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
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.