In honor of the Pitch Wars Agent Showcase opening — (November 3-9th, and yes, you should go check it out!) I wanted to take a moment to talk about writing the Pitch, Query, and synopsis.

 When you are finished with your MS (manuscript) and start your search for an agent, your next steps will include, in some way, writing and employing these : The pitch, the synopsis, the query.

Usually, as writers, this is not our favorite part of the business, but learning about and preparing these are all very practical and necessary to getting noticed by agents and contests. Familiarizing yourself with them sooner than later is a good idea.

Home work time!

We will use Brenda Drake’s and the Pitch Wars models to study the art of: The pitch, the synopsis, the query. Please read over the HOW, and then, take a minute to read some of the entries on Brenda’s page of the winners – see how they categorize their MS, how long it is, what their pitch says, and then, you will also see the first several hundred words of their first page. Find out why they were chosen, and what makes them attractive.

Unfortunately, the query is not on the Pitch Wars Agent Show case entry, but it was in every PW mentee’s contest application, and until you have an agent, most likely you will be writing queries. So, if you have a finished MS, and want to get get started, this is a good place to look.

It is important that once you have a pitch, query, synopsis, etc, that you get it critiqued by others. Fellow Pitch Wars Mentee Rachel Griffin talks about that here in her latest post.

Finally, once again, in honor of the Pitch Wars contest, and everyone who took time to review my query and pitch and first page and chapter and BOOK, I will critique the first 3 Queries/Pitches that come to thespinningpen@gmail.com !

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments, and all of the Spinning Pen authors would love to answer you if we can!

Good luck writers!

Nova, signing off.