Seeing as it’s the day after Thanksgiving, I wanted to extend a HUGE mahalo to everyone who applied to us in Pitch Wars! Marith and I were absolutely blown away by the quality of our submissions, and we wanted to pull back the veil one last time by offering a closer look at what #TeamXYZ received in our inbox, mostly focusing on stats and commonalities.
We received 138 submissions. Of those, 36% were Fantasy, 21% were Science Fiction, 22% were Literary Speculative Fiction, 10% were Horror, and the remaining 11.5% were in the wrong genre.
Almost 10% of our books had climate change themes.
We had the most variety of genre breakdown within the Fantasy and Science Fiction umbrellas.
Within the Fantasy genre — 43% were Paranormal and Contemporary Fantasy, 22% were general Fantasy, 14.5% were Historical, 8% were Retellings, 6% were Alternate History, 4% were Portal, and 2% were Science Fantasy.
Within the Science Fiction genre — 34.5% were Near Future, 31% were Post Apocalypse/Dystopia, 17% were Soft Sci Fi, 10.5% were general Science Fiction, 3.5% were Space Opera, and 3.5% were Time Travel
Nearly 12% of our submissions were in the wrong genre. We also received quite a few subs with too low / too high word counts. We saw word counts well below 60k and word counts of 140k or more, with a few subs reaching the 200k mark—even beyond! Many of these books were well written with a compelling premise, but on a practical level, we simply wouldn’t have had the time during the revision window to either help the author double their word count or cut it in half.
During the reading period in October, I shared some glimpses into our process HERE: https://twitter.com/yy_writing/status/1443641795326316556?s=20. but if you’re curious about specific parts of the sub package, here are some more thoughts:
QUERY
We’re happy to report that most queries included the standard elements:
Query = hook & story + TITLE, word count, genre & COMPS + author bio
Personally, I prefer the elements in that order:
1) The hook and story should come first because I want to know about your book.
2) The comps and marketability paragraph with title, word count, and genre should come next. If at all possible, let the comps do the work of communicating your book’s themes (please don’t say, “___ is a book about ___”).
3) Finally, include a bio that provides some context or justification for why you wrote the book or are qualified to write it.
Strong query writing went a long way in catching our attention. We could tell the writing was strong if the language in the query reflected the voice in the opening pages of the manuscript.
SYNOPSIS
Honestly, we didn’t really pay a ton of attention to this part of the sub unless we were on the fence about requesting more pages. The main thing we want to see in the synopsis is whether you can succinctly summarize your book. Bonus points for infusing some voice/style in there.
One trick: the synopsis OR the email with more pages is a great place to include content/trigger warnings. Unless the trigger occurs in the queried pages or is an overarching theme in your book, the query might be too early to tell us about difficult content. You can probably just include it at the very top of your synopsis or first paragraph of your email.
OPENING PAGES
This is where the magic happens, and all I can say is that quality of the writing we read was truly outstanding. Some pages made me feel inferior.
I’m serious – like I wanted to be your writing PARTNER, not your writing MENTOR. In such cases, it is better and more responsible for me to step aside. In all likelihood, many of you will succeed anyway.
The main thing I’m looking for in the pages is a strong voice and a clear sense of the story, including the protagonist and setting. Keep these opening pages moving forward in-scene. This early in the manuscript, I don’t want flashbacks, POV shifts, or setting changes (of time OR place). Yes, there are exceptions, but even in those cases I want them to be brief!
PARTIALS & FULLS
Of the 138 subs, 13 (10%) were auto-passes because they were just not in our wheelhouse, 33 (24%) were on our longlist, and we formally requested 15 partials (11%). The partials that stood out to us were the ones where the pages “held up” (there were few inconsistencies + the quality of writing was sustained) and built momentum. We requested 6 fulls (5%). Marith and I loved but had disagreeing visions on one of the fulls (our third choice), and we had two top contenders but could only pick one.
We absolutely adore Tracy’s manuscript, a psychological ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST narrated by a vivacious old woman who enters a care home in Colorado. We need more books that shed light on elderly care and the realities of growing old. I truly hope you all get to read this one someday.
Mahalo, again, for applying to us for Pitch Wars this year – and please keep in touch!