But first, a bit about our contest series.

Every week we are going to have a contest on our Facebook Page. The contests will change from week to week but the winners will always be published in the magazine. The contest winner and the runners up are chosen by a voting system, and then the editors of Authors Publish will select several additional entries from the rest to be the Editor’s Choice winners.

Below are all the winners of this week’s contest, their challenge was pitch their book using only one sentence.

To see the winners just scroll down. To read the details of the next contest please scroll down to the bottom of the page.

The Winner:

The Runners Up:

Editor’s Choice:

The Details of The Next Contest:

The next contest will begin on Saturday March 15th at 9am PST. It will be posted on our Facebook page.

The goal of the next contest is to write the best six word memoir that you can. This was the first contest we ever held and it yielded such exciting results we want to do it again.

If you won last time or were an Editor’s choice winner or a runner up, you can enter again, but it has to be a completely different six word memoir.

The agent then had to explain to me what a pitch was. How it is an attempt to make the main concept of your novel understandable and appealing in the space of one or two sentences.

I learned later that they could be longer than that, but the best pitches are simple. They are not just two long sentences with lots of complicated ideas. Ideally they are simple, concise, and intriguing.

So for example the pitch for the movie The Matrix could be any of the following sentences:

If Neo swallows the Red Pill the fate of his captured world will be in his hands. 

The whole world is captured, but intrepid rebels are trying to free it.

What you see is not real.

Just kiss Trinity.

Now some of those pitches are clearly better than others, some would only work if you had seen the movie, some might intrigue you enough to see the movie.

My first attempt at a pitch was a complete failure, but I have since successfully pitched an agent a novel, through the following methods.

Write a Lot of Pitches

This seems obvious, but it isn’t necessarily. You should start writing pitches as often as possible if you are interested in following the path of publishing that involves agents.  Even traditional publishers often require pitches, so if you are submitting to publishers directly it’s not a bad thing to practice.

When you watch a movie, write a couple of pitches for it afterwards. Also sit down with your own novel and just write pitches for 15 minutes. Don’t look at these pitches right away. Give it a few days then review them. Once you have done this a few times you should have three or four pitches that you like.

Play with Length

Try writing longer pitches occasionally and then think of ways that you can trim them down to size.

Play with Focus

A novel has a lot of different things going on at the same time. There can be many themes and plots. Don’t try to cover all of it in the pitch. Instead try focusing on just one theme, plot, or character.

Compare

This sounds like a cheap trick but almost every agent I have ever met wants to compare your book to already successful books. For example, 50 Shades of Grey is the erotic version of Twilight, but without Vampires.  Agents want to know what your book is like, so saying something like “The Matrix with aliens, not robots” might intrigue someone.

Get Feedback

Take the few pitches you really like and then show them to people – friends and family members that you trust. Some should have read the novel already, others should not have. Their feedback will be valuable as you develop your ability to write a good pitch.

Fourteen Hills publishes two annual editions, released in May and December, each with work from about 50 writers. They read submissions from September 1st to January 1st for inclusion in the May edition, and March 1st to July 1st for inclusion in the December edition. Writers may submit once per reading period.

Poets may submit three to five poems, ideally with 30 to 35 lines, and a maximum of 70 lines. Fiction writers may submit one short story or novel excerpt with a maximum of 25 pages, or three pieces of flash fiction with a maximum of 1,000 words. Non-fiction writers may submit one piece of literary creative non-fiction. Fourteen Hills also accepts cross-genre and experimental writing, including graphic stories. Cross-genre or experimental writers may submit up to ten pages of work.

Fourteen Hills accepts simultaneous submissions, but requires writers to withdraw submissions published elsewhere. They do not accept previously published work. Writers may submit work online, but not via post or email. Submitting writers should receive a response within four to nine months. Once published in Fourteen Hills, writers may submit again in three years.

If you would like to learn more or submit to Fourteen Hills, please visit their website at http://14hills.net/contribute-submit-poetry-fiction-art.

Stirring has been around since 1999 and is one of the oldest literary journals that is still active. They are a monthly journal interested in publishing poetry, fiction, photographs, and creative non-fiction (largely personal essays and memoir).  They have a large editorial staff and regularly have guest editors. So it is hard to predict what kind of writing the current editor will gravitate towards.

They are also more open to prose poetry and collaborative pieces than most other contemporary journals. They also publish the occasional poetry broadside. A broadside is a single page with text, intended for hanging on a wall. Most broadsides are made on beautiful paper and printed with a letterpress.

When you submit your work, you do so to the individual email address of the editor you are submitting to, so make sure you submit it to the appropriate editor. Poetry should be included in the body of the email, prose should be attached in a .RTF or .doc format. Photography should be attached in a .JPG format.

They respond to most submissions within three months or less. They accept less than a quarter of the work submitted to them. You can submit to them once a month, so that you can submit to them even before you have heard back from them.

To learn more visit their website here: http://www.sundresspublications.com/stirring/