or, in other words, "not literally.") Shauna was able to see things that no one else had seen, including six CPs (two of whom are now published or about to be) and two offering agents (who've sold scads of manuscripts between them), and she was able to communicate those things in a way that got my creative juices flowing. As I've probably already mentioned, I ended up rewriting more than half of Steve (and now that we're nearing the end of the revision process, I'd say that less than twenty percent of the original scenes made the final cut).

I'll be the first to admit that when I'm critiquing a manuscript, it's hard not to tell the writer to just write it how I would have written it. Some things are right or wrong grammatically, and some devices are better or worse from a storytelling point-of-view, but lots of things are just different, and when you're a writer yourself, it can be harder to discriminate between the two.

Now, do I still think I'm a fairly decent CP? Yes. Do I think that qualifies me to be an editor? Not necessarily. Obviously, I couldn't do for Steve what Shauna did for Steve (and not just because I was the one who wrote him). She saw the story's strengths and knew how to help me magnify them, but she also saw the story's weaknesses and knew how to help me fix them. Good editors don't trade your words for theirs; they help you tell the story you meant to tell in the first place.

"An Agent's Inbox" Contest Debriefing

I think the inaugural round of "An Agent's Inbox" went pretty well, but since I'm always looking to improve (and since Round Two will start in just a couple of weeks), I really want your feedback. What went well, what didn't go so well, and what suggestions do you have?

Bob's New Query

With Bob's revision winding down, I find myself in need of a new query. It's still a little rough, but here's what I have so far:

Sixteen-year-old Adair’s life isn’t as glamorous as it sounds. She lives in Mandalay Bay, sure, but the Bay hasn’t seen a high roller since the Last Recession, just an army of luckless squatters. She goes to school at Wynn, but it’s more of a prison camp than an actual high school. And while she doesn’t have a lot of parental supervision, that’s only because her mom is dead and her dad has to work long hours for the man who ruined their lives.

Old Man Hermes did a lot more than revolutionize the biomedia industry when he invented Wingteeth, oral implants that link people’s brainwaves to the Stream. He also created a class system based on technological orientation, with the sharks and their Wingteeth on top, the Toothless grannies on the bottom. Oh, and he also sacrificed her mother’s life to save his precious company. Adair wants to return the favor--by taking his company away from him.

With the help of her secret society, Adair plans to carry out her hostile corporate takeover in five easy steps: First, rustle up an invitation to Old Man Hermes’s annual symposium. Second, assassinate him at the banquet. Third, shut down the Stream. Fourth, make the whole thing look like an accident. Fifth, install one of the grannies as chairman of the board.

What she doesn’t plan is to fall in love with one of the sharks at the symposium or to turn them into zombies when she shuts down the Stream. And she certainly doesn’t expect not to have the guts to murder Old Man Hermes when she gets the perfect chance.

All right, tear it apart. What doesn't make sense? What needs more explanation?

"You See, You Can't Please Everyone, So You Got to Please Yourself"

As many of you know, I’ve been neck-deep in reader feedback the last couple of weeks, and as many of you also know, it’s driven me a little batty. Knowing what feedback to take and what feedback to leave is almost as difficult as writing the stupid manuscript in the first place.

But today, a few lines from Ricky Nelson’s “Garden Party” came to me while I was weeping and wailing and generally making a fool of myself, and they were so appropriate--and yet so seemingly mundane--that I knew I had to share:

But it’s all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see, you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself

It may sound silly and cliché, but it’s also true: We’re not going to please everybody with our writing, so at the end of the day, we only have to worry about pleasing ourselves. I mean, wouldn’t you feel terrible, absolutely TERRIBLE, if you changed something in your manuscript because someone else insisted on it, and then you sent your precious manuscript off to your top agent, and she loved it and really got it, EXCEPT FOR THAT ONE PART, and she was going to offer you representation, but then that one part changed her mind?

I can take rejection, but I don’t think I could take that kind of regret.

So in the spirit of making decisions and not letting your writing drive you completely nutty, here are a few questions to ask yourself when you’re staring reader feedback in the face:

1. Am I excited about making these changes?

2. Do these changes match my vision for the project?

3. Deep down, do I think these changes are the right changes to make?

If your answer to any of these questions is no, you might want to take a step back and think about things a little longer. And while you’re thinking, check out Jessica Tudor’s brilliant blog post on the topic. (Did I mention it was BRILLIANT?)

Happy writing, happy revising, and if you’ve been feeling a little down lately, for heaven’s sake, have a chocolate.

The Power of Positive Critiquing

RATATOUILLE is one of my favorite Pixar movies. I especially like Anton Ego’s monologue at the end of the film. I won’t quote it verbatim (as Disney seems to have a freak-out anytime anyone borrows even the smallest snippet of their material), but he basically says while critics thrive on negative criticism, the truth is that even the most useless piece of dreck is worth more than the critique that labels it so. That the only time critics risk anything is when they actually like something.

I have critiqued more work this past year, my own and other people’s, than I have in all the other years of my life combined, and I’ve noticed a few things. It's so easy to be negative, to see the worst in your own and other people’s writing and focus on that. Not long ago, I blogged about unconstructive criticism, and I stand by that post. But the truth is, I think we often focus on the negative because we’re afraid to like something. Because, as Mr. Ego points out, we risk more by liking something than by not liking it.

If you don’t like something, all you have to do is say it’s dreck and move along. If, on the other hand, you like something, genuinely enjoy that piece of writing and think the project has some merit, then you’re throwing yourself into the ring with the writer. Every time a rejection or a negative critique comes in, it stings you, too, because you said you liked the project.

