Update:
All pitches were viewed by Stan Soper and we’ve had two requests for FULL manuscripts.
I’ve sent out e-mails to the lucky authors!
Thanks for participating, and I hope you’ll come for our next pitch session in Jan!
Hello everyone.
It’s Agent shopping day. The pitches below came in within the first thirty viable pitches, and followed the rules. I wish everyone the best of luck, and hope to see all of you, including those who didn’t make it in, at our next Agent Shop date!
Here are the stats:
Pitches received: 32
Pitches accepted: 17
Rejected Pitches:
8 – Too long
4 – Missing info
1 – Spam/Joke
2 – No Title (really?)
As always, I like to discuss a bit about the industry and what OUR responsibilities as writers are. I can’t stress enough how important it is to follow submission guidelines. It’s one of the reasons I make the pitch process at MuseTracks as strict as it is.
I’ve spoken to NUMEROUS agents in the course of the year I’ve been doing Agent Shop. Most of them are very willing to answer questions I have. If I were to compile a list of pet-peeves agents have, you can bet that ‘not following our guidelines’ would be at the top of the lost.
Writing is not our hobby. (At least it shouldn’t be a hobby if you’re submitting to agents and publishers.) It may be what we love to do more than anything. But when you make the decision to submit your writing to industry professionals who take their jobs very seriously, then you’d better be ready to be professional yourself.
A lackadaisical attitude will show through in your work – IF you’re lucky enough to catch an agent/editor eye. You wouldn’t walk into a job interview and flaunt the company’s guidelines. And it’s no different in the publishing world.
Learn the industry – even if you have the next best selling, multimillion making, novel of the ages. If you can’t be professional enough to follow the guidelines, no one will ever give you the opportunity to show it.
Okay, onward!
Here are the pitches that made it in.
Thanks to Stan Soper for agreeing to visit today! He’s a super nice guy and if you’re interested in getting your work out there, he started a wonderful site called TextNovel. You should stop by. It’s a great place to network, read, share, even collaborate. And they even have writing contests.
Stan – Feel free to e-mail me ( at the e-mail you already have or Candi_Agent_Shop@yahoo.com ) for any pitches you’d like to see more on and I’ll contact the author. Thanks so much for coming!
Good Luck to all of you and keep writing!
#1
The Magic of Lavender
Fantasy romance
90k
Jocelyn Gibson’s ready to kick start her life following her husband’s death. When she buys an old B&B to restore, she has no idea it sits atop powerful ley lines, or that dark forces want to harness their energy. Once the portal’s open, there’s no telling how far and wide the Lord of the Underworld and his minions might wreak havoc.
Also widowed, local veterinarian Eric Hendricks falls for Joss, but demons trap him in Tartarus in The Underworld. Joss learns about her family’s secret connection to the goddess Iris in time to rally her own forces, but can she save Eric and the town of Boiling Springs?
#2
The Race to His Heart
Contemporary Romance
78,000 words
Love is like a stock car race; once you get going at top speeds, out comes the caution flag to put on the brakes. Well, that’s how Maddie Johnston likes to think of it.
Maddie is a quiet, unpretentious barista trying to make her way through college in Jacksonville, Florida. While slowly picking up the pieces of her mangled heart after the demise of an engagement, Maddie’s life is thrown for a loop when her childhood neighbor shows up to her family’s annual Fourth of July barbecue. Sure, it sounds pretty harmless except Connor Gray isn’t exactly the same kid she grew up with; he’s now a handsome and famous NASCAR driver.
Harbored and forgotten feelings soon emerge and the two find themselves thrust into a whirlwind romance. Only too bad for Maddie, as Connor is expected to marry a beautiful socialite in less than a year. Not only does Maddie need to convince Connor that he’s committing himself to the wrong girl, but she also needs to deal with the fallout of his dangerous career and her own grievous insecurities.
#3
St. James Day
Contemporary Erotic
St. James’ Day, is the third book in the 12-part Pagan Spirits series. It’s a contemporary, erotic romance full of world folklore. This does not currently have a publisher attached to it.
Beltane, (Book One, published by Eternal Press), “is a must-read for those who love erotic romance with a dash of paranormal magic.”
–Denisse Alicea, The Pen and Muse
Midsummer Night, (Book Two, published by eXcessica, Dec. 2009), “is another winner of a book from Erin O’Riordan. The book has very interesting characters and hot, steamy love scenes.”
