Hellooooo!! *waves
enthusiastically* I’m so super excited to be doing Pitch Wars again (click here for details about the writing contest). This will
be my 6th time. Whoa! Time flies. O.o
Anyway! This year,
I'm co-mentoring (fantasy YA &
contemporary YA—more about the wish list below) with the FABULOUS Kerbie Addis-Owens
again!
I'm super excited
about that. I met her via Pitch Wars, and she’s become a CP and awesome friend.
I think she's so smart and talented, and her writing reflects that.
Here's her bio in
her own words:
Hello potential
mentees! *waves*
I'm Kerbie (yes,
that's really my name). I was a mentee TWICE in Pitch Wars and was a mentor
last year to the amazing Amaris Glass. Currently I'm an intern for a top NY
literary agency, but for confidentiality reasons, I can't disclose who. I have
an English BA and I'm in a master's program to become a librarian.
Fun stuff about
me: My husband's a 1LT in the Army. I have a chubby black cat named Eve who has
dominated my Instagram. I wrote my first 'book' when I was 4 and my first 'real
novel' when I was 11. I can talk for hours about Japanese horror, feminism, and
psychology, and have even presented at academic conferences on those topics.
In my internship
and my years CPing for friends, I've worked on manuscripts that went on to be
published by Penguin Random House, Sourcebooks, HarperCollins, and other
houses. I've also worked with writers who signed with agencies like Writer's
House, The Bent Agency, Curtis Brown, etc. You get the idea. I kinda have a
magic touch :P
I also have a
unique advantage as both an intern and a librarian-in-training. I've seen what
is considered "marketable" from both sides of the publishing
industry--what publishers look to sell, and what gets booksellers/librarians to
purchase. I have a pretty good eye for what will sell and what won't. This
doesn't mean you should sit out because you don't think your book is
"marketable." We can help get it to that point! :)
So why should you
submit to me and Monica?
1. We're clearly
awesome at what we do!
2. Two heads are
better than one! Usually Monica handles big picture edits (which we discuss)
and I help the writer with line edits.
3. We read quickly
and reply to emails quickly. From experience, I know Pitch Wars can be
nerve-wracking, and you definitely want someone who will be there for you and
won't take forever to read your stuff!
4. We don't
hesitate when it comes to editorial bluntness. We show tough love, but the more
notes we give, the more we love your manuscript!
5. I'll send you
pictures of my cat for every chapter you edit. :-3
***
This is
Mónica again.
Okay, now
about me.
I was
born in Peru, and was raised in Chile. I’m a native Spanish speaker, and it
took me years to learn the necessary English to, you know, be able to write a
book! Now, I live in a rural area with my hubby and three boys, near a Chilean
beach, and close to many mountains (a very earthquake-y zone!). Here, I have
dogs and a cat and hens—and wild rabbits.
I’ve been a freelance
editor for over six years, and I love to edit (not copy edit, though—for some
reason, I’m not so good with typos!). I got my first agent in 2010 for a YA
fantasy that didn’t sell. Then, after regrouping, I auditioned at Paper Lantern
Lit (now Glasstown Entertainment, the imprint founded by NYT best-selling
author Lauren Oliver and editor Lexa Hiller), and got a NA deal for a packaged
book (the Frosh trilogy). It was a three-book deal, so was busy with that for a
while.
I learned so much
there, working with two editors. Alexa Wejko, and Roda Belleza. Rhoda is now a YA/MG editor at Imprint/MacMillan, and Alexa still works at Glasstown.
Now, I just signed
with my third agent (the amazing Stacia Decker at Dunow Carlson, &
Lerner) with a YA fantasy I’m currently revising to go out on sub. By the way,
that’s something I adore—YA fantasy!
I’ve betaed/edited
a lot of books (and my name is on many acknowledgements), like THE MEMORY OF LIGHT
by Francisco Stork, CARAVAL by Stephanie Garber, UNDER A PAINTED SKY by Stacey
Lee, POSSESS by Gretchen McNeil, ALL FOUR STARS by Tara Dairman, TOUCHING THE
SURFACE by Kimberly Sabatini, THE SOUND OF LIFE AND EVERYTHING by Krista Van
Dolzer, and I’ve worked with Evelyn Skye, and Kasie West, and many other
authors. If you want to learn more, you might want to take a look at the
editorial services page of this blog. You’ll find testimonials there, too. Oh,
and you might want to check the success stories on this blog, too. There are
many. =)
Here's a picture of a few of the books I edited--you can see my name on the acks (more books on the editorial page):
See, this
is why I think you should submit to us. We’re the perfect bridesmaids, and we
really want to take your book to the altar, so to speak, like we’ve taken so
many other books there. We’ve both worked with dozens of authors, helping them
get ready to sell their mss, and more than once, help them get six-figure
deals. And we both LOVE Pitch Wars wholeheartedly. =D
What we want to see this year:
1) Just
like last year, we want YA fantasy.
