Skip to main content

#PitMad on Twitter

It's been a little while since I blogged. Glad to be able to write a post again.

I participated in #PitMad for the first time on twitter this week (March 11, 2015) and it was an invigorating experience. I was able to network and found some cool published and unpublished authors who were tweeting like crazy with me. I also got a link to a cool blog and I gained a few followers and followed people as well.

I think at the core #PitMad is about networking with peers. It is also helps to lift the veil that exists between authors and publisher/agent. In #PitMad, aspiring authors searching for agents and publishers tweet in 140 characters or less their book pitch using #PitMad and a short hashtag for their genre. If an agent wants to see more they favorite a tweet. Then the author sends (if they want) their query based on an agent's submission guidelines.

Now you can send most agents (those who aren't closed to queries) and a select few publishers your query on your own of course but it's nice to find an agent who actually invites you to query them and who might be remotely interested in your novel.

The twitter feed for #PitMad goes so fast it's like the computer code in the Matrix. Getting retweeted by fellow tweeters helps keep your tweet alive in the feed since you are only allowed to tweet twice every hour during the running time of the event. You have to structure tweets differently in the same hour I believe because it won't let you retweet an existing tweet.

Finding an agent has many different routes as does the road to getting published. Most people scour the internet looking for agents nowadays. Either they research books and or authors they like or agents that accept their genre. Those that blindly send to agents or publishers without researching or having a polished novel are bound to fail. Others enter contests hoping they make it to the final round where agents will look at their books. Some find agents at conferences, workshops or writing retreats. Some get a lucky break with an established indie publisher while a select few brave it alone and self publish.

Gone is the time of mailing query letters or buying literary agent listing books to finger through like the yellow pages. Agents are easy to find and contact but that doesn't mean they are your friends, mentors or cheerleaders, they are people who have a job to fulfill and bills to pay. They only represent books and authors they believe in.

So all in all, I would say #PitMad was worth it even though I did not get a bite from an agent. I had a good time tweeting, networking and seeing the never ending novels that are yet to be published. There is an astounding amount of creativity in the world!

Thank you Brenda Drake for thinking of such a clever online event! I will be participating again.

Comments

  1. Kara Leigh MillerMarch 13, 2015 at 3:33 PM

    Thanks for the mention! I have so much fun participating in Brenda's contests :-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Advice for Writers

The Best advice I can give to writers can be summed up in five tips and is partly what I've read, heard or learned on my writing journey.    First  – Keep writing and be ready. Write as many novels (and short story, poems, essays, etc.) as you can. Learn how to write a synopsis and query if you plan on submitting to agents and publishers. Learn the mechanics of writing and structuring a story. Take classes, enter contests, find mentors, work with beta readers, critique partners and editors - all with the goal of improving your skills and making your novels better. Second  – The road to getting published is not for the faint of heart. If you can’t learn to live with constant rejection then you might not want to publish your work.   Writers must grow thick skin. We are going to be judged by our work constantly and must remember why we write in order to overcome haters, trolls or simply people who don't like our work/style. Not everyone is go...
2 comments
Read more

What's Up with Diversity in Color in the Publishing Industry

In the last few years, there has been a big push for diversity that seems to have gone hand in hand with the Black Lives Matter movement. According to a  2019 survey , 76 percent of the people who acquire and edit books are white.  When agents who are the gatekeepers within the publishing industry — in most cases the Big 4 publishers and their subsidiaries won’t consider novels without agents attached — are white, finding diverse voices they connect can be a problem.   Human nature dictates we are all ruled by our biases, morals, and experiences. How can someone who hasn’t faced similar life circumstances because of their color or “otherness” judge our books and the messages within them? via GIPHY Zora Neale Hurston  wrote an article in 1950  called, “What White Publishers Won’t Print” (over 72 years ago, people!)—let’s pause to take in this fact. This thing that happened for this exceptional black woman author so long ago that is still relevant today. via ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Query Wins for Me

I am getting ready to query again after about a six-month hiatus and looked back through my records of responses and was quite pleased.  In the past, I’ve had many close calls. I’ve had full requests from publishers and agents alike for a few different books I queried. I could have given up with the mounting rejections but the rejections I’ve gotten over the last year and a half have MOSTLY been inspiring. This might not make sense to anyone who hasn’t been through the querying trenches but there is such a thing as a good rejection. A good “no” per se. In posting this I want to say that if you are a writer seeking publication, you need to keep writing, revising and editing…but especially keep submitting. Here are a few of my rejections: “I loved the concept and was riveted by the world you have created, but ultimately I just didn’t fall in love with the voice. It’s not for me, but I wish you the best of luck in your search for representation.” ‘There was so muc...
Post a Comment
Read more