Today is the day when authors will fill Twitter with 140 character pitches of their shiny manuscripts hoping to catch the eye of agents and small presses.
#Pitmad has grown tremendously over the years I have known about it. Even though I am not participating, I have in the past and understand the craziness, the nail-biting hopefulness, and celebrating/disappointment that will occur all day today. Authors wait for that notification that someone…ANYONE…liked their tweet.
If you are unfamiliar with this event you can find all the information about PitMad here, Brenda Drake’s blog…the woman responsible for the event, for bringing writers together, for introducing a fun way to maybe find an agent or publisher.
BEFORE you tweet a pitch or even hit any buttons in support of your Twitter friends…READ THE RULES.
It’s worked for so many…not for me, but that wasn’t meant to be my path.
However, my not participating doesn’t mean I won’t be scrolling through the #PitMad feed, reading all the pitches. For those that intrigue me, I will send good luck wishes via fairy dust by replying, NOT FAVORITING AND NOT RETWEETING (I solemnly swear).
I mean think of it, a list of potential books THAT MIGHT SOMEDAY BE SITTING ON A SHELF! It’s exciting.
And, for the authors, terrifying. Putting those carefully honed pitches out there is a brave move. Heck writing a book is one heck of an accomplishment, one that saps the very soul.
But what if no one likes your tweets?
What if you send the words into the Internet void and…nothing? I’ve been there. There are a lot of pitches. So many, it’s easy for yours to get lost, for eyes to skip over yours in the blink of a tweet. There are new rules to help declutter the feed, to help the agents find you, but there’s no guarantee.
WHAT MAKES A TWITTER PITCH STAND OUT?
No one knows. There are guidelines. There are plenty of people who will critique them. There is a plethora of advice floating about in the Twittersphere.
There are definite things to have in those precious 140 characters.
#Pitmad…if this isn’t in the tweet, it won’t be seen.
Your category and genre. There’s a list on Brenda’s blog. #YA #F…#A #H…#MG #SF…These help agents and publishers find what they’re looking for. And you want them to find it.
The rest is up to the author. 140 characters is not a lot ACTUALLY IT IS PRETTY MUCH NO SPACE AT ALL HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? But people do it, some do it pretty darn well.
So consider…What will make someone want to read your words?
Include the stakes.
Make us care.
Intrigue us.
Show what makes this work unique.
Easy peasy? Ummm, no.
Writing a Twitter pitch is harder than writing the manuscript.
I will be watching off and on all day…checking on friends’ tweets, cheering on those I like, and holding my breath FOR ALL OF THE PITCHERS! Because what makes writers great is the fact that we support each other.
There will be favorites. There will be agents and publishers eagerly hunting for their next acquisitions. From those favorites, there will be submissions, then rejections or requests for fulls. And months or years from now we will learn the outcome of the days events.
But in the end, so many friends will be made today. So many connections will happen. Authors will learn and grow, taking another step on the path to publication. THIS IS THE TRUE MAGIC OF #PITMAD!
Good luck to all pitching today! I will be cheering from the sidelines.
