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| Photo credit: nvk_ on Flickr |
The point of pitch events like #PitMad is, of course, to try to get some requests from publishing professionals, but there are a lot of other benefits that people tend not to talk about quite as much:
- Meet other writers. Events like #PitMad brings writers out from all corners of the internet. Making new friends and connections is the whole point of social media, and these events are the perfect time to meet new people.
- See what agents and editors like. I saw someone suggest that check out favorites from publishing professionals to see what they’re requesting, which I think is a really smart strategy. If you’re looking to query, for the next few days at least, you should be able to scroll through their favorites to see what they’re looking for at the moment.
- See what others are writing/pitching. Nothing reveals the querying trends like scrolling through an hour of #PitMad. Writers who pitch during these events are the same writers who are querying while you’re querying, and it helps to be able to see what agents and editors are seeing a lot of.
- Learn what makes one pitch more effective than others. Just looking at the pitches and determining which ones grab your attention and which ones make your eyes glaze over can be a big help when writing or rewriting your pitch later on.
Some things to remember:
- There will always be trolls. Whenever there are public events, there are going to be people who use the opportunity to spam, or put others down, or make fun of those participating. It happens, and the best response is to brush them off. Don’t let a few negative people get you down.
- Just because your pitch isn’t favorited doesn’t mean you shouldn’t query. Or as Agent extraordinaire Jessica Sinsheimer said:
Please don't assume that I have seen your pitch, and decided no, if I didn't favorite. There are so many, and it's a busy day. #PitMad
— Jessica Sinsheimer (@jsinsheim) September 12, 2013
Guess what? Sometimes even though you pitched twice an hour every hour, people don’t see your pitch. Or they see your pitch, and it doesn’t grab their attention, but when they see your extended pitch (also known as a query) and an excerpt, it does grab their interest. It happens, so don’t assume that just because you didn’t get a favorite doesn’t mean you can’t query any of the agents who participated in #PitMad.
Case and point:
I don't mind things like #pitmad. They can be fun & force you to conceptualize your novel. But a full query + sample pages is always better.So for those of you who participated or glanced at #PitMad (or have in the past), what did you learn from the event?
— Sarah LaPolla (@sarahlapolla) September 12, 2013
Twitter-sized bites:
Did you participate in #PitMad this week? What did you learn? Join the discussion at @Ava_Jae's blog! (Click to tweet)
One writer shares her post-#PitMad thoughts. What did you learn from the Twitter pitch party? (Click to tweet)
