Pitch Wars 2021 Wish List

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Hello Pitch Wars hopefuls! We are Falon Ballard and Brooke Abrams, aka #TeamForearmsAndAbs, and we are so excited to be mentoring Pitch Wars this year! We are both Pitch Wars alumna and are very familiar with the rollercoaster of emotions that is the Pitch Wars experience. We’re looking forward to guiding our future mentee along on their journey! First, let’s cover some basics!

What Is Pitch Wars?

For those of you who are new to Pitch Wars, it is a mentoring program where published/agented authors, editors, or industry interns choose one writer each, read their entire manuscript, and offer suggestions on how to make the manuscript shine for an agent showcase. The mentor also helps edit their mentee’s pitch for the contest and their query letter for submitting to agents. For more information about the organization, please head to the Pitch Wars website!

Photo of a hot dude with magnificent forearms and abs with #TeamForearmsAndAbs in pink lettering

Who Are Falon and Brooke?

Falon Ballard loves to write about love! She also has an undying affection for exclamation points and isn’t ashamed to admit it! When she’s not writing fictional love stories, she’s helping real life couples celebrate, working as a wedding planner in Southern California. She has a deep obsession appreciation for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is a Disneyland devotee, and is a reality TV aficionado. If she’s not busy wrangling her seven year old, you can probably find her drinking wine and posting a pic on Instagram, while simultaneously snarking on Twitter, because multi-tasking! Her debut novel LEASE ON LOVE will be published on 2/1/22!

Brooke Abrams writes about  women in their thirties who don’t have life completely figured out. She appreciates books that examine the complexities of relationships, both romantic and familial. In her free time, Brooke never misses a chance to go to a drag show, and rarely misses the opportunity to lounge by the pool with an audio book and cocktail. Her day job includes running an early childhood center and playing chauffeur to her three children. Occasionally she sleeps. 

Photo of Falon and Brooke

We Are Looking For…

*Contemporary Romance *Women’s Fiction (with a romantic arc) *Historical Romance *Fantasy Romance *Contemporary Humorous Fiction (with a romantic arc)

In other words, please send us all your kissing books!

The kid from The Princess Bride saying “Is this a kissing book?”

Some Things We Love (General)

*Female main characters who are flawed and messy–we love stories of self discovery and reinvention, give us a character who learns and grows

*Male main characters that are damaged and broken OR male main characters who are cinnamon rolls with a Red Hot inside (meaning they are sweet and squishy soft bois with a little spice deep down)

*Retellings that have nothing to do with Jane Austen or anyone else who can be deemed a classic

*Anything with 1990s rom com vibes a la Fools Rush In or While You Were Sleeping

*Main characters who are “older”–people in their late thirties and forties, bring on the actual millennials!

*Unique storytelling structures (think anything by Taylor Jenkins Reid)

*A well-rounded and hilarious cast of side characters–please give us all your kooky families, whether they be biological or found

*Multiple POVs (though single is cool too!)

*Heat levels of all kinds

*Fantasy lite–nothing with world-building that overshadows the love story

The mom from While You Were Sleeping saying “These mashed potatoes are so creamy.”

Some Things We Love (Specific)

*Historical romance set in the 1970s or later (we are not the best fit for a Regency set in the UK or anything along those lines)

*Anything with Olivia Rodrigo vibes–bring us your angsty/pining/moody stories

*Unique twists on classic tropes (think The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon)

*Anything that can comp Talia Hibbert

*Comps in the vein of Why Women Kill, It’s Complicated, or Desperate Housewives

*Drag queens–please give us Brooke Lynn Hytes and Vanjie’s happily ever after!

*Sports romances in the vein of Bull Durham

*Despite our team name, we are very much here for male main characters who sport a dad bod

*Male main characters who are nerdy and/or artsy

*A second chance romance with Justin/Britney vibes (minus the toxicity) or Jennifer Aniston/David Schwimmer vibes

*Anything with witches–think Charmed, Hocus Pocus, and Practical Magic

*Anything that comps Ted Lasso or Schitt’s Creek (please give us Roy Kent or David and Patrick)

Roy Kent from Ted Lasso saying “Don’t you dare settle for fine.”

Some Things We Must Have

*Verbal consent on the page–on page sex is not a must have, but if it’s there, it needs to be consensual

*An HEA (please note, for WF or comedic fiction, that doesn’t necessarily mean the characters have to be in a relationship, just that they need to be happy/settled at the end of the story)

*Humor–please make us laugh!

*Diversity–we want stories that reflect the diverse world we live in; we are also very conscious of not writing outside of our own lived experiences

*Feminist stories (if you have multiple female characters–and you should–your work should pass the Bechdel Test)

Gretchen from Mean Girls saying “That’s just like, the rules of feminism.”

Some Things That Are Not For Us (We would love to see content warnings listed in query letters)

*On the page sexual assault/violence against women

*Mental illness used as a plot point

*Pirates

*Alphaholes (if you male main character calls his love interest “baby girl” we are probably not the right choice for you)

*COVID stories–we’re okay with it being mentioned/acknowledged, just not with it being a main plot point

Jocelyn from Schitt’s Creek saying “I just don’t think it’s for me.”

To sum it all up: we want kissing books about kickass women who are also kind of messy that make us laugh and give us an HEA! If your book does that, please send it our way!

RuPaul saying “I can’t wait to see how this turns out.”

Pitch Wars 2021 Adult Mentors’ Wish Lists

Click here to view all Pitch Wars 2021 Mentors’ Wish Lists. To view the wish lists by genre, visit this link.