Pretty
please.
*grabby
hands*
Let me specify:
We don’t care if
it’s historical fantasy YA, or high fantasy YA, or dark fantasy YA, or any
kind of YA fantasy, but we want some romance. :) It doesn’t have to be the main
plot, but there has to be at least a romantic subplot for me. Also, we’d love
it if the ending is unpredictable (though I think that can be edited).
There’s only one
kind of YA fantasy we don’t want: boy YA fantasy, like ERAGON.
YA fantasy books
that I’ve loved: A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES, DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE, THE
WRATH AND THE DAWN, SHADOW AND BONE, THE SCORPIO RACES, LEGEND, AN EMBER IN THE
ASHES, STRANGE THE DREAMER, etc.
I also loved
CARAVAL, but I might be biased, since—like I said—I betaed that awesome book. I
loved WORDS OF RADIANCE—what a GREAT fantasy, but I’m mentioning it last
because that’s an adult book.
2) Contemporary YA!
We only want
something that is NOT quiet, with a unique
premise. Said this, the MS could either be funny and makes us laugh, or dark
(we both like dark—not downright hopeless though), or both—funny and dark. It’s a plus if it has a romantic thread (doesn’t
have to be the main plot).
YA contemporaries
we’ve liked: ELEANOR & PARK. THE HATE U GIVE. ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS. Oh,
and this isn’t a YA contemporary, but an adult romance: ARCHER’S VOICE by Mia
Sheridan. If you have a YA version of that book? OMG, I NEED to see it, please!
And if you have something contemporary that’s like Veronica Mars, then I want
to see it too. You guys already know I’m a Latina, so Latinx characters would
be awesome, too. If you have an exchange student story, I’d like to see it,
too.
Overall: If your writing is literary and evocative,
then chances are, we’ll fall in love. But, like we said, we don’t want anything
that’s too quiet. We also want plot and twists.
While we enjoy other genres, like paranormal,
historical, etc, we won’t be taking those this year, because we realized that receiving less
entries means that Kerbie will be able to give overall feedback to everyone who
submits to us. Isn't she amazing? Anyway, that’s why we won’t be accepting all
the genres this year.
If you are not
sure whether to submit to us, then I think it would be a good idea if you could
check out the PW pages of my previous mentees. There are a couple published
books from my previous Pitch Wars teams, too. :) Like this one, and this one. Here
are a few other entries: this one, this one, and this one. And if you still
want to take a look at more mss that I’ve picked to see my tastes, you can poke
around on my blog and see The Writer’s Voice entries. Some of them, like STITCHING SNOW (which landed a
six-figure deal) and RESURRECTING SUNSHINE are published, too.
Pay attention to the voice of all those entries. If you like them, then
we probably have a similar taste.
This step in
choosing a mentor is really important, IMO. When I queried, I checked out lots
of entries in contests to decide which agent might have similar tastes. I
jotted down which entries I liked, and saw the agents who had requested those. Turns
out, I had a much bigger success ratio with the agents who had requested
entries that I’d liked, versus the ones I hadn’t liked so much.
My editing style
is like this: I’ll point out the things that aren’t working for me and tell you
why. For example, I might comment that I think the pace is slow, or the
characters seem two-dimensional, or there’s a plot hole, etc. I’ll put my
finger on what exactly isn’t working for me and tell you why . Then, I’ll give
you a few suggestions, examples of how you might want to fix it. Then, I'll
leave it up to you. If you want to fix something differently, be my guest. The
key to it all is communication. Then, the second round of edits (the
line-edits) will be made by Kerbie, who has a lot of experience since she works
for a *very* awesome agent at a *very* awesome agency. :)
Let me know if you have general
questions on the comments section of this post. You can tweet to us too.
Good luck!
<3
