SO YOU DIDN’T WRITE THE ‘HOT’ BOOK
Hey PitchWarriors! If you’re reading this, it means the PitchWars showcase is officially underway — YAY!!! You made it! You crushed revisions! You didn’t die!
But argh! This showcase thing is a real mindf$@%, isn’t it?
I purposefully held this piece back until entries went live because after three months of hard revision, the only thing I wanted in the run up to my showcase was rose-coloured glasses and to go into it hopeful. So what if I was writing a notoriously tricky genre? So what if I knew it was unlikely to be our class’s runaway success? I wanted to dream big dammit. I watched the Adult and MG mentees rack up mammoth numbers over those first two days and I wanted to believe I would too.
But, real talk… now that the showcase is in full swing, some of you are probably starting to feel the way I did when I finally realised that wasn’t going to happen. It’s easy to lie to yourself during the opening few hours: maybe agents haven’t signed on yet, maybe they haven’t seen everything yet, maybe they’re not making requests until later, maybe the volunteer team is getting so many requests they can’t keep up and notify us! (this last one does actually happen, fyi, so you know… patience… virtues… I’m sure there’s a famous saying about that.)
Still, as the day draws on and news starts reaching you from other mentees, the showcase can fast go from exciting to depressing. And chances are, if you’re reading this, you’re not having as good a day as you’d hoped. Which means now is the perfect time to read up on what it means to NOT be the hot book of your class — and more importantly, what it doesn’t mean.
N.B — for the purpose of this post ‘hot’ books means the runaway successes of the showcase… so let’s say the top 25% of entries, which for our class meant books that received 21+ requests.
So without further ado, here is a list of rebuttals to all those mean little things your brain is telling you right now…
Only the ‘hot’ books get agents
Only the ‘hot’ books get multiple agent offers
If you didn’t get requests on the opening day of the showcase, you won’t get any at all
The more requests you get, the faster you’ll get an agent
If an agent doesn’t read your PitchWars material within the first couple of months, they won’t read it at all
If you don’t get an agent through the showcase, you’re not going to get one
If an agent overlooks you in the showcase, they hate you, your book, and your guts
Agents will only sign one PitchWars mentee, so if another mentee gets signed first, that agent is ‘full’
Getting no/very few showcase requests means you’ve written a bad book
But it must be bad! Otherwise, why would it perform so poorly compared to the other entries?
BONUS CATEGORIES! (for down the track)
If I struck out in the showcase, I shouldn’t bother with pitch contests
But won’t entering be embarrassing? Won’t agents remember me from the showcase and laugh about how I’m still not signed?
BUT… BUT… they know I was in PitchWars. If I don’t get signed quickly, or nudge with an offer, agents will assume my book sucks and THAT’S why no one wants it
ONLY THE ‘HOT’ BOOKS GET AGENTS
FALSE
I was not the ‘hot’ book. In a class where 17 requests was the average, I got 9.
71 out of the 107 entries got more requests than I did.
I found an agent for my PitchWars book (hi Andrea! if you’re reading this ignore everything I said my book is super hot!)
ONLY THE ‘HOT’ BOOKS GET MULTIPLE AGENT OFFERS
FALSE
I was not the ‘hot’ book and I ended up with multiple offers.
Mentees from the 2019 class were receiving multiple offers on their PitchWars books well into September, folks.
IF YOU DIDN’T GET REQUESTS ON THE OPENING DAY OF THE SHOWCASE, YOU WON’T GET ANY AT ALL
FALSE (most probably)
I mean, look… It’s fairly accurate to say that day one numbers are indicative of OVERALL trends. Like, if you didn’t get 20+ requests on day one, you’re probably not going to close out the showcase with a huge number. BUT. Requests do keep trickling in over the weekend.
YMMV but I, personally, closed out day one with 4. By the end of the showcase I had 9.
THE MORE REQUESTS YOU GET, THE FASTER YOU’LL GET AN AGENT
FALSE
While a lot of the hot books do get snapped up fast, not every book that racks up requests finds a home quickly — or at all, for that matter.
