The Seventh Inning Stretch

The "Pitch it to us" has closed. As of five hours ago really. So we will now deliberate and pronounce the winner on Monday!! Good luck to all those who entered. You are brave and wise. To have a professional editor look over and coach you on pitching is not something you get everyday and you have seen the value in sharing your work. Kudos to you!! The pitches are great and we are going to have a tough time picking a favorite, but we will find a way. If Steven Tyler and J-Lo can pick winners then we can too!

Stay tuned and enjoy the weekend posts while we deliberate.

Time to get in the Game

I have a feeling that many of you fabulous friends are in the warm up area perfecting your pitching. Just remember that you have until 5 pm on Thursday to get in the game!

Go HERE to throw us a fast ball, curve ball, or cotton ball. We look forward to them all.
It is so fun to see what everyone is working on. For those who may fear too much exposure for your story, I just want to say, 'fear not' this elevator pitch should be the line you give everyone who asks what you're writing.

Here is a little scenario:
Let's say two fabulous aspiring authors are at a conference. Writer 1 (aka Bard) and Writer 2 (aka Mouse) run smack into a New York editor (aka Thor). Thor benevolently grants them each 20 seconds of his precious time to tell him what they are working on.

Mouse: "Squee! I'm working on a history of spark plugs. (Forgets to mention that in the story the spark plugs have become self actualized and taken over the planet.)
Thor: So it's non-fiction how nice.

Bard: "In my YA urban fantasy, Cassie is kidnapped by demonic zombie nuns and imprisoned in the catacombs of Rome."
Thor: "I've been looking for a good zombie nun story. Go ahead and send it over and put the conference in the subject line."

Practice makes perfect. Go ahead and Pitch it to us!

Contest: Pitch it to us!

We are all gearing up for our pitch sessions at LDS Storymakers and wanted to share the fun with our writer friends. So we here at INKING CAP are holding our 1st ever contest!!

Step up to the Pitching mound and throw us a fast ball. The Inkers want to hear your best elevator pitch. The more the merrier so don't be shy, send this contest to all of your friends. It's a great way to prepare for a meeting with an agent or editor or future queries.

The contest goes something like this:
Step 1: Become a follower.
Step 2: In the comments leave your elevator pitch (30 seconds or less to read out loud. For tips on writing a good pitch check out Kristen Nelson's workshop.)
Step 3: The Inkers will review all of the pitches and pick our favorite 3.

1st Place
An exclusive, highly coveted invitation to attend our April writer's group meeting (tentatively planned for April 26th. Lots of treats involved). You will get to practice your full pitch with all of us, including Sir-Kirk-a-lot!(He's a Senior Editor in case you didn't know. We have 3 professionals in the fields of publishing, PR, and writing and 3 genius critiquers in our group, for those who don't know us personally.) If you live out of state or too far away to join us, we will work out a conference call or google video feed. Ask Inker Arlene from Reno how well that works out. (She's still with us after 2 1/2 years.)
Also if you choose, we will review your first 10 pages. (Not all Inkers may be available for critiquing and feedback depending on scheduling, but we will give you at least 3 reviews.)

2nd Place
You win a review of your first 5 pages. (If we pick your pitch, then it must be a story we want to know more about so we'll critique it and give you our best feedback.)

3rd Place
Wins a first page review and critique.


It's all for fun. You have until 5:00 PM on Thursday, March 31,2011 (MST)to submit your pitch and get in the running.


Winners will be announced on Monday, April 4th!!