This is for the 2016 Pitch Wars mentees. What is the agent round like? What should we know to prepare ourselves now?
Two things covered in this post:
What you can do now in preparation for the Agent Round?
And what to do during the Agent Round?
Amanda Rawson Hill: The agent round is just sprinkles. Don’t put too much weight on it. How many requests you get means nothing about your future as a writer. In the canon of Pitch Wars history there are people who got zero requests who went on to get an agent or book deal. There are people who got tons of request but never got an agent for that ms. It says nothing about your worth or the quality of your ms.
Rebecca McLaughlin: It’s never too soon to start preparing your pitch. To make a good pitch, evaluate your query (a sort of pitch) and see what sentences catch your eye. Maybe ask your mentor or CPs what caught their attention from get-go.
Michael Mammay: If I tell you not to worry about it too much, are you going to listen? No? Yeah, I didn’t either. But seriously—it’s just one piece of your overall strategy after you revise. It’s the first step in a bigger plan to get your work out to agents. Worry about the whole plan, not just this one piece.
Relly Anett-Baker: Worry about it 7 weeks in. Right now, it’s the oasis in the desert.
Leigh Mar: Seconded. Focus on the MS now, no matter what happens in the Agent Round, you want to have your absolute best possible MS ready to either fulfill agent reqs or dive into the query trenches (or some sort of combo). You could “win” the Agent Round but it won’t get you far if your actual MS doesn’t impress the requesting agents.
M. K. England: What can you do NOW? Focus on your revisions and write the best book you possibly can. Nothing will get you a great agent like having a great MS. Talk openly and honestly with your mentors and absorb all you can. You’ll have plenty of time to query and respond to agent requests later. You only have two months for pitch wars itself. Make use of it, enjoy it.
(But since I know you won’t accept that answer [I sure didn’t]: Make sure your short pitch is rock solid. A really compelling hook can capture an agent’s imagination and get them excited. Your pitch should hit whatever is shiny and different in your manuscript.)
Elizabeth Leis-Newman: Create a Pitch Wars Agent Round soundtrack of songs that make you feel tougher. Suggestions include: Nicki Minaj’s rap in Monster, Kayne West’s Stronger or most of the Hamilton soundtrack.
Lyndsay Ely: If you can find the time, research the PW agents in advance. Remember, you’re not required to send to an agent just because they make a request, if you don’t think they’re the right fit for you. (At the same time, be open to considering agents you might not normally have—you might find the right fit in an unexpected place.)
Here are our overall rules for what to do during the Agent Round if you’re part of the mentee group:
Your feelings are valid, whatever they are.
We celebrate together. We hurt together.
Rebecca McLaughlin: The Agent Round is basically All of the Anxiety. But it’s great fun (did I say fun? I meant stress). Get your refresh-button ready, because that’s basically all you’ll do for the entire time. Make sure you’re okay with best case AND worst case scenario, because there’s no telling what will happen.
Julie Artz: Managing your emotions during the Agent Round is really tough, even if you get a lot of requests. It’s hard not to obsessively refresh the page looking for new comments on your entry, or to question every word or punctuation mark in your entry and wonder if you should have done one more polish. I recommend planning something to keep you busy during as much of the Agent Round as possible, or perhaps even asking a friend to check for you periodically throughout the day. Because if you sit there online staring at your entry for three solid days (which I did), you will create a lot of emotional churn that does zero to help you on your path to being a better writer and could potentially put you in a tail spin that will last long after the Agent Round is over.
Tracy Gold: Yes. This. It was so hard. I was glad I ended up substitute teaching for a friend on top of my classes that week, but I was still a nervous wreck. Build up your stress coping mechanisms now, because you will need them!
Michael Mammay: Being happy for other people and sad for yourself at the same time (or vice versa) is challenging. And the agent round is the first time where that really hits you in the face. It’s hard. But you have to figure it out, because it’s pretty much going to continue as long as you stay around writers.
Phil Hickes: It’s either the best bit or the worst bit, depending on whether you get requests or not.
Elizabeth Leis-Newman: Set a timer that allows you to look every hour. If at all possible, go see a movie, get a massage, or basically anything that allows you to not constantly look. Set up a query list so you can start sending those queries out as soon as Brenda gives the okay - you will be antsy and want to do something proactive.
Steph O'Neil: Celebrate the success of others more than your own success (or failure). I think that is the only way to make it through.
Amanda Rawson Hill: This is so, so important. Such a good point. It’s so much more fun when you feel invested in more than just yourself.
Sean Easley: Even if you get ZERO requests in the agent round, you might still get an agent in the next year, and have your book scheduled for release the following year, with offers ready to go on your next series. The Agent Round is NOT a direct reflection of you.
Leigh Mar: I was straight up ZRC. No reqs, no ninja reqs, nada. My Pitch Wars MS still got multiple offers of rep and I signed with my agent in early February. There are members in our group who got reqs and are still pursuing rep or found rep with a new MS after PW. Enjoy the agent round for the possibilities it offers, but it’s, as Amanda said, “just sprinkles.”
Terry Bell: I’m not going to sugarcoat this: it’s rough if you aren’t getting requests. It’s rough when agents you’re hoping to interest announce they’re heading into the entries, but your requests don’t budge. For me, I felt like I let down my mentor and my fellow mentees, and wasted the last two months of everyone’s time. And I also stressed that this would be a black mark on my record—a sign that my writing wasn’t marketable.
And then I got a request, and IMMEDIATELY FORGOT LITERALLY ALL OF THE ABOVE. Others have talked about how requests =\= book deals or agents, and you should listen to them because they’re right. But it’s normal to feel panic, embarrassment, worry, etc. if your entry isn’t blowing up. There isn’t much you can prep for. But your mentee group will be there to help you get through it. ❤️
Heidi Stallman: In retrospect, the agent round meant very little for my career and success. My mentor helped me identify the last few story-telling and craft-skills I needed to get an agent’s attention. She also helped me through querying and “the call” from my agent. The support, knowledge and friendships I’m building with other mentees through the private FB group has also helped immensely with querying, “the call,” agent revisions, and numerous other things. But I didn’t know or didn’t think about this during the agent round.
I got caught up in the excitement and frenzy and committed the worse self-sabotage a writer can commit—comparing myself to others. I so wanted to do well in the agent round and get lots of requests like some of the other mentees and I didn’t. I got one. It was brutal emotionally. I still shudder at the bad place I went to. But then I pulled myself up and sent out a very conservative 10 queries and waited. And waited. And waited. And still didn’t get any requests at which time my mentor and I revisited my query (pretty good) and my first chapter (loved by some, hated by others). I wrote a new first chapter, and after that my request rate hit about 35%. YAY! So the lack of requests in the agent round was useful, but man it hurt at the time.
Lyndsay Ely: If an agent doesn’t request during the agent round, you can still query them after PW. Many requests have been had this way!