What PitchWars is:
PitchWars is a mentoring program where published/agented authors, editors, or industry interns choose one writer each to spend three months revising their manuscript. It ends in February with an Agent Showcase, where agents can read a pitch/first page and can request to read more.
Who I am:
I’m Rebecca Enzor, an analytical chemist and fantasy author from Charleston, SC, and this year I’m mentoring Adult (and NA) SFF. I’m a huge fan of mermaids <3 I’m also a fan of science, and went to school for fisheries biology. I took these two loves and turned them into a book called SPEAK THE OCEAN, which is basically a mashup of BLACKFISH and THE LITTLE MERMAID. Mermaids at Sea World. It’s full of sciencey goodness, but also a good ol’ heaping of fantasy, which explains the things I love most pretty well. I’m also part of the PUTTING THE SCIENCE IN FICTION anthology by former PitchWars mentor Dan Koboldt, which means I can help you get your science right (or your pseudo-science right-ish, because I love making up pseudo-science).
What I’m looking for:
My favorite is low fantasy, bordering on magical realism. If you have just one magical element in an otherwise normal world, I’m your girl (like I said, I like science, so realistic fantasy is my jam). I also like the feel of big, epic stories (THE LIGHT BEARER by Donna Gillespie is my favorite book and does this so well. FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK is another example). Low fantasy + epic stories = definitely send it to me!
I love historical fantasy, because it takes the real and adds magic/mythology (for instance: FROM UNSEEN FIRE by Cass Morris). Same with contemporary fantasy or paranormal fantasy (although I’m not your gal for vampires/werewolves/angels/zombies – see below).
I love dark fantasy and light fantasy and humorous fantasy. If you have an anti-heroine like Lada from AND I DARKEN? Send her to me! If you have something that’ll make me feel light and fuzzy like a fantasy version of WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI? Send it to me! If you have something that’ll make me laugh out loud like KILL THE FARM BOY? Please send it to me! The same goes for Sci-fi. Funny Sci-Fi is the best. (MECHANICAL FAILURE by Joe Zieja is my favorite funny sci-fi)
For Sci-Fi I’m looking for all the pseudo-science! It needs to make sense, but if you can come up with something that doesn’t obviously break the universe, send it to me. The more character-centered the better (think A LONG WAY TO A SMALL, ANGRY PLANET, SEVENEVES, or THE BOBIVERSE trilogy). I love to read hard sci-fi, but I’m no astrophysicist, so if you don’t know the numbers for re-entry to the atmosphere, neither do I. If your book is about nuclear or analytical chemistry, though? I KNOW THOSE NUMBERS. Send it 😊
If your book is a combo of science AND mythology/magic? I WANT THAT.
NO, REALLY. Last year I chose Dan Rowinski’s MUSE AI because it mashed up Greek Mythology with artificial intelligence. Not only is it a super fantastic book, but I learned a whole bunch about quantum computers, and even some mythology that I didn’t already know.
Also, I want all the sexy books. Send me all the shower scenes and non-fade-to-black…and also all the fade-to-black because that’s good too. Make me swoon or need to fan my face and I will love it.
In that vein: please please please send me all the LGBTQIA+ SFF! I’m a bi-mer-alicorn and I am here for the stories about anyone kissing anyone.
I’m also here for the stories of no one kissing no one, so if your story focuses on friendships or family relationships without any sexy times, please send it to me.
Honestly, I like verbal arguments best. If you have lots of that, send it to me! And crying. If your book makes me cry, I’ll love it (happy cry, sad cry, doesn’t matter).
I will accept NA – but I will ask you to age it up to adult. There’s no market for NA SFF (trust me, StO was NA that I had to age up to adult too).
What I’m NOT looking for:
Angels, angels, angels. I have some give on vampires and werewolves and zombies (very little, but it’s there), but I’m not going to read an angel story. Not my thing.
In the same vein, I don’t need anything “inspirational”. I’m not religious, and I won’t be able to help you with overtly religious stories. (Mythology is different from religion)
Anything-Punk. Steam-punk. Cyber-punk. Gaslight-punk. I haven’t read enough of it to help you. Save your stories for a mentor who will be helpful.
Urban fantasy. I’m not really into the whole “cop is a demon hunter at night” thing.
Military SFF. I love reading it, but I don’t know anything about the military.
Horror: OMG DO NOT SEND ME HORROR. I have an over-active imagination as it is. I don’t need nightmares.
Don’t send me on-page rape. Backstory is ok, off-screen is ok. I don’t need to live it through your character (and if I’m not living through your character then I’m not the right person for your submission).
In that vein: no sex robots. I want all my sex to be consensual between two humans (or humanoids) only. Don’t care if the robot is artificially intelligent and discovering what emotions are, I don’t want it.
