What is Twitter Pitching?
In June I had the opportunity to participate in a Twitter
pitch fest called #PitMad. It is
organized by Brenda Drake and runs four times a year. Read all about #PitMad.
I’d heard of PitMad but I’d forgotten it was happening until another friend
posted that she was writing tweets for it. A quick google lead me to this
wonderful blog post from Diana
Urban about how she found her agent and sold her book as a result of
PitMad.
How exciting!
How do you participate?
Well, at t-minus 12 hours to PitMad, I sat at my dining room
table drafting and redrafting tweets, cursing the 140 character limit. I came
up with 5 that I liked. Then I went to TweetDeck and scheduled them. Twice an hour, from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm.
Went to
bed bleary eyed and exhausted.
Thursday I was a wreck. I’d told myself I wouldn’t obsess over
the PitMad postings, but it had an insidious creeping hold on me. When a tweet
got a favorite, I shrieked like a five year old who got her first pony. There
may have been jumping and clapping, as well, but only my dogs know. And
I’ve bought their silence with treats ;-)
By afternoon, my canned tweets seemed kind of stale. So I
wrote two more and put them into the schedule.
And....?
I got favorites from a number of agents and one publishing
house—I was thrilled and flattered that my tweets out of hundreds (thousands?)
of others had caught their eye.
I sent queries out to the agents who favorited my tweets.
After two extremely crazy weeks, I accepted an offer of representation from Rachel Brooks of the L. Perkins Agency! I am beyond excited and can't wait to see where Running Hot will go from here!
After two extremely crazy weeks, I accepted an offer of representation from Rachel Brooks of the L. Perkins Agency! I am beyond excited and can't wait to see where Running Hot will go from here!
If you are thinking of doing PitMad
(or another Twitter pitch fest), I have some hints:
(or another Twitter pitch fest), I have some hints:
1)
do your research on PitMad and how it runs
2)
write your tweets in advance (give yourself a
day or two!)
3)
have a friend read your tweets and see if those
140 characters give a good grasp of your story
4)
focus on the conflict (why can’t they be
together?) instead of only the characters
5)
Vary your tweets
6)
Tweetdeck will only publish original tweets—do
not repeat a tweet, or it won’t get posted.
7)
Try to have fun with it