GUTGAA Pitch Contest Round One!

Welcome to the first round of the Gearing Up To Get An Agent Pitch contest! If you have no clue what GUTGAA is, go here. 

Everyone up to speed? Good.

This week I have the honor of hosting 39 GUTGAA First Round Entries in the genres of YA Steampunk, YA Adventure, YA Sci-Fi, YA Paranormal, and YA Dystopian--all of which are posted in their own little posts below this post, and can be browsed in the sidebar, as well. There are 205 total entries over 5 host blogs—SURPRISE! Deana let in 5 extras. ('Cause she's awesome like that.)

From now until Thursday, please comment on the entries and try to imagine which of these 39 entries would be in your personal top ten. Fiction is entirely subjective, so your top ten might not be in the actual top ten--which will go on to be among the fifty finalists presented to the agents next week--but if you love them, tell them! You can also make any constructive comments, but keep it nice! If you hate an entry and don't know how to fix it, keep it to yourself: troll comments will be deleted.

If your own entry is here, please comment on as many as you can, and let's all make sure everyone gets plenty of constructive comments. If you can't catch all 39, skip around and see which don't have as many comments. We all know how frustrating it is when we can't tell whether our entry needs work . . . or is just being overlooked.

While you're commenting, watch for these Covert Judges, who will be judging the entries on this blog and each selecting their Top Ten:

Miss Mary Mac

Missus Braidyhead

Beezer
Hopey

[Update 1: sorry, everyone, but I missed a last-minute judge change. Lumpy Space Princess is now judging elsewhere, but we're thrilled to have Hopey!]

If your entry is on my blog and if one of these awesome judges says "You've got my vote!" feel free to celebrate--but wait! Only ten entries will move on, so there is the very real chance that the judges will each vote for a different Top 10 and will have to call in another judge to break some ties. When the dust settles, there will be an official announcement on who made the top ten here, and the top fifty overall. Be patient and keep in mind that this is super-subjective. Lets all be professional while we gnaw our fingernails to bloody stumps, k?

You're welcome to check out the list of judges here and try to guess the real identities of our Covert Judges, but they won't be unmasked until they're done judging. (Lest the authors attempt bribery, blackmail, and Tweet-Begging. Which just isn't dignified.)

When you're done here, hop on over to the other host blogs:

Deana Barnhart (GUTGAA Mastermind Extraordinaire): Hosting Middle Grade, Picture Book, and New Adult Entries

Falling for Fiction: Hosting YA Fantasy and Urban Fantasy Entries

Cassie Mae: Hosting YA Contemporary, Suspense, Speculative, Supernatural, Magical Realism, and Historical Entries

Jaye Robin Brown: Hosting Adult Entries

[Update 2: Emily King was originally slated to cover the YA Contemps, etc, but that changed to Cassie May in plenty of time for me to notice. But I didn't until someone corrected my Host Tweet. And even then I forgot to update my blog with the correct info. This list is now correct. I'm pretty sure.]

The Super-Secret Covert Judges will be done with their judging by Thursday and the finalists will be announced on Friday.

Good luck to all the participants!