But that’s the great thing about jumping into that ring. Suddenly, not all the blows are landing on the writer. You’re in there, too, throwing your own punches, taking a few as well, but giving the writer--the creator--someone else to lean on. Someone to ask, “I’m really not crazy, right? This isn’t just a piece of garbage?” Sometimes we need that validation more than we need anything from the people who’ve read, and liked, our work.

Huh. I meant to take this post in a completely different direction, but these last few paragraphs just kind of spilled out. And you know what? I kind of like them. Guess I’ll let them stay.

Now I’m not saying we should sugar-coat everything. If we genuinely don’t like something, we’d be cheating the writer if we didn’t tell him or her so (but in a nice way, of course). And even when I like a project overall, I still point out the places in which I think it could be improved. What I am saying is that it’s all right to be positive when you really believe in something. That as much as a writer will get out of our suggestions for improvement, he or she may get even more out of the positive things we say.

Criticism That's Never Constructive

Do you remember that a cappella singing competition one of the networks aired last year? It was only supposed to last a week, but I stopped watching around the time the judges voted off the group affiliated with my alma mater.

After the few times this group performed, the judges only had one real piece of criticism: “Well, that was good, but you were really lacking in your lower register. You need more bass.” But here’s the thing: The group, Noteworthy, is an all-girl a cappella group. Of course they didn’t have any bass--they’re women! And the producers knew that when they invited them--yes, invited them--to do the show.

This is the sort of criticism that I would say is never constructive. Short of completely redefining who they were (which was impossible within the context of the competition and impractical in real life), Noteworthy couldn’t do a thing about the feedback they received.

All the criticism I’ve received has been marvelously constructive, so you shouldn’t interpret this as a not-so-subtle barb at one of my own betas. I was just reading some feedback someone else received on another site the other day, and I thought that one of the people offering criticism was being overly unconstructive. Essentially, the critter was attacking the writer’s voice, saying things like “Your writing style is boring” and “No teenager would ever want to read this.”

While it’s all right to say things like “I think you can infuse this passage with more personality” and “This doesn’t sound like something the character would think or say,” it’s not okay to make blanket statements about how the writer writes or the viability of the project. Voice is one of those sacred elements of writing that is totally unique, so to belittle someone’s voice is essentially to belittle who he or she is as a writer.

We may read something, and we may find it a little bland. We may read something, and we may know that the writer is still growing into his or her own voice. But that doesn’t give us the right to declare that writer’s writing as unreadable or unpublishable. Because if there’s one thing I learned as an economist that this industry has only confirmed time and time again, it’s that there really is no accounting for taste.

I can pretty much guarantee that every book I despise, somebody else loves. And every book I love, someone else abhors (or at least doesn’t like). You know that little series about a lightning-marked wizard that everyone, including me, adores? Yeah, well, my mother didn’t make it past the first few chapters of book one. And you know that book that everyone maligns, that everybody calls the most poorly written piece of slop that ever sucked the ink out of a printer (pun intended)? I actually still like it (although I recognize that wordsmithing isn’t the author’s strongest suit).

To make a long post short, criticism should inspire and encourage. It shouldn’t make the writer want to give up and go home.

Rant over.

Contests!

Just wanted to make you aware of a few ongoing or upcoming contests. First, KarenG of Coming Down the Mountain is hosting an awesome blog contest. Submit the first three chapters of your manuscript to an editor at WiDo Publishing, an independent publisher based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and you could win a full request/critique from the same. The best part is, every entrant will receive some kind of feedback on their chapters, so scurry on over there and find out more details. The contest closes on Saturday, August 21, so you have a little time. Good luck!

Also, I'm excited to announce that I'll be hosting my second blog contest next week. Bob is in desperate need of a title, and I'd love to get your ideas. To make it worth your while, I'm offering query and first-page critiques from four awesome agents--Amy Boggs of Donald Maass Literary Agency, Sarah LaPolla of Curtis Brown, Ltd., Andrea Somberg of Harvey Klinger, Inc., and Marissa Walsh of FinePrint Literary Management--to the people whose title ideas I like best. So make sure to drop by next Tuesday, August 17, for all the details.

Any other contests going on around the blogosphere that you think everyone should know about? Maybe you'll get an extra entry in those contests if you leave a notice in the comments...

If You're in a Critiquing Mood...

...Check out the latest in-house critique session going on over at the Miss Snark's First Victim blog. The entries are all 250 words from a first-kiss scene, so I KNOW that sounds intriguing to you. Bob's #19--feel free to rip him apart. He needs it:)

And if you just have to read more (wink, wink), here are a few other Bob excerpts that have appeared on Authoress's blog: his first 25 words, and another 250-word blip (keyword: danger).

Miss Snark's First Victim's Drop the Needle Critique Session

Check out the Drop the Needle critique session Authoress is hosting over the next few days (including a few lines from Bob--he's #11). These submissions are 250 words that represent danger in some way, and critiques should focus on the tension and pacing--and of course, whether (or not) you want to read more.

Definitely head over there and share a comment or two. Or ten or twenty. Every comment will be helpful; I know I'll be looking for all the feedback I can get. And if you're a regular reader of mine, don't feel like you have to sugar-coat anything you might say about Bob. He's pretty tough--and we both know that any criticism you have you only share out of love:)

Miss Snark's First Victim's Secret Agent Contest

Check out this month's Secret Agent contest, which features an entry from yours truly (I'm #7). Each entry is the first 250 words of a completed manuscript, and the readers are supposed to decide whether they're hooked and would like to read more. It's called the Secret Agent contest because one actual agent is also in the mix; he or she offer constructive criticism, and the ones the agent likes best get to submit sample pages. It's a great idea, and kudos to Authoress for setting it up each month. I hope I win (say that in your head the way Mr. Bean would say it--if he ever talked, that is).