GUTGAA Agent Pitch Contest - Round 1 Has Begun!

WELCOME TO THE 1st ROUND JUDGING WEEK OF THE AGENT PITCH CONTEST!!!

Some announcements before we begin:

- If you're sulking because you didn't make it into the agent pitch contest, never fear! There is still the Small Press Pitch Contest coming in a couple of weeks. I will be announcing the small presses and 1st round judges for that contest Wednesday! If your interested and haven't signed up for GUTGAA yet, go to the master list and do it! MASTER LIST. 

To learn more about what GUTGAA is, go HERE.

- Another special Gutgaan, Tamara Walsh has offered up her keen eye for a first 25 page critique! She ran a critter website with a buddy and taught a high school class on critiquing, so no fear, this woman knows what she's doing:) If you hop over to her blog (her post may not be up yet, but she is still running the contest) and let her know you're from GUTGAA, you'll be entered to win. Simple as that. Friday, she will announce the lucky winner.

- If you participated in the Pitch Polish and are still looking for feedback, I'm going to keep the links up for the rest of the week on the left sidebar.

- A few weeks back I asked for some questions to give to the agents that will be doing the judging in this contest. You delivered and so did they. Friday, when I announce the finalists going on to the agent round, I will post the answers to your burning questions! Don't miss it!

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Now it really is time for the rules of the Agent Pitch Contest - First Round

What will go down this week...

- 200 of you lucky writers popped up on my email account first and that was apparently no easy feat. FYI: Both windows filled up in under a minute, GUTGAA trended on Twitter for two days in a row and WAY more than 200 people entered the contest. I wish I could have taken you all, but alas, my helpers and I may have gone bonkers. We did let 5 more in just because we love this writing community so much! So, there are 205 entries.

- These entries have been divided into 5 groups ranging from 38-45 entries each.

- They were divvied up based on genre. In the end that turned out to be 3 groups of YA, 1 group of Adult, and a combined group of Picture Book, Middle Grade and New Adult.

-There have been 4 judges assigned to each host blog. They will be visiting under their secret names.

Here are the host blogs along with the secret judge names assigned to each blog:

Adult: Jaye Robin Brown - Wallflower, The Revisionist, Lumpy Space Princess, Apple
YA 1: Falling For Fiction - Princess FluffyPants, Lady Luna, Molly Loo, Hopeful
YA 2: Robin Weeks  - Miss Mary Mac, Missus Braidyhead, Beezer, Hopey
YA 3: Cassie Mae - MacGuffin, Yappy, Husher, Lady Blingley
PB/MG/NA: Look down. They're on my blog:) You can also find them to the right under the title and number. And here are the ridiculously fabulous secret judges assigned to me - Baby, The Rooster, Violet, Sugar Magnolia

- The above judges will read through each entry on their assigned blog. They can comment and give helpful feedback on any that they want, BUT if they want yours to move on to the Agent Round, they will say, "You've got my vote!"  Does this mean you move on? Nope. Each of the four judges will pick their 10 favorites. At the end, the votes will be tallied up and if there is no obvious winners (which is very likely), judges from the other host blogs will pay you a visit and help until we have an obvious top 10.

- There will be 10 picked from each of the 5 blogs giving 50 of you the opportunity to move on to the Agent Round.

- Judges will have until Thursday to pick those they want to vote for.

- The finalists will be announced Friday!

- Anyone can give constructive criticism on the entries, but only the secret judge votes will count.

I think that's it, but as you all know, I usually forget something, so if you have any questions, please ask away!