–Carol Langstroth, Mind Fog Reviews
In St. James’ Day (Book Three), Gillian wonders if she’ll ever get her chance to fall in love. The love of her life left with her money, and her best friend’s fallen in love with someone else. She’s attracted to newcomer James, but it will never work out: she’s a Wiccan; he’s a born-again Christian.
#4
The Boy Next Door (Sanctuary Falls Series)
YA Paranormal romance
40,000
Heaven Mason is horrified when her mother takes her away from her friends in Chicago and moves her to rural Wisconsin. Parties and trouble have helped her dull the pain of her twin sister, Image, dying mysteriously. Instead of helping her deal with the lost, her mother throws herself into her research to develop a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Sanctuary Falls Wisconsin has an unusually high occurrence of the disease. It seems like the perfect place to look for a cure and keep Heaven out of trouble. Unfortunately, there are dark forces at work in the small picturesque town. Heaven soon learns that there is something different about her, something that makes her question everything, even her humanity. Layth Ariksen lives next door and manages to break through her wall of pain. Layth is Heaven’s only protection against the powerful forces who want to use her for evil and destroy what makes her human.
#5
New World
Paranormal Romance/ Scifi/Urban Fantasy
50,000 words
New World follows Lily in her struggle to survive in a world where Vampires and Werewolves are in charge. The world has been devastated by war between the three sides and humans have come to a breaking point. Humanity’s only chance for survival is to pair up with the Werewolves, but Lily really isn’t expecting what the alphaWerewolf wants, her.
#6
Highland Magic
Romance Time Travel
100,000
Take a twenty-first century magazine writer and a Seventeenth century highlander and you have a recipe for mayhem and magic thanks to eleven elderly witches whose good intentions go awry.
Unable to find a hero to substantiate her article, Remy’s elderly Wiccan foster mother offers to kill two birds with one stone by casting compatibility spell for Remy to meet her soul mate and write her story.
During the ceremony, the reader of ‘The Book of Spells’ drops the book and the page is lost. She improvises by picking the first incantation she comes to. Unbeknownst to all, the spell that’s been chosen is meant to breach time.
Driven by revenge for the murder of his family, Scottish highlander, Alexander MacDonald’s goal is to harass the British. In the midst of one of his many forays Alex literally runs down an oddly clothed woman standing in the muddied road. Feeling responsible for her injuries he takes her home to care for her wounds.
Alex is befuddled when she speaks of strange things but as the days turn to weeks he can’t deny his love and comes to a realization that with Remy by his side at he has found salvation.
#7
BAD MEDICINE
Romantic Suspense/Steamy Romance
92k
Unable to escape her past, Chloe Palmer returns to the Texas coast for her murdered father’s funeral and to faceRafael Solis, the man she left behind. Rafael is now Sheriff. Chloe inherits her father’s shrimp boat, enabling her to make a living for her young daughter. Rafael’s passion breaks down her emotional barriers but her impetuous nature draws her into a cruel vortex where she runs afoul of old and new enemies. Previous rivalries emerge, pitting Rafael against the heir-apparent to a crime dynasty. Rafael’s sister is dead set against her brother’s rekindled relationship. She confronts Chloe, but both are kidnapped by the drug runner’s crew to bring pressure on Rafael. The women are taken offshore, and when the drug runner sends word that Chloe is under his protection. The kidnappers dump the women overboard in an attempt to deny their role. Chloe has no love for Rafael’s sister but chooses to save her, helping her to body surf onto land. Rafael and Chloe battle an infatuated but vicious drug dealer, kidnappers, and a twisted curandero (Mexican healer). They emerge from the violence with a renewed respect for each other and a commitment to forge a life together.
#8
BAD KARMA (2nd in Series)
Romantic Suspense/Steamy Romance
88k
With a vengeful stalker on her trail and a hurricane in the Gulf, Skyler Danforth, RN, relocates to South Padre Islandonly to find new danger when her neighbor, Zach Bailey takes her heart by storm. After two attempts on her life, Sky moves in with her baby sister Cassie, a brilliant prodigy, in hopes of eluding her stalker. Cassie is in over her brainy head when a local heart-breaker and fire fighter, Javier Rios pursues her. He is attracted to her natural innocence and beauty but thinks she is a restaurant delivery girl. He falls hard for the Master’s degreed geek.
