There’s a special Easter tradition throughout central and northern Croatia – making Easter Nests. On the afternoon or eve of Easter Saturday children go out into the garden and collect leaves, grass, twigs, with which to make a “nest” for the Easter Bunny – that’s where he places his Easter-Egg-Presents. The children go to bed that eve wondering if the Easter Bunny will like or love their nest, because the best nest gets the best and biggest eggs!

#NestPitch is based on this idea where an author’s ‘pitch’ is the nest and the Easter Treats are the Agents (SECRET BUNNY AGENT) requests. Why Croatian I hear you ask? Simple the Host Nikola Vukoja was born in Croatia.

However, as Nikola was raised in Australia, she couldn’t help but bring a little Aussie into the fold… more on that later.

So how does it work?

The submission window will open on April 1^st

For those who haven’t been watching/listening carefully, this is how #nestpitch will work. On April 1^st, you will send us your 35-word pitch + the first 300* words of your polished and ready manuscript.

NOTE; for Picture Books, it’ll be the first 100 words.

Go here for all the rules and conditions, and please follow the rules & submission guidelines.

Once Submissions are closed, our team of Slush Bilbies will pick the top 100-odd. For more information on the Slush Bilibies, go to here.

What’s a Bilby? It’s a super cute Australian Native Animal. Easter Chocolates in Australia are also made in the shape of a Bilby.

From there our Team of Bloggers, yep, I’m one of them, will each pick their favourite pitches to post on their blogs. The selected pitches will be notified via email also. For Blogger info go here.

This year there are NINE BLOGGERS, that’s 72 opportunities!

I’ve also added a list of the other Bloggers. Once the pitches are posted, the Secret Bunny Agents will hop from nest to nest and leave a chocolate treat.

For example:

Golfer Bunny has left you 1 Box of Caramel Eggs – for all the *TREATS* got to here.

You’ll need to know what Easter Treat equals what request so I suggest you save a copy of the Easter Treats request items to your desktop; or better still, print a copy off.

At the end of the Easter Egg Treats day… you will be sent a second email with a list of agents who made a request. If any agents have given specific email addresses, this will be added to your email. If not, please email to the Agency Website but remember to follow the guidelines with regard to what to write in the Subject Line.

For a quick list of the agents refer below.

But wait; there’s still more! We also have MAGIC BUNYIPS!

Magic Bunyips are Agents who, like their name-sake, will be lurking around the blogs. If they see something they like, they’ll leave you a “treat” also. What’s a Bunyip? Well here’s a little bit more of that Aussie influence. Bunyips are mythical creatures who live around billabongs (ponds). They are very shy and secretive, a little strange-looking, but not all that mean and nasty. Sorry, we can’t tell you who the Bunyips are because, frankly, we’re not sure they’re real...

Now, because we know EVERYONE likes a reward for all their hard work, there’s going to be some prizes too. The pitch that gets the most over-all requests as well as the pitch the gets the most FULL requests will each receive an AMAZON Gift Voucher.

There are three gift vouchers up for grabs:

(i) Most overall requests (for selected pitches only)

(ii) Most FULLS requested (for selected pitches only)

(iii) First correct Match the Agent to the Mask (everyone can play!)

How this works:

Each of the agents has taken on a Secret Agent Bunny Mask and your job is to identify who is wearing which Mask. (you’ll find the Agent List here.

There’s an Amazon Voucher in it for the first correct answer. For more info, go here.

Remember all of the above winners will receive an AMAZON Gift Card

Go to here for more information.

Now to the Bunny Masks, and in no particular order Da-Daaaah!!!

(1) COCKTAIL BUNNY

(2) BOOKWORM BUNNY

(3) GIANT BUNNY

(4) LAPTOP BUNNY

(5) MAD SCIENTIST BUNNY

(6) SOCCER BUNNY

(7) JUGGLER BUNNY

(8) NINJA BUNNY

(9) ARTIST BUNNY

Oh, and don’t panic if you don’t see your genre or category, these are TOP agents who work for AWESOME agencies, eight agencies to be accurate, trust me, their colleges are watching, and waiting, and intending to leave treats under these Bunny Masks.

List of Agents:

Pam Van Hylckama – C0-founder /Agent - Foreword Literary

Melissa Jeglinski- Agent - The Knight Agency

Pooja Menon- Agent - KimberleyCameron & Associates

Gina Panettieri – President - Talcott Notch Literary

Jordy Albert – Co-founder & Senior Agent - The Booker Albert Literary Agency

Camilla Wray – Agent - Darley Anderson Literary (UK)

Sarah Negovetich – Junior Agent/PR Team Leader - Corvisiero Literary Agency

Cate Hart – Junior Agent - Corvisiero Literary Agency

Dr. Uwe Stender – President - TriadaUS Literary Agency

For Agent bio’s go here.

Finally, here’s a schedule, so you don’t miss any of the fun: