Judi Lauren

YA Author

Pitch Wars 2017: Behind the Scenes and Stats

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For those of you who follow me here or on Twitter, you may have noticed me talking about Pitch Wars. A few times. For more info on this amazing contest, check it out here.

Curious about what I saw in my inbox?

I received 102 (!!!) submissions. I said it was 101 on Twitter, but that’s because I’m an English major, not a math major. Also, I thought about creating a graph, but eh. I’m too busy reading. Those submissions broke down into 10 categories:

Contemporary: 36

Fantasy (includes contemporary fantasy and urban fantasy): 35

Mystery/Thriller: 13

Sci-fi: 7

Paranormal/Supernatural: 4

Horror: 3

Magical Realism: 1

Speculative Fiction: 1

Dystopian: 1

Comedy: 1

Of those, my requests so far are:

Fantasy: 3

Contemporary: 2

Mystery/Thriller: 2

Sci-fi: 1

Magical Realism: 1

Horror: 1

If you haven’t gotten a request from me (yet):

More full requests may go out, it all depends. Some of them in the maybe folder were really, really strong.

There are submissions in my not for me folder. Some of these submissions I see mentors talking about as being some of their top contenders. I wish all 102 of you would get picked for the contest, but there’s a lot of competition. It’s way harder having to choose than I thought it would be.

If I requested a full from you:

So far I’ve requested 10 fulls. I can’t take all of you onto the agent round. Mainly because other mentors and Brenda won’t let me. If I requested a full from you and you don’t make it into the contest, I will be giving you some kind of feedback. Some may be general, others may be edit letters. Since there are 10 of you, it could take a while, but it will happen.

Curious about the mentor whose name was the most commonly one listed on the subs with me?

I had the most subs with Samantha Joyce at 17. Next closest were Kelly Hopkins, Cat Scully, and Erin Foster Hartley–all three had 10 subs each with me. They must have amazing taste.

To everyone who submitted: You guys are amazing. There are fantastic entries this year. Mentors are talking behind the scenes about how hard it is to pick only one. Pitch Wars is a huge endeavor. It’s a lot of work, even if you don’t get picked. I hope you guys remember that this isn’t the only avenue to publishing. No matter what, I urge you guys not to give up.

Remember: your words matter, and I’m so thankful you chose me to share them with.

2017 PitchWars Wishlist (Give Me All Your YA! Again.)

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About me (Why you should pick me):

Let me start by saying I’m a huge fan of eighties music. If you become my mentee, I will most likely discuss the great artists with you. And maybe force you to listen to a song or two. One of my life goals is to get hugs from Neil Patrick Harris and Wentworth Miller. I’m a huge fan of Friends (Chandler is the best), Supernatural (Dean! Also, I wouldn’t mind seeing a YA book like this show), Christmas music, bookstores, all things Paris, road trips, and long walks on the beach (not really, but it makes for a nice ending).

Now that my infomercial stuff is out of the way…I interned at Entangled Publishing for a while before becoming Lydia Sharp’s editorial assistant. Which means I get to spend my days reading and eating bon-bons, right? I’ve worked with a lot of YA for Entangled, as well as for separate clients. I was a mentor in Nightmare on Query Street (of 2015) where I went over the query/first 250 for both mentees. Both signed with agents shortly after the contest. They were that awesome. I had three mentees in Pitch Wars last year and so far one of them (Lindsey Frydman) has since signed with an agent, and I have total faith my other two will sign as well. I also mentored in a contest in early 2016, where my chosen mentee ended up with several requests through the contest. He signed with an agent just a week later. Because he’s awesome, he kindly had this to say about his experience working with me:

“No matter how many times you look over your own manuscript, there are going to be areas of need you don’t see.  Judi was amazing at seeing where I needed to develop on big picture area (character development, theme), the craft of my words (I think she had ‘show, don’t tell’ pasted on repeat) to mechanics of the English language I was embarrassed to have misused (tenses…wow).  My manuscript wouldn’t be what it is today without her help.  She pushed me and that is exactly what you want in a mentor.  Besides that…Judi is a fan.  If she is your mentor, she is a fan of your work and a fan of you.  It’s a pretty great feeling to have someone like that in your corner. This isn’t something she does on the side, writing finds its way into every facet of her life.  If you are lucky enough to be partnered with Judi, your manuscript and writing in general will flourish.”

-Adam Schmitt (represented by Marcy Posner)

If you need more than that, Lindsey, one of my 2016 PitchWars mentees had this to say about me: (I didn’t even have to bribe her for this)

“Cliche as it may sound, Judi was the best mentor any mentee could ever ask for! She went above and beyond, reading my manuscript 4 times, and helping to edit my query more times than I can count. Even after Pitch Wars was officially over, she was still there for me. She helped me brainstorm, cheered me on endlessly, and was always around when I felt like giving up. She upheld her promises of what to expect from her as my mentor – including my favorite line: “Basically when the picks are announced, you may meet your new best friend.” (Which she now is!) Judi’s big-picture edits were fantastic, pointing out all the things my story was missing. When it came to line-editing, she was stellar with those as well! “How does he feeeeel?” became a consistent note, showing me the areas where more emotions were needed. I could go on and on about all the amazing things she did to help turn my story into the best it could be, but the bottom line is this: Judi is an amazing editor and exactly the kind of person you want in your writing corner. I’m immensely grateful to have had the opportunity to work with her. Without her help, I would have given up on my story, and it would never have found me an agent. <3″

-Lindsey Frydman (represented by Naomi Davis)

If that doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what will. So let’s move on to the good part.

What I’m looking for:

I’m a YA mentor this year, so I can only accept YA manuscripts. Please don’t waste one of your mentor picks on me if you’re subbing anything other than YA. If you need submission guidelines for this year’s Pitch Wars, you can find them here.

Contemporary—I love dark, angsty stories. I love mystery and thriller and romance (your book doesn’t have to have romance for me to pick you.) I love realistic contemporaries that show the gritty side of life. I don’t shy away from abuse/assault stories, as long as the crimes are shown as being wrong.  I’m very up for dark subject matter: kidnappings, trafficking, death, abuse, torture, runaways, etc. I sound like a sadist, but send it to me!

Fantasy—I’d really like to see more dark fantasy in my inbox this year. For fantasy, I want pretty much the same as contemporary (especially the dark subject matter). My favorite fantasy books are ones that are very character driven, like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. Epic fantasies are not right for me.

Low sci-fi—same thing as fantasy (with dark subject matter). I love, love stories that are character driven, so give me characters I will fall in love with. Think I Am Number Four.

Horror—I love character driven horror as well. Very high stakes, and have-to-flip-the-page urgency. Nothing’s really too dark for me.

Basically, I’m very open to a lot of things. I’m open to characters with disabilities, LGBTQ themes, characters of different races, etc. AND if you have a book that’s dark, but also humorous, I’m more than up for that, as long as I can fall in love with the voice. The book that made me choose to mentor Adam Schmitt centered around death, with a voice that was humorous, poignant, and impossible to walk away from.

Voice is very important to me. I’m sure you guys have seen that a lot, but it’s true. I have to connect with the voice of the story, and to me that (and characters I love) is more important than anything. We can fix dialogue and pacing and weird plot holes big enough for someone to fall through, but voice and characters are really important to me. I love to see characters survive something horrible/terrifying and how they deal with the aftermath.

I’m a fan of layered characters that have to make difficult choices but have the voice that’ll make a reader still love them. I love strong characters who pop off the page and leave me wanting to read more into their lives, even after the book is over. I am definitely fine with language, sex, and violence, but your characters don’t have to do all these things to make me love them. My list of favorite books below were 85% chosen because I love the characters in them.

I love stories set in big cities like New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Chicago, L.A., etc. If it’s set in a small town, I like it to feel like a small town. I like road trip stories and circus/carnival stories, but I also like books that don’t focus on travel. I told you guys I was open for a lot of things.

What I won’t read:

So this will be a short list.

Don’t send me a book where a little boy dies. Last year I said if the book opened and he was already dead, that was okay, but I’m changing that this year. No dead little boys at all. If he’s older than like 13 and dies, that’s fine. Younger than 13 and he dies, I don’t want to see that. I’m fine to see them hurt or in peril, but if he dies, you’ve lost me.

I’m not the best for epic fantasies and/or books that revolve heavily on sports. If your character is part of a sports team, but it’s not the main focus of the story, I’m up for that. If it’s a big part of his/her life but not THE biggest part, I’m up for that too. Think the characters of One Tree Hill.

I may also not be the best choice for historicals, unless they’re very character-driven. I will take books based in the 60s-early 2000s.

Lastly, nothing with a preaching message. I don’t read to be taught some kind of lesson, so please don’t submit books like that to me. This includes books that are based on any type of religion (if your character is religious, that’s fine, but I don’t want a book where that’s the sole focus.) This also includes books based on the political climate. IF you have a book based in the political world (for example: two senator’s kids with a forbidden love) that’s totally fine.

And that’s it! Told you the list would be way shorter.

