Pitch Madness observations

I've put together some interesting statistics on what categories and genres where included in Pitch Madness and showing how these pitches faired with agent interest. (If you don't know what Pitch Madness is all about, check out here)

I'm not normally a maths person, so I'm giving basic statistics: number of entries and the percentage. I haven't taken into account the various weighting of the darts that were thrown. Though I'm sure there's a way, it's beyond my maths patience.

What the Blog Hosts & Slush Zombies picked:

Young Adult		Adult
Contemporary	10	Contemporary	4
Crime	1	Fantasy	1
Suspense	1	Historical	2
Paranormal	1	Magical Realism	1
Science Fiction	6	Science Fiction	2
Fantasy	7	Literary	1
Supernatural	2	Mystery	1
Alternate History	1	Thriller	1
Urban Fantasy	1	Middle Grade
Thriller	1	Fantasy	2
Dystopian	1	Contemporary	2
Horror	1	Adventure	1
New Adult		Mystery	1
Fantasy	1	Science Fiction	2
Contemporary	3	Paranormal	1
Urban Fantasy	2	Thriller	1
Historical	1	Historical	1

 

And here's how the agents responded to them:

Category	Number of entries	Percentage	Number of darts	Percentage
Adult	13	20%	30	19%
NA	7	11%	17	11%
YA	33	52%	80	52%
MG	11	17%	28	18%
Total	64	100%	155	100%
Genre
Contemporary	19	30%	66	43%
Fantasy	11	17%	20	13%
Crime	1	1.50%	1	0.50%
Suspense	1	1.50%	7	4.50%
Paranormal	2	3%	6	4%
Historical	4	6%	9	6%
Science Fiction	10	16%	16	10%
Magical Realism	1	1.50%	1	0.50%
Adventure	1	1.50%	2	1%
Mystery	2	3%	5	3%
Urban Fantasy	3	5%	6	4%
Literary	1	1.50%	1	0.50%
Alternate History	1	1.50%	1	0.50%
Thriller	3	5%	10	6%
Supernatural	2	3%	2	1%
Dystopian	1	1.50%	1	0.50%
Horror	1	1.50%	1	0.50%
Total	64	100%	155	100%

So that do all those numbers mean?

Well, for one thing is shows the Slush Zombies and Blog Hosts are pretty in tune with what agents are looking for (well done everyone!).

But it also shows that from a category perspective:

• Agents are interested in New Adult.
• MG and Adult are taking back some of the market.
• YA is still going strong.

From a genre perspective:

• It's harder to get attention with Science Fiction, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy and anything else under the Speculative Fiction umbrella. Your concept and writing has to be outstanding.
• Contemporary is in (but we all knew that).
• Thrillers, suspense and mysteries are a want.

 Here's the pitches that preformed best with the agents:

YA Suspense - 7 darts
YA Contemporary (from Fairytale retelling) - 7 darts
Adult Contemporary - 6 darts
YA Contemporary - 6 darts
YA Contemporary - 5 darts
Adult Contemporary - 5 darts

As someone who predominately writes genre fiction in the Speculative Fiction realm, I could be a bit bummed by this. But I know that if my concept and writing are strong enough it'll still get noticed.

This information can help you if you're querying now, but don't write to these trends. Write the story that's inside you.

 Don't forget #PitMad is on and you can pitch agents and editors via tweets! Check out more details here.

And finally, a huge thank you to Brenda, the other blog hosts, co-hosts, all the slush zombies and everyone who entered.