Celebrating Pitch Party Wins 🥳
Success stories from my transformative one-month intensive
Hi Bleeders!
I want to share some stunning wins from my Pitch Party students. We wrapped an INCREDIBLE third Pitch Party cohort in November. They were an impressive bunch to begin with and they blew me away with their progress—it was exciting to see them grow so much in just 30 days.
From landing dream bylines in major publications to growing their newsletters to writing HUNDREDS of thousands of words, these writers are absolutely crushing it. Their bylines and breakthroughs speak for themselves:
HuffPost Personal: My 8-Year-Old Was Suffering From Cancer. To Keep Her Alive, I Made An Unthinkable Choice. by
HuffPost Voices: I Felt Like I Was Failing At 'The Talk' — And Then Chappell Roan Fixed Everything by
Elizabeth joined me for three rounds of Pitch Party and wrote about 40K words each time. She’s been going hard this year and it’s been awesome to see her come into her own. Here are some highlights in addition to her essays above:
“Getting a piece accepted with Narratively (one of my dream pubs), forthcoming January 2025. Growing my Substack by 100 subscribers in a single month. In all, I placed over 25 pieces with external publications between February and December 2024!”
She also wrote this review of her first month of Pitch Party for her
Substack, AND included Pitch Party and one of my other workshops in this swoon-worthy year in review piece:
After spending 91 days together in 2024, I’m very excited to meet Elizabeth IRL at AWP this March! Definitely let me know if you’re going to be there too—I’d love to meet as many Bleeders as possible… come to think of it, maybe I’ll host a meetup?
The New York Times: Sizzling Through Generations, Tiny Love Story by
In addition to her NYT win, Marni got several additional pitches out—she’s in waiting mode on those. Meanwhile, she’s polishing up another essay to submit to The Guardian soon. I’m thrilled that she’s coming back for the January cohort to deepen her practice even more as she prepares for her book launch. Marni also launched her Substack
recently and she had this to say about the experience:“Thanks for the Substack nudge and direction. I launched mine this week and it's been INSANE in terms of how it's getting huge open rates and engagement. I imported my 7K list from Ontraport into Substack and opens are at 44 percent which is a HUGE jump from the way we used to deliver it. I even got a message on IG saying that it was fantastic! YAY. So thank you.”
The New York Times: ‘Doing’ Nice, Tiny Love Stories by
Business Insider: I'm a mom of 2 teens. When they are out partying, they need to give me the address and phone of an adult present. by
Not only did Natasha land two new bylines (so far), including The New York Freaking Times (!!), but she published six times on her Substack
since class started “which is more than I have done all year!”“And I wrote 28,000+ words in November! Thank you so much for such a great course (and for introducing us all to each other - the Nov. Group has decided to continue meeting on Mondays and it’s been great so far!)”
Business Insider: My dad loved cutting down our Christmas tree every year. After he had strokes, our family adjusted our tradition so he could still be included. by
In addition to this lovely holiday byline, Amy has been pouring her talents into her fabulous newsletter
.BuzzFeed: The Election Gave Me A Reason To Be Grateful My Dad's Not Here For The Holidays by
Sammi’s also got an upcoming essay in Slate, an awesome Substack going over at
, and I get to work with her again in January!Newsweek: Warning: If You Move to Canada, Donald Trump May Follow You | Opinion by
Angus wrote this excellent essay for his
Substack about his experience on Bluesky during class, which just might inspire you to get started, like it did for me:
After Angus gave me the nudge, I created this Bluesky Starter Pack to connect with other Bleeders. Drop your Bluesky handle in the comments below and I’ll add you.
: I didn’t plan on getting sober. All I knew was that I couldn’t stop smoking weed. by
Paulina sent me this update:
“I have a Confessay coming out in January. And as of today... I have a literary agent! Your course forced me to sit my ass down and write, and really begin to take tangible action towards my goals. I'm also starting a creative process newsletter called in addition to writing (almost) every day.”
Plus, I have to shout-out this great interview Paulina did with her dad to celebrate THREE years of sobriety for her
Substack. Congratulations, Paulina!!
HuffPost Personal: We Live In A Red State. Here's Why It Doesn't Feel Safe To Have A Second Child. by Bailey Moore
Rachel Snell reported:
“I'm still writing every day. I have written over 200,000 words since July 1.”
And I’m happy to report that Rachel will be back for the January cohort, so that habit’s not going anywhere!
HuffPost Personal: I Saw People In Blackface At The Grocery Store. When I Found Out Why, I Was Even More Disturbed. by
Christine wrote 38K+ words during Pitch Party and she’s also been prolific on her Substack
, including this review of what she learned during the November cohort:
Lori Walker, aka
, launched her weekly newsletter and just finished hosting a free five day challenge, which you can catch up on now!
Lori’s got a lot of really exciting ideas for 2025 that she can't wait to develop and share. She joined for two cohorts and I can attest that she’s got some very cool works in progress—I can’t wait to read those again when they are out in the world.
There are a lot more wins for all of my partiers coming down the pike. I’m so proud of them!
Pitch Party is the gift that keeps on giving. As you can see, my students have revolutionized their pitching and writing practices, and the November group even started a writers group that continues to meet every week. 🥹
So, what are you waiting for?!
This January, you can join Pitch Party and:
✨ Write more than 23,000 words.
✨ Finesse your pitching process to start getting yeses!
✨ Supercharge your newsletter.
Here’s why you should sign up now:
This January cohort will be my last Pitch Party for the foreseeable future—I have some career opportunities that need my full attention for the first several months of 2025. So if you’ve had this on your radar, now is your chance to join the fun!
This is what you can expect:
💻 Daily Zoom Sessions: Motivating one-hour workshops every day (recordings available if you can’t make it live).
📝 Tailored Assignments: Daily prompts to sharpen your pitches, essays, and newsletter posts.
📋 Personalized Feedback: I’ll critique a pitch, flash essay, full essay, and newsletter post for each student.
❤️ Peer Support: Classmate feedback swaps and built-in cheerleaders to help you build your writing community.
As a valued member of this community, you can use code BLEEDERS to save $100! 💸
Pitch Party starts tomorrow, Wednesday, January 1st—don’t wait to sign up!
Ready to make 2025 the year you turn your writing dreams into reality? ✨
I want to help you land your dream bylines, grow your audience, and become the writer you’ve always wanted to be. 🎉
XO,
Courtney
So excited for all of the wins in our November cohort! I’m looking forward to writing and pitching even more in 2025!!