What to expect of me as a mentor:

Other than my awesome emails at two in the morning? If I choose you, I’ll do at least one pass through your manuscript and query letter. This includes line edits as well as a letter of big picture edits I feel need to be addressed. We’ll do a second pass if we have the time (I did it for all my mentees in the past). I’ll help you brainstorm. I’ll cheer you on. I’ll be around when you feel like giving up. I’ll be there for you long after the agent round is over. Basically when the picks are announced, you may meet your next best friend. (It happened with one of my 2016 mentees, Lindsey!)

Favorite books (in no order):

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz (I would LOVE a submission like this)

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson (Would also LOVE a submission like this)

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley by Shaun David Hutchinson

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

You Don’t Know Me by David Klass

Nothing to Lose by Alex Flinn

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

Last Night I Sang to the Monster by Benjamin Alire Saenz

The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

To name a few. But if you don’t see anything similar to what you write on here, don’t fret. I have about two hundred other books I don’t have room to list and I never know how much I’ll love something until I actually read it.

I’m going to try to offer some type of feedback to those who submit to me. It may not be detailed, and depending on the number of subs I receive, it may not be feasible, but I will try my hardest. If I request a full MS from you, and don’t end up choosing you, then I will offer feedback definitely on it. *If I request a manuscript from you, I will be asking for a synopsis too so please have those handy!

Check out the other YA mentors below, and the total list of PitchWars mentors here. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment on this post or find me on Twitter @judi__lauren and I’ll give you an answer. Sending your work out takes a lot of guts for every one of you, whether you submit to us in PitchWars, or find another path. Good luck to all submitting!

 

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Writing Around Unsupportive People

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Writing is hard. Chuck from Supernatural learned it the hard way—the same way every writer learns it. Those who say writing and getting an agent and/or book published is easy are just kidding themselves. Fortunately, the writing community is full of people who’re willing to be critique partners, beta readers, or just plain friends as we all take our different paths in publishing.

They’re all pretty awesome. But some people aren’t.

I’m talking about people in your life—maybe even other writers—who don’t support your dream or don’t believe in you.

I had people like that in my life. Fortunately, they’re not in it anymore. The truth is, I don’t know why some people are like that. I’m not sure why some people have to spend their time putting others down.

But I have countless writer friends whose mom/dad/stepparent/spouse/sibling/best friend doesn’t believe in them. Sometimes it’s not just one person, but a whole bunch of people.

Being around unsupportive people can not only wear you down, but can also have a negative effect on your writing. It’s so, so easy to allow what others think to have an impact on everything you do. You’re not alone; everyone does it.

So how do you keep writing despite unsupportive people in your life?

I started by talking less to these people and spending more time with those who were supportive and encouraging. My relationships with the ones who weren’t eventually just sort of fell apart.

If it’s anyone—other than a spouse obviously—on the list above, try cutting back on the time you spend with them. A lot of writers credit someone who didn’t believe in them as a catalyst that pushed them to go for a dream. I’ve been there too. What can I say? I’m pretty competitive and don’t like to be told I can’t do something.

But even those who’re very determined that they’re going to achieve their dreams can be worn down over time by negative people. Think of the sea pounding away at rocks for years. Eventually, the ocean is going to win because the rocks can’t go anywhere. Can do nothing but take the brunt of the ocean.

It can be hard to cut back on the time you spend with people who’re unsupportive of you—especially if they’re friends you’ve known a long time, or relatives. But if your dream is to be an author, then you owe it to yourself and your writing to surround yourself with people who believe in you and want your dream to come true. If you don’t want to walk away or cut back, then try to surround yourself with more positive people than negative ones. Find a balance so the negativity isn’t all you hear.

No one can make your dream come true for you. No one will put in the time, effort, and heart you will to achieve what you want—not even your supportive people. If you don’t do it, your dream’s not going to come true.

So if you’re reading this, I’m someone who supports you. I don’t have to know what your dream is to believe in you, to know that you’re someone with amazing ideas inside of you just waiting to be words on paper. And I can’t wait to see what you do with them.

Don’t forget, I’m running a sale on partial and full manuscript edits right now. Check them out here.

Should You Split from Your Critique Partner?

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One of the best things you can do for your writing–ever–is find some solid critique partners. I’ve had quite a few over the years, and I’ve found some really solid ones. I’ve also had to walk away from a few. Not because I didn’t like them, but because we weren’t a good fit.

There’s nothing wrong with walking away from a critique partner. There are a lot of writers that won’t do it because they don’t want to hurt their CP’s feelings. That’s a legitimate worry. But if you want to be published, you need to treat writing like a job. You need to surround yourself with people who will help you. And you need to be willing to do the same for them.

