Monday, October 1, 2012

1st Round of the Small Press Pitch Contest is Here!!!

Deana Barnhart
I can't quite believe we've been at this GUTGAA thing for over a month! We're closing the party out with a final pitch contest, and the time to begin it is now!

Rules for the Small Press Pitch Contest - Round 1
NOTE: If you were around for the Agent Pitch Contest, you will see this one will be very similar.

-We have 102 participants in this first round. They are divided into genre groups which you can find on 4 host blogs:

Tara Tyler - Adult Entries
Juliana Brandt - YA Contemporary & YA Historical
Me - YA Other (you can find them below or in the right sidebar)
Ink in the Book (Talynn) - NA/MG

Initially, I was going to divide these entries into groups of 25, and the 1st round judges would pick their top 5 or so. Then, I realized, after getting the entries, that it wouldn't be fair.

Instead I divided the query and first 150 words up in the groups you read above. They didn't come out even, so the amount of votes will be different on every blog based on the number's ratio. Here is how the votes will be doled out:

Adult - 31 entries: 8 votes
YA Contemporary - 23 entries: 5 votes
YA Other - 36 entries: 9 votes
MG/NA - 12 entries: 3 votes

I know some of you may not be happy with this, but as I've said before, there is no perfect way. All I can say is I've tried to do it as fair as possible.

Back to the rules...

-The judges will leave feedback and place votes under their SECRET NAMES from Monday until Thursday and the winners will be announced no later than Friday:)

Here are the secret judges assigned to each blog:
Adult: Rose Cardinal, Slave to the Muse, Kinderella, Manchee
YA Contemporary: Writerlicious, Indigo, Jammy Dodgers, Marlowe
YA Other: Mystery Science Theater Geek, Lone Star, Escape Artist, Honey Badger
NA/MG: Goldilocks, The Purple Pixie, Saphira, I'm Just Sayin'

-Others are welcome to leave feedback on your entries as well.

-Your entries will be anonymous, but you're welcome to spill the beans about who you are if you want.

-If you did your math above you will see there will be 25 finalists going on to the final Small Press - Editor Round.

Good luck to all those in the mix!!!

6 comments:

K. L. Hallam said...

Thanks Deana! You tireless elf, thank you so very much for giving writers this opportunity. And to the blog hosts--wonderful! Wonderful!!

Carrie Butler said...

*Rolls up sleeves* I'm ready to read some fabulous entries!

Unknown said...

Thanks for this again, Deana. You are a superstar.

Aightball said...

Tired brain is confused =). Does each judge get to vote? Or just one judge and they all get together and decide on their eight votes (for the adult, for instance)?

Deana said...

Kel- Each judge gets a certain number of votes for the group they're assigned. So, the adult judges will each get 8 votes for a total of 32 votes. The 8 entries with the most votes will move on to the finalist round. If there are ties that need to be broken, a judge from another group will come and help with that:)

Aightball said...

Deana> Thank you =). I thought that's how it worked, but I was so tired that night I wanted to be sure. Thanks for responding (will try to be more awake next time I am on the blog =)...)