Trying to understand PitMad

It was interesting and I met some other writers through it.

You get quite a few Twitter followers, so it's a nice way to make connections. I had several people (other writers) tell me they'd want to read my book, so its a nice feel good moment. Plus you never know... they could be future readers if I sell my book. I followed some people based on the fact that their writing sounded interesting to me.

Also, one of my PitMad favorites turned into a full request for my manuscript. So it's just another avenue to try. Even if you don't pitch your book, it's fun to read everyone else's and start to get a sense for what stands out. I've heard some agents describe it as a very fast moving slush pile.

Does anyone know when the next #pitmad is? I've finally got a [high-concept, I hope] ms which I can sum up in 140 chars, and I'd like to be ready in time! Thanks

The most recent note on her blog shows just the March 25th one, so a date might not be set yet.

Looks like a fun sort of madhouse though. I might wander by just to look at the pitches.

Even if you have queries out, it can be worthwhile for some of the rest of you to wander over and watch. Why? Because even after an agent and publisher are signed up, there's always that all important catalogue copy to think about, for both US and translation offers. Even though an editor or agent will be writing that copy, it's useful to be able to think about future buyers seeing your book concept in just a few words and know what intrigues people.

Not sure when the next #pitmad is, but there should be a "Pitchmas in July" contest, with a similar Twitter pitch party c on the #pitchmas hashtag. There may be another #pitmad in the summer too... if you follow Brenda Drake I'm sure she'll tweet about it when it's decided.

Also adding that I've connected with a bunch of other writers working on interesting stuff through pitmad.

LadyA said:

Does anyone know when the next #pitmad is? I've finally got a [high-concept, I hope] ms which I can sum up in 140 chars, and I'd like to be ready in time! Thanks

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They're four times a year, so the next one is likely in just under three months. Follow Brenda Drake in the meantime.

Another one to watch is #askagent. It's not for pitching, but you can ask agents specific questions about querying in general. It's a good way of researching them too.

In the meantime you can put a hashtag that you're actively querying, along with your pitch, in case anyone decides to look at your profile.

Since I was one of the original hosts of PitMad, I thought I would jump in here. (Brenda and I started PitMad together years ago. I took this one off because I've got a book coming out and another one due and didn't have time to devote to it, but anyway.)

From what I gathered from our agents participating in previous years, the PitMad entries kind-of move to the top of the pile. That's because #1, the pitch has already gained their interest as something they should take a closer look at. Sometimes a pitch is so awesome the agent is jumping up and down to see the full query/partial after the initial pitch. That might not have happened if you had simply queried, since your query might be sitting at the bottom (or middle) of an already ginormous submission in-box. So it kinda gives you "cuts" in line, IMO.

On the other hand, this isn't saying not to query directly and through normal routes. Agents give each query the same amount of time and attention. It might just take a bit longer to get to yours if they aren't already on the look-out for it.

Again, this is just my two cents as a previous (and future) PitMad host.

Oh, and for the record, my book deal for my upcoming release was a result of a pitch during a Twitter pitch session.

Again, just my two cents

Patrick.S said:

So today is PitMad on twitter. It's a chance to pitch your MS in under 140 words. If an agent favorites your pitch, they normally welcome a query and sample pages.

Here's the part that has me scratching my head. Most, if not all, of these agents are open to queries anyway. Is there any advantage to having them see a pitch first. Am I looking at this wrong?

My concern is that I am seeing agents favoriting fifty or more pitches. So doesn't that mean they will have a crazy full inbox tomorrow? Could I be insuring that an agent has less time to look at my query if I do one of these pitch parties?

I would love to hear this from an agent's perspective. Do the queries you get through PitMad receive more careful consideration. Is there an advantage to pitching?

I haven't started querying yet so I don't have a hat in this race. I would be really interested in the answer though.

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Thanks everyone! I think I will definitely enter #Pitmad when the time comes - so long as my betas don't find a million and one things wrong with the ms and I have to rewrite it all

I entered PitchMas and got a couple of full requests from it. They both resulted in a no, but it was all fairly quick, and one of the agents came back with helpful comments about what didn't work for her and an invitation to submit other MSs to her. I was already querying at the time and ended up signing with a different agent, but I'd say that the replies from PitchMas definitely came a lot faster than those that came from regular queries.

I will say, some books work better for a pitch contest or Twitter pitch party than others. It's just not many words/characters to get a whole book across. I felt like I had to work pretty hard to get the one agent favorite that I got from this last contest (writing tons of diff. pitches, tweeting all day). I'm not sure how many favorites would be considered extremely successful. One feels good, but doesn't feel like a home run by any means! Querying the traditional way has felt much more successful to me.

That said, come July if I'm still looking for an agent, I'll try it again. And I would try it for other books, too, if I don't find a long-term agent with this attempt.

They have crazy busy inboxes anyway. Frankly, I think the question you should be asking is “can it hurt”? They expressed an interest. GREAT! Send it. That’s a lot better than sending it to an agent with absolutely no interest.

To me, it seems like an effortless way to get a sense of who might be interested. Maybe it will help to refine your agent search.

I hadn't heard about the PitMad until the fall. I did the ones at the end of the year. I not only received several requests from Pitmad and PitchMAS, but two of the requests turned into Revise & Resubmits. Two other fulls, bumped from 3 chapter partials, are still out. I've spent the last two months revising. One more pass through and out it goes.

I missed the twitter PitMAS because I thought the PitchMAS blog on Brenda Drakes site was the same thing. That one was a little different and posted the top 75 queries on the site and then agents favorited them if they wanted to see more. The two agents that requested from them, I had never gotten responses from on my first two novels. I posted the link. So far, from the PitchMAS blog contest 10 success stories.

http://pitchmas.blogspot.com/

The next one is in May, I believe.

Good luck, Sage! I'd love to hear a new success story from you soon

I'm with the don't neglect a conventional query, too, crowd. It's easy to feel you have a stinker when you don't get favourites etc - I have had one request from about six rounds of various twitter comps, but four requests for fulls from conventional queries, and agent representation. Some books sing on the pitmad, some don't, so don't feel it's the be all and end all if it bombs.