Your critique partner should fit you. The best CPs I have are ones where I clicked really well with their personalities. I think that’s why so many writers have a hard time finding solid CPs. They don’t get along with the person behind the writing. And that’s okay. You don’t have to be their best friend, but there needs to be a certain level of respect and understanding between the two of you.

Your critique partner should be understanding of your time.There have been days where I’ve told my critique partners that I’m going to need extra time on something of theirs because my schedule just got too busy. There have been times when one of my CPs has said the same thing to me and it’s cool–we get it.

But if they’re constantly missing deadlines they set to get your stuff back to you, or they’re taking months (and months) they may not be a good fit for you. It’s important to have someone who cares about your writing and your writing journey, and you need to be returning the favor. If you can’t meet deadlines and you can’t seem to help them ever, don’t be surprised if they’re the ones who take a step back.

Your critique partner should be offering constructive criticism. I once had a CP who called my writing/characters stupid. And we didn’t last long. Do not stay with a critique partner who talks down to you. I’m going to say that again just because I feel like it bears repeating.

The writing community can be a pretty amazing place. I’ve met writers, like my longest-running CP Amy, who’ve become my friends. We talk about rejections, plot holes, and we brainstorm together. One of my favorite things about knowing my CPs is getting to celebrate with them when something great happens. In the last six months, two of my CPs have signed with agents, and I got to celebrate with them.

But you’re also going to meet people in the writing community who aren’t so amazing. There are going to be writers who tear you down for nothing. If you have a CP and he or she is just ugly about your writing, or about you, there’s a very good chance that relationship needs to end.

There’s a difference between offering constructive criticism and just being a jerk. I once got an email about edits from a CP on a book that was really close to my heart. She pointed out everything wrong with it, and it was kind of like “Ouch!” But she was right. And more importantly, she pointed out the problems in the kindest way possible. Honesty and kindness are two of the most important traits you can find in a critique partner.

I’ve had writers tell me they’re worried about dropping a CP that’s not working because they think they won’t find another one. Don’t do that. A bad critique partner is worse than not having one at all. Your writing is important, and it deserves a critique partner that’s going to help you nurture it. Reach out to writers. Some won’t work out and some will tell you no, but others are going to be the best critique partners you’ll ever have.

Don’t forget, I’m running a sale on partial and full manuscript edits right now. Check them out here.

 

Writing Query Letters: Conflict

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I’ve had a few writers talk to me this week about conflict and how important it is in a query letter. Conflict is one of my favorite things about editing. I love working with writers to make their conflicts stronger–ultimately making their characters stronger.

So what is conflict?

Conflict is what is keeping your character from his or her goal.

Let’s go back to The Princess Bride, because it’s such a good example. And because I just really like talking about it. Westley’s goal is to rescue Buttercup from Vizzini, and then again to rescue her from Prince Humperdinck. His conflict is everything he has to overcome on his journey to rescue her: The Cliffs of Insanity, dueling with Inigo, fighting Fezzik. And after he rescues her from them, he has to get her from Humperdinck. Conflict: Torture and being “mostly dead.”

Those are big, not-so-subtle conflicts. So let’s talk about subtle conflicts for a minute. The kind of conflict that may not be obvious from the back cover blurb, or even from the beginning of the book. Like The Perks of Being a Wallflower. *Pause for a moment of love*

Charlie’s goal in the book is to get through high school. He talks in the opening of the book in a countdown to how many days he has left to get out of there. He also wants to make friends and fit in. His conflict may not be all that obvious to some: He’s introverted. He’s shy and awkward. He’s also in a world of pain, which it seems like he doesn’t realize this until much later in the story, but we as readers see it. His conflict is very internal and quiet, and it works in that story.

You must have conflict. There’s really no doubt about it. But your conflict doesn’t have to be giants or torture or being “mostly dead.” But you must always have something to hold your character back from his or her goal. And it must be conveyed in the query letter.

Let’s talk to that friend again and say they should read/watch The Perks of Being a Wallflower. You mention Charlie’s goal of surviving high school and it’s like “So what? Ninety-nine percent of teenagers are just trying to survive high school. What’s different about this joker?”

Then you explain his conflict. His shyness and awkward moments and grief from his aunt who passed away and his friend who committed suicide. Now we care. Now we know what it is he’s having to overcome to reach that goal. Remember that conflict can also make your readers care about your characters even more. Make the conflict big for your character, and it will be big for your reader.

If you’re having trouble with your query letter, I’m running a sale on partial manuscript edits right now. Check them out here.