In our class, there were books with fewer requests than me that got agented faster, and there were books with more requests than me that didn’t get agented at all — and this is true at the editor level as well. ‘Winning’ the showcase is no guarantee of a quick sale, or a sale at all, to be frank. Yes, some of the hot books will turn into big/fast sales. But there will also be hot books that sell slow, small, or not at all, and lukewarm books that sell big and fast once they’re agented.
There are simply far too many factors at play here to know how this will play out once your material goes out.
ALSO. This is a good point for a couple of disclaimers:
1) The showcase will WARP your sense of time something fierce. There will likely be offers for some mentees by the end of week one, and that will make you feel like if you didn’t get an offer fast, you never will.
Please, please, please try to remember that out in the real world it is not uncommon to wait 3+ months on a query and 6+ months on a full. Some agents will sit on your PitchWars request for a while — this is frustrating, but not a sign of anything other than: they haven’t gotten to it yet.
2) Because you and your class have all gone through PitchWars together, it’s easy to forget that every mentee brings a different level of experience to the table; so comparing successes is an exercise in futility. Just because someone seems to be having an easy ride, doesn’t necessarily mean their journey has been easy. You don’t know if they’ve got 5 books trunked to your 1, or how many they’ve queried before.
IF AN AGENT DOESN’T READ YOUR PITCHWARS MATERIAL WITHIN THE FIRST COUPLE OF MONTHS, THEY WON’T READ IT AT ALL
FALSE
Some agents get a little… liberal, shall we say, with requests. Some will end up requesting 30+ manuscripts. So yeah, that’s going to take time to get through.
You’ll find that some agents dedicate a few weeks post showcase to getting through that material. But they still have clients to take care of, and regular submissions, and as offers start coming in, they’ll need to prioritise submissions that are under deadline.
What does this mean?
It means we had mentees who received an email saying: I’m reading and loving! suddenly get ghosted.
It means we had mentees who heard nothing for weeks/months where others were getting reads very quickly.
It means we had mentees who didn’t hear anything from their showcase requests until they nudged with an offer that came from regular queries.
It means we had mentees still waiting on showcase requests 6+ months after the showcase.
And while I can’t promise you no PitchWars request will end up as a CNR (there are always ghosts), I can tell you that mentees in our class were still hearing back from PitchWars agents in August and beyond. At some point, agents simply can’t prioritise showcase requests anymore and those fulls end up on the same pile as manuscripts that come in from other avenues.
IF YOU DON’T GET AN AGENT THROUGH THE SHOWCASE, YOU’RE NOT GOING TO GET ONE
FALSE
We pretty much ALL queried our books the normal way alongside our PitchWars requests — as I’m sure you will too.
Some mentees got offers from PitchWars agents only.
Some mentees got offers from cold queries only.
Some mentees got offers from both avenues.
Some mentees struck out with both avenues.
Showcase performance is in no way indicative of querying performance.
IF AN AGENT OVERLOOKS YOU IN THE SHOWCASE, THEY HATE YOU, YOUR BOOK, AND YOUR GUTS
Erm… yeah… FALSE
You won’t believe me on this one, but THINGS GET MISSED ALL THE TIME.
How do I know?
Not one, but two of my offers came from showcase agents who overlooked me in the showcase. Two more participating agents requested material off a query but not my showcase entry.
I signed with a participating agent who DIDN’T request me in the showcase (if you want to read about how that happened, click here).
Checkmate, atheists.
AGENTS WILL ONLY SIGN ONE PITCHWARS MENTEE, SO IF ANOTHER MENTEE GETS SIGNED FIRST, THAT AGENT IS ‘FULL’
FALSE
Come on asshole brain… think. If an agent could only sign one client a week/month/year, why would agents be open to queries pretty much year round?
All seriousness: I was not the first PitchWars mentee in our class to sign with my agent and she wasn’t the only agent to sign more than one of us.
Lots of agents offer on multiple PitchWars books and sign more than one mentee.