Sky tries to be patient with Zach but he is on the rebound and cautious. When the storm comes ashore and the island is evacuated, Sky and Cassie are trapped in the fortress-like hospital with a woman in labor, a heart attack victim and the stalker. Locked out, Zach and Javi use their own unique talents to breach the impenetrable medical facility, each sacrificing something of great personal value in the process. The easy going Zach is forced to step way outside his comfort zone and fight to protect the woman he loves.
#9
BAD VIBES (3rd in Series)
Romantic Suspense/Steamy Romance
88k
When agent Mike “The Iceman” Burke invades her South Padre Island turf, Deputy Darla Calhoun is assigned asliaison officer to his team. Her skills as a sniper come in handy as a gang of human traffickers strikes close to home, kidnapping local women including her best friend, Cassie. The ICE assignment plunges Darla into a dangerous mission and a steamy affair. Mike and Darla tear up and down the Intracoastal Waterway in search of the kidnappers and the captive women while Javier, Cassie’s husband, conducts his own investigation. Cassie escapes but is recaptured and thrown into the hold of a leaky grain barge. Mike and Darla’s search culminates in a firefight. Darla gets blown off her sniper’s perch on a water tower. Mike sacrifices the capture to divert the rocket launcher aimed at Darla. Together, they make the capture and are headed for home when they meet up with Javier on the ICW. They figure out where Cassie is being held but by the time they arrive, the barge has sunk with only a small air pocket. Mike and Javi dive in with an underwater torch for the rescue and they all motor back to the island to celebrate.
#10
The Dating Game
Contemporary Romance
100,000
Widow JENNETTE RILEY’S love life is rusting away at the bottom of the romance scrapyard. Feeling frustrated with her lover’s ambivalent behavior, she realizes what is lacking in their relationship–his motivation to move their love affair forward. Needing to know where she stands with him, she sees no alternative but to accept her brother’s offer of help.
When his fiancée’s high-powered career takes precedence over their relationship, TYLER MORGAN decides he could use a diversion. Learning of a garaged classic car from a co-worker, he is determined to buy it. When he steps into what turns out to be Jennette’s backyard to ask if she’s willing to sell, what he gets instead is a case of mistaken identity and an intriguing offer he can’t turn down.
What Jennette and Tyler don’t expect is for a chance meeting and one simple date to grow into an all-consuming passion and love neither can deny.
#11
NOW YOU SEE IT
Romantic suspense with paranormal elements
86,674 words
Everybody mislays things when they’re distracted, but when Gemma Cavanagh is upset, she makes them really disappear—and doesn’t know how to get them back. When someone breaks into Gemma’s house and tampers with her computer, her brother asks his Navy buddy, Brady McGrath, to look into it.
These days Brady is a cyber-security professional, but he has a questionable past in Asia and links to a shadowy anti-crime task force now operating in Seattle. His psychometric abilities make him an exemplary tracker, but tend to screw up his personal life. In his experience, women don’t stick around when they find out he can read their true feelings through his touch, including whether they’re faking it.
DOUG Wheeler is desperate to retrieve information Gemma’s ex had hidden. He’d rather have Gemma as his wife than his victim, but Brady’s death would be a nice bonus, for personal and business reasons.
Brady’s there when the police arrive to inform Gemma of her husband’s death. She is the obvious suspect, but Brady’s touch tells him she’s no murderer.
As the killer strikes closer, Gem and Brady reluctantly pool their talents and their courage to discover who is stalking them, and why.
#12
Blonde Demolition
Romantic suspense
85000
Blonde Demolition is Hurt Locker meets 24 with a chick.
A former government agent is yanked back into service when a bomb is found in her firehouse. She doesn’t want to go back to her old life, but when children are threatened she has no choice. Teaming up with her ex-lover she races to find the mastermind before anyone else gets blown up. Meanwhile she’ds hiding a secret that could explode in her face.
#13
THE HOUSE ON FOREST BEND
Paranormal Romantic Suspense
83,500
What does a hard-boiled homicide detective do when the serial killer he’s tracking is really a ghost?
When Detective Adam Skelton learns an antique gun is connected to several murders he’s investigating, he knows tracking down the killer could be as simple as tracing the gun’s history. When he meets Jillian Whitmeyer, the case becomes anything but simple. This gun shop owner has a special allure, even with her spiked hair and tattoos. Skelton soon learns that people who get close to Jillian have a habit of turning up dead. The more he investigates, the more deaths there are— both past and present—that lead back to her. Skelton can’t resist her, but as strange accidents start befalling him, Jillian “confesses” that her sister, who died many years ago in an accident with that same gun, is the true cause of the current mayhem. Skelton’s been a bad judge of women in the past and this one’s obviously a nut case…or is she? When the truth becomes dangerously clear, Skelton must find a solution or more people will die. But how does a just-the-facts detective deal with a ghostly serial killer and the sexy-as-hell sister she won’t set free?
