So while many are celebrating or stressing March Madness in college basketball, I am spending part of my March on Pitch Madness.
What is that, you ask? #PitMad is a pitch party on Twitter where writers tweet a 280-character pitch for their completed, polished, unpublished manuscripts. Agents and editors make requests by liking/favoriting the tweeted pitch.
Every "unagented" writer is welcome to pitch. All genres/categories are welcomed.
Please visit this site for further information: https://pitchwars.org/pitmad/
Why do you want an agent/publisher's attention? So they know you and your work exist, and hopefully want to read more. If they "heart" your pitch then you can email them your full query, which of course you can do anyway, but this way, they will already have seen a little about you and your book.
I also have been participating with the PitMad coaching this week from Kathy Ver Eecke of Getabookdeal101, from whom I take courses. This has helped tremendously, through daily video sessions and suggestions from other writers. I highly recommend the full course, too, which discusses literary agent search and being an overall savvy businessperson/writer.
For #PitMad, writers can tweet three different pitches per book, and tweets can be up to 280 characters including the reference hashtags (whichever apply to your book). That is so freaking hard to do! You're talking about narrowing down an 85,000-word book into just roughly 35 words! Bad enough one has to boil everything down for a one-page synopsis, or a one-page letter! The event is held every first Thursday of every quarter, so the next one is in June. It lasts from 8 am to 8 pm Eastern time.
I am promoting my latest novel, Harley's Eclipse, for which I seek traditional publishing and therefore, an agent. I just tweeted my first pitch right around 8 am, the start time. I pinned my tweet and have some followers re-tweeting it for attention. I am pitching my second and third times this afternoon and evening.
If you are on Twitter, please find me and re-tweet my pitches. I am at @PTMissCreative.
I am posting the three pitches I will use below and including a fourth one just for fun. Please support me, and thank you for your help!
Twitter Pitch One, 280 characters:
Valerie: PTSD/struggling w/husband’s suicide, hiding stage 4 cancer. Moves her kids cross country sans warning. Refuses treatment, learns from strangers & son’s friend: at times love=taking a chance. Quirky. Plot twists. CAPT FANTASTIC X GILBERT GRAPE #PitMad #A #WF #MH #DIS #OWN
Twitter Pitch Two, 280 characters:
Valerie: Free spirit, humbled by husband’s suicide & kids’ attitudes. PTSD, now cancer. Refuses treatment. Trip & news from home snap her to her senses. Quirks, intrigue, plot twists, introspection, self-realization. CAPTAIN FANTASTIC X GILBERT GRAPE. #PitMad #A #WF #MH #DIS #OWN
Twitter Pitch Three, 279 characters:
Valerie: Husband’s opioid OD, PTSD, raising kids alone, 1 w/disability, 1 teen. Stage 4 cancer/keeps secret. Refuses treatment. Voyage across country to find guardian. Trip/eclipse opens her eyes, heart. Info. from home changes everything. Plot twist #PitMad #A #WF #MH #DIS #OWN
Twitter Pitch Four, 280 characters:
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