Pay It Forward

A comment was left on my Tuesday POST from a BLOGGER I hadn't heard from in a while. Actually, I'd lost track of him. When I started surfing the blogosphere a year ago, I remember chatting with him now and again.

Have you ever lost track of a blogger??

Lately, I've noticed that a few of the blogs I was following somehow leaped out of my follow column and into oblivion. If anyone knows a reason why, please share. I'd love to know.

Well, this wonderful blogger aka Michael is participating in Shelli (srjohannes)'s Pay It Forward contest. She'll be recommending the winning entry to her very own agent, Alyssa Eisner Henkin of the Trident Media Group. Way cool!

PITCH. That's all you have to do. Submit a pitch, no longer than 4 lines, either as a blog post or on Facebook notes if you don't have a blog. In the blog post or note, you must Pay It Forward recognizing someone who's helped you along your writing journey. But make sure you get it in by this Friday, February 4th (yup that's today) before 5pm EST. For all the exact details, CLICKY. You must then leave your pitch and other info as a comment on Shelli's POST.

I am honored to Pay It Forward to a special lady. I'll be honest, on one hand this was a hard choice, but on the other it wasn't. So many writers have influenced me over the last two years. Really, it's crazy. But there are those core people, like my Oasis ladies and critters over on YAlitchat who keep me going day in and day out.

So I'm Paying It Forward and signaling out AE Rought, today. She is not only a huge encouragement to me, but she's also always honest and true. If she reads a passage I've written and thinks it's inspiring, she tells me. If she sees there's dirt and grim that needs to be dusted off my prose, she tells me that too. I appreciate that she believes in me enough to speak the truth. It's strengthened my wings and given me more courage and determination, molding me into a sharper writer. She's also a huge reason I finally came up with this blurb (along with the Fab-O-Fab C. Lee McKenzie).

If you don't know either of these ladies or follow their blogs, you should. Seriously, they're all that!

Best of luck, everyone!!

So here's my pitch:  High school is a mishmash of fickle yet potent energy, and if sixteen-year-old ANA TATE senses the wrong kind she could lose her mind. So when the one aura she can't resist belongs to the boy who rejects her, she sets out to uncover why. Lurking beneath this boy's alluring façade is his dangerous Lycan heritage but even more threatening is the psychic curse that will claim anyone close to him. And it’s set its eyes on Ana.

Online Pitches

So, I'm slowly but surely getting my act together, gathering all the lessons I learned during MuseCon. And today, I'm finally sharing one with you. Although I did not participate, I did listen in on a chat room pitch session lesson.

These were the instructions given to the participants. If you've never partaken in an online pitch session, I think they are good specifics to know before hand.

1) Introduce yourself, using your real name not your username for the forum

2) Begin pitching with title, genre, word count, page count each in a separate line giving the agent time to read and become acclimated with you and the work you're offering.

3) Paste your 250 word pitch in small increments. This gives the agent time to read and formulate questions he/she might have for you. Don't paste your 250 words all at the same time.

4) Next comes your credentials, if any, and any marketing you've mapped out for your specific genre: i.e., where it would fit.

5) Type DONE when you are finished. This cues the agent that you're finished and he/she can now ask questions.

6) Once finished, they will either say 'no thank you' or request material. If material is requested, respond in a timely fashion and make sure to put in the subject area of your response the conference they requested your material from.

7) You should have a query and synopsis all ready, just in case. Where the synopsis is concerned, have a short one available. They possibly could ask you to 'read' it--paste it then and there.

Have any of you pitched online before?? How'd it go?