You may have heard that Sub It Club is 3 and we are celebrating! Today we are thrilled to have Jennifer Johnson-Blalock of Liza Dawson Associates here at the Sub It Club blog perusing your pitches! If you have not yet read our interview with Jennifer, please do go and read it. Jennifer shared a ton of insights that you’re sure to find helpful before pitching.
Pitch day is over but Jennifer left a ton of great feedback. You can learn a lot by reading through the comments! Jennifer had high hopes of being able to give everyone feedback and did all she could, but ran out of time. It looks like she got pretty far though. We had a lot of pitches! Jennifer will definitely read through the all pitches this week and make requests if any more pique her interest. Jennifer will be looking at pitches today between 10am and 6pm EST.She will be offering feedback and making requests on those that pique her interest!
Here are the rules:
Only pitch work in the genres that Jennifer represents:
- narrative and prescriptive nonfiction
- commercial and upmarket fiction ( especially thrillers/mysteries, women’s fiction)
- contemporary romance
- young adult
- middle grade
Pitch completed fiction or complete nonfiction proposals only.
Post your pitch in the comments section of this post using the following format:
- Title:
- Word count:
- Genre:
- Pitch: (100-words maximum)
- Excerpt: (The first 100-words of your novel. If it falls in the middle of your sentence, no worries, just finish your sentence out.)
If you get a request:
- In the Subject Line put: Sub It Club Pitch Day – YOUR TITLE
- Paste your pitch into the body of the email
- Attach the requested number of pages as a Word document (.doc)
- Send requested manuscripts to queryjennifer[at]lizadawson[dot]com
Yes, attach the pages! Jennifer says, “a lot of agents ask for pages attached because we read on various devices–a Kindle in my case.” So there you go!
If you have questions, I’ll be hanging around in our Sub It Club Submission Support Group and will answer asap. Here’s to some great pitches. Best of luck everyone!
P.S. When you’re done pitching and are patiently waiting for a reply, why not pop over and enter our autographed book giveaway for CHICKEN LILY, illustrated by Nina Victor Crittenden! It is so adorable.
Sub It Club 
Title: Vampires vs. Aliens
Word count:71,000
Genre:Science Fiction YA
Pitch:
Matthew, a 17-year-old vampire, wants to be human again. When aliens make first contact, he sees their technology as his chance for a cure. Once he and his friend Fadious are aboard the spaceship, things go from bad to busted. The Emissary, a synthetic reproduction of Matthew’s first love, is sent to capture him for study. When Fadious discovers the existence of alien slaves, he leaves to free them and start a civil war. Matthew’s imbibes on the Emissary, causing her to have autonomous thoughts. He wants happily ever after; she wants a lab specimen.
Excerpt:
A crystal cathedral illuminated the night. Stained glass windows, depicting the Stations of the Cross, lined each side of the church. Ten-foot topiaries of the Passion dotted the garden. Colored lights coiled around each one.
Inside, voices sang, “Give me that old time religion before there was television; give me that old time religion in my soul.”
Reverend Fadious Noot strutted in a black jacket. On his back was a bedazzled Jesus nailed to a cross. A glittery tie snaked down his neck disappearing behind a gold lame vest.
“Friends and neighbors, brothers and sisters, treacherous and trusting, ask yourself this, who loves ya baby?”
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Title: Scrimshaw Incident
Word count: 50,000
Genre: YA Mystery/thriller
Pitch:
Inuit symbols carved in stone are the clues which lead Trace Barrett, a student at the University of Alaska and Patricia Tuvak, a detective in the Anchorage police department on the trail of a pair of killers across southern Alaska. From the entrance of the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center to an abandoned mine in the wilderness near the small town of McCarthy danger awaits.
Excerpt:
Trace Barrett entered his pass-code into the keypad inside the front entryway of the Anchorage State Museum and stepped inside. That’s odd, he thought, the alarm isn’t set. There will be hell to pay if the night guard forgot to…
He stopped abruptly and stared at the floor of the foyer and the body lying on it partially hidden behind the display of Alaskan wood carvings.
“Manny! What the hell happened?”
But the guard, Manny Dawson, didn’t say anything and a growing pool of blood surrounded his head.
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Is there some reason my pitch was not submitted to the agent for comment?
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Right here on the blog is where pitches were submitted to Jennifer so yours was definitely here for her. Jennifer had high hopes of being able to give everyone feedback and did her best, but we had a lot more pitches than anticipated and she ran out of time. Jennifer will be finishing up reading through the all pitches this week and will make requests if any more pique her interest. You may find some gold in the feedback that you can apply to your work and submit to Jennifer directly if you like. She is open to submissions.
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I have to second the idea of going through the feedback, as there was lots of useful advice.
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Good advise. Thanks
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Title: Panlon
Word count: 100k
Genre: SciFi/ Space Opera
Pitch:
The Sages have long since departed and the great rift now separates the Panlonian and Pandvarin regions from the rest of the galaxy.
With the opening of old wounds between two kingdoms in Panlon, the locum makes his appearance and wakens the Ulysean army of indestructible soldiers.
Can Trond Harberand, Faronian Stealth Cloack, find the King’s daughter and stop the Inrealmonian fleet before they reach Faross…
Excerpt:
At the headquarters of the Panlonian Council, on the planet Morloch, a small group of officials were gathered to discuss the recent intake of military recruits.
“It’s the usual rubbish…” Barked one official as he swiped a fat index finger down the interactive holo-log of names and credentials.
The Council commanded a significant military force for the purpose of keeping peace and defending its members from attack from intra-galactic forces. Every year, member states committed personnel in order to man the various inter-stellar destroyers, supply vessels and associated regiments of Councilmen.
“..they send us dross, either in the hope of getting-back well trained and disciplined personnel or because they want to keep the best for themselves.”
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Thanks everybody! Pitch day is now closed.
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