#pg70pit has not yet been announced for 2018. It will not happen in July as that interferes with my first MFA residency. Subscribe to be notified when it will be back!

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In 2017, I’m hosting the third annual pg70pit, a totally unique type of contest and pitching opportunity for writers with complete, polished novels (Middle Grade, YA, or NA/Adult) in any genre except erotica. #70pit17 is this year’s hashtag. Enter on JUNE 7, 2017. The lottery winners and Twinners will be announced on the 17th of June, and the top 7 entries of each category will enter the agent round on July 7, 2017. See what else is new this year.

Dates

You may only enter one manuscript per age category, and it must be polished and ready to send to agents that would request the full.

What makes 70-pit different?

No query, no 35-word pitch, no first page.

Age categories are submitted with different forms and will be given equal attention.

Entries will be chosen by lottery AND by Twitter Pitch popularity (see below for details!)

Why 70?

Have you ever heard of the McLuhan Test? (Go ahead, read the article. It’s only 250 words.)

It’s also called the “Page 69 Test,” and after learning about it, it’s now how I choose whether or not I’ll purchase a book. The sixty-ninth page is far enough in that things should really be happening, and it can be a better snapshot of the entire book’s style than the first page.

70pit takes this idea but removes the connotations with the number 69.

Besides, in manuscript formatting, page 69 will be your document’s page 70, since your first page is the title page.

Submission Requirements

YOU HAVE 24 HOURS TO ENTER.

The submission form—just one this year!—will go live at LaraWillard.com/blog at 7:00 a.m. EST on June 7, 2017, and will be removed at 7:00 a.m. June 8th, 2017

You’ll enter via online form on my blog. Be sure to follow my blog so you don’t miss it! (Sign up in the right sidebar of my blog on desktop devices, or scroll below this post in mobile devices.)

See How to Submit for submission details and answers to the FAQ.

Note: this is a family-friendly blog, and any NSFW language will be replaced with the first letter and a dash (like this: “f—”). People will still know what you mean, and my blog won’t be flagged as inappropriate.

Lottery

70 submissions from each age category will be selected at random to be considered in the contest. I will use a random number generator to select the entries. Lottery winners will be announced on June 17th on my blog.

Twitter Contest

At any time on June 7th, and only once, tweet out your 7-word description with both the hashtag #pg70pit* and the hashtag of your age category: #A #YA or #MG. Pin it to your profile, too!

*Use the year-specific hashtag #70pit17 for all other tweets about the contest

Twinners

Seven “Twinners” from each age category will gain entry into the contest in addition to the 70 lottery winners.

The 7 Twinners from each age category will bypass the lottery and be judged alongside the lottery winners. Twinners will be announced June 17th on my blog.

Learn how to enter and be eligible for the Twitter contest.

Agent Round

The SEVEN top entries from each category will be posted on 7/7 at larawillard.com. Agents can peruse the entries and make requests for queries, partials, fulls, the encompassing chapter—whatever they’d like. There is no time limit for requests. After the 14th, if any more requests come in, I will email the authors to notify them of their requests.

In June, I’ll start listing the participating agencies!

Results

In our first year, we had 79 MG entries, 236 YA entries, and 198 Adult Entries.

We chose 14 winners from each category for a total of 42.

Agents requested 60 times.

Any questions?

Find me on Twitter (@larathelark, @laraedits) and use the hashtag #70pit17