Pitch & win critiques!

As most writers have discovered at some stage, synopses suck.

It's extremely difficult to take your fabulous manuscript and highlight the best bits in a succinct, cohesive way.

It's harder yet to to write a query, a 3 paragraph summary of your book.

The hardest?  A pitch, a one or two sentence summary.

So of course, that's what I'm asking you to do for a chance to win critiques.

I'm doing you a favour, honest. How can you convince someone else to read your story if you can't describe it in a snazzy, short, convincing way?

For tips, check out:

Rachelle Gardner's post on One-Sentence Summary

Nathan Bransford's post on How to Write a One Sentence Pitch

So, what's the prize?

-A critique of the first 5 pages of your manuscript by LIZ PELLETIER, senior editor & co-founder of ENTANGLED PUBLISHING (What they've achieved in a short space of time is truly phenomenal. I love working with them!)

-A critique of the first 5 pages of your manuscript by a USA TODAY, Waldenbooks & Bookscan bestseller with 30+ books under her belt. (Yeah, that'd be me!)

So here are the rules:

-As this is a blog contest, it's only open to followers of my blog (feel free to follow now to participate.)

-Your pitch must be 1 or 2 sentences max.

-Post your entry in the comments section here.  Your entry must include:

1. Title, genre, word count

2. Your polished 1-2 sentence pitch

3. your email address

-Entries must be for a completed manuscript (novellas included.)
-Contest open to unpublished writers only.

This contest will run for 1 week, entries closing 11.59pm Monday 16th October.

FYI
Entangled Publishing submissions: We are seeking novels and novellas in the following subgenres of romantic fiction for publication in Summer 2012 and beyond:


•Contemporary (including category series romance.)
•Upper YA/New Adult (17-22 yo protags) that will appeal to crossover audiences

•Historical

•Romantic Thrillers

•Science Fiction
•Paranormal and Urban Fantasy
•Fantasy

Their latest October 2011 wishlist is here.

Good luck!
And please spread the word: on your blog, Facebook, Twitter.
Thanks!

(Don't forget the chance to win my latest release all week here!)

Branding

Timely post by Nathan Bransford on branding today.

He says there's no such thing as branding on the internet, only you, and I have to agree.

Because I've always wanted to write mainstream fiction alongside my Harlequin romances, I deliberately chose a generalised tagline "Flirty Fiction with Flair."

With the upcoming release of BUSTED IN BOLLYWOOD, I've been toying with the idea of a separate blog, until I realised something.
I have a loyal following here. I look forward to interacting with those people daily.
I don't want to branch off somewhere else where I may miss out on those interactions.

Then there's Facebook & Twitter & Goodreads, where I chat daily too.
And I'm totally with Nathan. What you see on those media sites is ME. I chat life, books, kids, footy, food, Bollywood, publishing stuff.
I'm the brand.
Not a tagline, not what I write.
Me.

So that's what you're going to get.
Sure, there'll be loads of new Bollywood goodness here (stay tuned for some exciting reveals!) but what you see is what you get.

Nathan Bransford's post is reiterating this. Worth reading.

Don't forget the BACK TO THE BOOKS giveaway is running for another few days!
Check out my 3 book giveaway HERE.

How long is a piece of string?

Last day to win 7 books!

Be in it to win it!

Details here

In publishing news, anyone who's ever been on submission with a manuscript knows how draining/frustrating/exciting it can be.

Here's a fab post by Nathan Bransford on why the process takes so long!

'How I Write' series

In the lead up to his book release, Nathan Bransford is running a 'How I Write' series on his blog all week.

If you're a writer, you absolutely must check it out.

Gold, I tell you, gold!

Thrown against the wall

Nathan Bransford has a great post about 'spaghetti' agents on his blog.

The kind of agents who take on a lot of clients and throw manuscripts out there to publishers hoping some will stick.

If you're a writer on the hunt for an agent or hope to be some day, please read.

Which will make you more money?

Self publishing or traditional publishing? Nathan Bransford does a great breakdown of the figures here.

The lowdown on self-publishing

I keep abreast of publishing developments.

I'm a member of several writing organisations, I'm on loops for these organisations, I read the digests.

I don't think I've been living under a rock but I hadn't heard the name Amanda Hocking until recently.

Self-publishing talk is exploding all over the Net in a big way.

Here are 2 posts you have to read.

The first, by Nathan Bransford (read 'Amanda Hocking & the 99 cent kindle millionaires', including the comments.)

Next, read Donna Ball, where she gives her real figures on self-publishing.

We live in interesting times...

Lessons learned from Harry Potter

I love finding nuggets of writing gold and here's another from Nathan Bransford (who I can't believe has retired from agenting!) with his post yesterday on writing tips from reading Harry Potter.

He elaborates on these 5 writing tips:

-You can accomplish amazing things with a third person limited perspective

-Don't be afraid to show your characters' flaws

-Making it look easy is really really hard

-"You might try and go easy on the adverbs when the emotion is apparent from the dialogue"

-Have fun with your world

It's a great post. Check it out.

Pearls of wisdom

Nathan Bransford always has pearls of wisdom for writer-folk.

Loved this one yesterday on Goals and Obstacles in preparation for NaNoWriMo.

*ROB campaign update

-Weight lost this week: 0kg (considering it has been a BIG birthday week with cake, cake and more cake, guess I should be thankful I didn't put on!)
-Exercise: zumba
-Overall results: 2kg lost, tummy much flatter. Should've taken inches measurement before I started...