Any sort of mutilation of nipples. I don’t care whose nipples they are, I don’t want to read this. I don’t even care if it’s consensual nipple mutilation. Don’t send it to me. Ow. (Nipples that have been pierced are fine, so long as I don’t have to read about the act of getting them pierced)
Literary highbrow anything. I like characters and plot and don’t really care much about pretty sentences. I definitely can’t help you with a literary novel.
Friend’s books – if I’ve read for you before or I know you well already, please don’t sub to me. I’ll CP your book anyways! (If I’ve read for you as part of a fundraiser auction, feel free to sub to me though, as I haven’t read enough of your book for it to count)
Communication/Mentoring Style:
If you have gchat/hangouts we can talk as much as you want. *I don’t do phone calls unless it’s important* I don’t have cell service in the lab, so phone calls will have to be scheduled.
As a mentor I won’t be cruel, but I will be honest. If you want someone to tell you that you’re the best, bye.
I don’t pull punches on my critiques. I will tell you what I think is wrong. I will also tell you how I would change it, or how I’ve seen others do the same thing. It’s up to you to decide if I’m wrong. If you decide I’m wrong, we’ll go forward with your vision. It’s your book, not mine.
My strengths for editing are structure, linearity (if your character’s drinking tea on one page and coffee on the next, I promise I’ll notice it), characterization, and dialogue. If I work with you, we’re going to be making major changes, not just changing a word here or there to make a sentence sound nice. Honestly, if your book just needs a few words changed, you should probably be querying instead of joining PitchWars.
Oh, and I love synopses, so we’ll definitely polish yours to a shine! I’m also going to ask for one if I’m interested in your book, so make sure you have one ready (even if it’s bad, that’s fine, that’s what I’m here for).
If you have any questions, hit me up on Twitter or the Forum.
I can’t wait to see what you send me!
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Hey Rebecca! You mentioned that you love low fantasy epics, but how do you feel about high fantasy epics? Because the manuscript I’m hoping to submit this year definitely borders more on the high end, haha.
And on that note, what are your thoughts on monster manuscripts? (Mine’s about 200k) Would a manuscript of that length just be a straight no for you, given the time constraints of Pitch Wars? I realize such a hefty word count can be intimidating for betas, editors, and publishers alike and – in my case, at least – I’d be willing to take a chainsaw to the thing if need be. I’m just wondering if I’ll be able to get to the point where someone tells me where to USE said chainsaw given my manuscript’s current length.
Thanks!
I love high fantasy, but that word count would be too much for the time constraints of PW. I plan to do two rounds of edits with my mentee, and there’s no way I could read a 200k book with an editorial eye fast enough to do that twice in the time allotted.
My advice for cutting down the manuscript is to go through scene by scene, and write down what that scene is accomplishing for the character arc. You may find that you can combine some scenes, or that some of them don’t do anything to contribute and need to be cut. A beat sheet might help with this, so you can see which side plots might not be necessary. If all else fails, you can always cut it in half and make it two books instead of one 🙂
Got it, good to know! And thanks for the advice. I’ll definitely give the scene-by-scene breakdown thing a try in my next draft!
Hi Rebecca, I was going through your wishlist and getting more and more excited because of how well it mashes up with my novel, but then I got to the “no urban fantasy” part. Maybe I’m just in stubborn denial, but I wanted to double check before I write you off (so to speak) as a mentor, because so many other elements seem like a good fit. Mine is a genre mash-up where a witch (based on modern NeoPaganism) goes back to a small home town and gets caught up in a murder mystery in the local Pagan community. There’s a steamy romance arc and the focus is strongly on personal development, healing, intentional family, and finding your magic. It’s not “gritty” like urban fantasy, and the magical elements are subtle, but would the prominent detective/mystery arc be a turnoff for you?
If you can find another mentor who fits, I would send it to them, if only because I don’t know the genre well enough to be as helpful as they could be. But if you can’t find another fit and it has a lot of my other elements, I’m happy to look at it 🙂
Hi Rebecca! I’m hoping to pitch an urban sci-fi (soft sci-fi) with a strong romance subplot and some suspense elements. It is clocking in at 160k right now, and I’m really wanting to pare it down, but I’m wondering if that’s a hard no or a potential maybe if I could sell you on the characters?
Thanks!
-T.D.
If I like the characters I’ll have an easier time getting through the wordcount in time. And if you’re book is that big, definitely have a two-page synopsis ready to go, because I’ll ask for it to see if there’s anything big I can spot in the synopsis to help me get an idea of the character arc overall.
Awesome, thank you for the helpful response! 🙂
Awesome! Thank you, super helpful! I’ll do that. (unsure if my other comment went through, so sorry if this is a repeat reply)