GETTING NO/VERY FEW SHOWCASE REQUESTS MEANS YOU’VE WRITTEN A BAD BOOK
FALSE
Let’s get one thing straight here: bad books — like, objectively bad books — don’t get into PitchWars. 3000+ people apply every year, competing for 115ish spots. You don’t beat those odds with a bad book.
BUT IT MUST BE BAD! OTHERWISE, WHY WOULD IT PERFORM SO POORLY COMPARED TO THE OTHER ENTRIES?
Erm… for like A HUNDRED reasons.
Real talk: no one knows what makes a book hot. If we did, this would be easy.
It could be the pitch, the voice, the genre, the mood of the agent, the place in the showcase list, none or all of the above.
And this is a hard thing to face — especially when, year on year, the showcase gets bigger, and more successful, and mentees walk away with more and more requests overall. I mean, come on. One request used to be the dream, now suddenly, anything under twenty seems mediocre.
But the truth is, even when the showcase breaks records, not every mentee will experience the same great result.
Most years, certain genres just do better than others.
I was lucky (ha!) that as the only YA sci-fi in our class, I pretty much knew the second entries went up that my genre was not going to be winning any races, and I had no one to compare my success to in an apples-to-apples way.
It’s harder when your entry IS in one of the runaway genres but your book isn’t getting the love to match. But this happens too, and it could be as simple as: a different book pitched better in 300 words, or had a better spot on the list, or [insert completely random reason here because all of this is so freaking random].
Also, if you’ve read up to this point, you’ll know this means absolutely NOTHING for your chances of getting agented. So control your own pain here. Disconnect from social media or the other mentees for a day or two. Mute the #PitchWars tag. Don’t focus on who did/didn’t request you. Focus on who you’ll be querying.
IF I STRUCK OUT IN THE SHOWCASE, I SHOULDN’T BOTHER WITH PITCH CONTESTS
FALSE
We had multiple success stories in our class from mentees who participated in #PitMad, #DVpit, #SFFpit etc. Some racked up more requests this way than I had in two months of querying. In many cases, they even received requests from showcase agents who overlooked their entry (or, hilariously, those that had already passed on their book).
Don’t self-reject. You have 100 new friends now who can boost your pitches.
BUT WON’T ENTERING BE EMBARRASSING? WON’T AGENTS REMEMBER ME FROM THE SHOWCASE AND LAUGH ABOUT HOW I’M STILL NOT SIGNED?
Lol… NO
See my note above: we had mentees get requests from agents in pitch contests for the SAME book they already rejected. Or for books they DID request in the showcase and hadn’t gotten around to reading yet.
Please trust me, you’re the only one keeping score.
BUT… BUT… THEY KNOW I WAS IN PITCHWARS! IF I DON’T GET SIGNED QUICKLY, OR NUDGE WITH AN OFFER, AGENTS WILL ASSUME MY BOOK SUCKS AND THAT’S WHY NO ONE WANTS IT
STOP IT, MARIE, YOUR PARANOID IS SHOWING
Seriously folks… are we really saying that agents, who routinely offer on manuscripts they’ve had for months, are going to care how long you’ve been querying? Or even bother doing the math?
Is FOMO a thing in this industry? Yes.
Do agents get curious when there’s an offer on the table? Yes (my request rate almost doubled when I got my first).
Are they not going to sign a book they love because an arbitrary amount of time has passed? No.
*
Okay, that’s all I can think of right now — and I realise I’m saying all this with the benefit of time and hindsight and you’ll likely not believe any of it right now because the showcase was your goal for so many months and of course you’re crushed that it’s not going as well as you’d hoped. Those feelings are valid and they’re real and they’re not going to go away just because a past mentee told you they were silly (they’re not).
But hopefully, the info in this blog will help in the coming days or weeks when you and your fellow mentees in the trenches start wondering what it means to not be the hot book.
Have a question I missed? Ping or DM me on twitter (@TheKateDylan) and we’ll see about getting you an answer!