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Jennifer pitched on Twitter...
Last week was #pitmad on Twitter. What is that? It’s a
chance that comes four times per year where you boil your pitch down to less
than 140 characters, add the correct hashtag label for your genre and add the
#pitmad hashtag. You can tweet each manuscript you’d like to pitch twice per
hour and you’re encouraged to create multiple pitches for each manuscript
(Twitter gets annoyed when you repeat your tweets word for word).
Agents and editors who want to participate read all the
tweets labeled #pitmad and favorite any they’re interested. If yours gets
favorited, you submit according to either their #pitmad guidelines, which they’ll
tweet on their own stream, or their submissions guidelines on their website,
and all favorited #pitmad queries go to the top of their pile, similar to how
they handle pitches at conferences, for example.
Now that I’m able to spend more time and effort on my
writing, I wrote #pitmad on my calendar to remind myself to participate. I
decided to pitch my current WIP, which is complete, but I’m still editing. Of
course, I’m always still editing, so really, that’s okay. My hope is to get an
agent for the work. I know there are lots of writers out there who don’t
believe an agent is necessary, and I’ve published several books without one,
but I’d like to see if an agent can take my work to the next level. Can’t hurt
to try.
When I write my synopses, I usually have at least one
one-sentence description, so I worked on my tweet from there and came up with
three different versions. I tweeted them throughout the day and was lucky
enough to get two agents who favorited my tweets! One is an agent from a
well-known agency and one is an independent agent. Once they favorited my
tweets, I researched both of them. Since I’ve heard of one of them, I was
really just making sure she reps my genre and checking her submission
guidelines. The other one was unfamiliar to me, so I asked around and did more
research. I’m not completely sold on her, but she seems like enough of a fit
that I wanted to submit to her as well.
Both take about 6-8 weeks to get back to you, so I’m in for
a long wait. My track record with agents has been pretty unsuccessful, but I’m
just happy they liked my tweets! And we’ll see what happens.
It sounds an interesting way to attract an agent although, to be honest, I'm not oversold on the idea of agents. In the past, when most publishers wouldn't accept unagented submissions, they were necessary, but now so many publishers do accept author submissions. However, good luck with yours!
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you, just not 100% :) But it's also a way to attract editors. This time around, I just happened to get agents bite. Last time, there were editors.
DeleteInteresting event, Jen. I'd need to learn to tweet.
ReplyDeleteTweeting is easy and a great way to build your brand, Ana.
DeleteJen, this sounds like a fairly stress-free way to attract the attention of an agent. On-line they certainly can't hear your knees knocking together and your heart thumping madly. :)
ReplyDeleteGood luck. I'm sure the time will fly by for you!
Yes, Debra, it's definitely less stressful!
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