As promised, I’m posting the rules for THE SEASON PITCH CONTEST. But before I do, I have to tell you how hard my editor at Kensington, Peter Senftleben, and my agent, Kevan Lyon (the Lyon in the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency), work. Theirs is far from a 8 hour a day job. They work most weekends and too many nights. So the fact that they have offered their precious time to judge this contest for me tells you how absolutely FABULOUS they are. Thank you Peter and Kevan. You are the best!

Now onto the rules. I’m listing them in order of importance, so please take note.

1. Accepting only pitches for novel length manuscripts that are complete. And I mean complete as in polished and ready to go within a week of any possible requests.

2. The winner or winners will receive a critique of the first 25 pages of your manuscript. If Kevan and Peter pick the same manuscript as the winner, then the winner will receive a critique from both.

3. The pitches will be posted on this blog in the comment section on November 30th. Posting will be open at 7:00 EST am (for active forum members, it will open 6:00 am).  The max number of pitches being accepted is 200 or 6:00 EST pm, which ever comes first.

4. The top 10 pitches will be chosen by both Kevan and Peter. The finalists will be asked to furnish the first 3 pages of their manuscript and proof that the manuscript is complete. There is no wiggle room here. The manuscript MUST BE COMPLETE. If you cannot furnish proof of a complete novel length manuscript, you will be disqualified.

5. The pitch cannot be more than 150 words in length. Again, there will be no wiggle room on this word count. Your pitch will be disqualified if it goes over. Also, please include title and genre. (added 11/3)

6. Only one pitch per person. If it’s discovered that you entered two using different names, you will be automatically disqualified. The only exception is that if we are shy of 100 entries by 6:00 pm, you will be eligible to post another pitch until 100 pitches are met.

7. The winner will be asked to furnish the first 25 pages of their manuscipt  or 5000 words, whichever comes first. Please end at the end of a chapter. There is some wiggle room in page and word count in order to achieve this.

8. I’ve linked Peter and Kevan’s name to their respective websites where they list the genres they are accepting. Please check to make sure they are acquiring your genre or sub-genre.

9. This contest is for unpublished authors and by unpublished I mean has never been published by a traditional print publisher. If you have been published by an e-publisher and your book has a print edition, you are still eligible to enter.

10. The finalists will be notified the week of November 30th. The winner will be announced December 7th.

If you have any additional questions regarding this contest, you can either leave a comment or email me at historicals at historicalromancereleases.com. Now it’s time to get moving on finishing, revising or polishing that manuscript. You have a month.

Bev