#14
LEGENDS AMONG US
YA Paranormal Romance
66,000
When driving through puddles of blood eighteen-year-old Alexandra Chance learns a valuable lesson; have plenty of washer fluid.
Alex is given a hard dose of reality as she watches zombies eat a church congregation. Zombies with the ability to develop intelligence, and harpies with an appetite for flesh have reduced pretty much everyone in her world to body parts and rivers of blood. Amidst the chaos Alex meets Tristan, a vampire-in-hiding who was created along with other fiends as an experiment in human development. Shrouded in doubt, Alex journeys with him in search of help, dodging carnivorous creatures along the way.
Alex and Tristan stay one step ahead of ravenous monsters that will do anything to make a meal of them. With a harpy at every turn, Alex discovers her talent as a slayer. While exterminating harpies is a rush, the real pleasure is in her growing feelings for Tristan, even though she fears what his secret may be. But when Alex finds him drinking a body, she’s not sure whether she’s next on the menu.
#15
Rescue Me
Romance
55,000
Fiercely independent screenwriter Kendall Rikes takes a singles cruise, looking for Mr. Right. Instead, she’s found Mr. Wrong, Mr. Hopeless and Mr. You’ve Got to be Kidding Me. Where are the normal men?
Ex-FBI agent Grant Stiles is taking a little well-deserved R&R. He’s used to being in charge and owns his own security company. He’s looking forward to a little rest and relaxation.
Kendall reenacts a Titanic moment in a rescue boat, arms outspread and tasting her freedom. Grant jumps in to save the day, sending them both into the Caribbean Sea. Finally they wash up on a small island with a big mansion and an even bigger secret.
After being rescued, Kendall admits her love for Grant who shies away. He’s not into the love game – at all. But when the pair are chased by a drug runner who wants the booty Kendall accidentally took from the island, they’re thrown together with Grant as Kendall’s bodyguard.
Kendall discovers condoms aren’t sea water-proof when her doctor announces her pregnancy. She’s thrilled, Grant is horrified. Kendall determines to raise the child alone. When the drug runner kidnaps Kendall, Grant finally realizes his love for Kendall and launches a rescue.
#16
The Reluctant Witch
Paranormal Romance Suspense
90K
My name is Lolita Vette, a seventh generation seventh daughter of a long line of witches. And I’m a fake. A charlatan. While telling fortunes and selling love potion isn’t as sexy as running a grift, it’s a lucrative and steady business.
I’m not a witch. Just a girl with an elevated Kinesic ability. My brain processes a person’s microscopic tics and tugs so clearly, they may as well text me what they’re thinking. Combine my God-given curse with a decent ability to cold read, and you’d be surprised how many rational people start believing in magic.
After years of scamming marks, I finally signed the deed to my own place. Now trouble comes after me like ticks to a dog. I’ve been robbed, assaulted and Tug Shelby — the man I hadn’t yet decided on whether he belonged in a shallow grave or my bed–is missing. Vanished into the ether, unless you count his little finger and a helluva lot of blood.
Now even I can’t help but search for a little backwater magic in this mess of a world.
#17
The Mischievous Lady Moorecroft
Historical Romance
93K
Major Victor `Vicks’ Geale returns to England with a secret. Surrounded by a band of wounded soldiers, he finds his pay and commission have been forfeited, he’s inherited a crumbling estate with worthless title and a mountain of debt. Geale reckons his only option is to marry an heiress to fund the rebuilding of his estate.
Beautiful and rich, avowed spinster Lady Evangeline Moorecroft is the ultimate party girl of the Regency set. Unable to resist the bait of a notoriously naughty masquerade, Evangeline awakens to discover she’s been ambushed into marriage with hard-nosed Lord Geale.
Lord Geale offers Evangeline a bargain. Get his estate and reputation on solid footing and he will grant her an annulment. As an uneasy alliance forms on the attraction between them, Evangeline has second thoughts about dissolving her marriage.
Her treacherous and well-connected mother the Duchess, however, has little patience for her daughter’s poor marriage and even less for the idea of becoming a grandmother. She gives Evangeline an ultimatum: end her marriage or the Duchess will use her connections to end Geale’s life.
