#PitMad is coming this week!

Sadly, #Pitmad has come to an end.

Pitch fests are a limited period of time, usually one day, in which you can pitch your book to agents on Twitter.

Believe it or not, pitch fests actually work. Busy, overwhelmed agents are more likely to read and respond to an interesting Twitter pitch than they are to a query. It takes less time and a lot less effort.

However, it will not take less effort on your part. Boiling your novel down to a short sentence is loaded with pitfalls. So, I would suggest that you read What's Your Book About? How to Make a Pitch before attempting one of these contests.

Before you pitch, it would also be a good idea to read some pitches first. Get onto Twitter and type #PitchCB into a search to read some excellent pitches. You can also generate pitches using the pitch tool on YA Writer's Toolbox.

__________________

From the PitchWars website:

When: March 8, 2018, 8AM - 8PM

What: 3 pitches on Twitter

Why: Agents pay attention to PitMad pitches

#PitMad is a pitch party on Twitter where writers tweet a 280 character pitch for their completed, polished, unpublished manuscripts. Because #PitMad has grown over the years, industry professionals are finding it overwhelming to search the feed. It goes by so fast now, it’s a little mind-boggling. And we don’t want to scare off the industry professionals.

You may only tweet three (3) pitches (they can be different pitches or the same pitch) per project for the day. You may pitch more than one project. I suggest every four hours or so tweet a different pitch. Or tweet during breakfast, lunch, & dinner breaks.

Do not include pictures, unless you are an author-illustrator!

Rules for #PitMad 

Everyone is welcome to pitch. All genres/categories are welcomed. Must be completed, polished, unpublished manuscripts. You can pitch more than one manuscript. You may only tweet three pitches total for one project for the entire day. We suggest every four hours tweet a different pitch. Make sure to include the hashtag #PitMad and your age category, and genre/category(s) (if they fit).

Due to Twitter’s new character increase for tweets, pitches can be 280 characters or less. Keep in mind, a tight, concise pitch is best and will help the agents read through the feed faster. But if you need more characters, use them.

The pitch must include the hashtag #PitMad and the category (#YA, #MG, #A, #NA, #PB etc.) in the tweet. The “#” is important to include. It will sort the categories to make it easier for the agents/publishers.

The agents/publishers will tweet their submission preferences and favorite your tweet if they want to see more. If you get a favorite from an agent or publisher, follow their submission preference and send them their request as soon as you can. They should have tweeted what they want you to send, so check their twitter feed for that information. If they haven’t listed it, follow their submission guidelines on their websites. Make sure to put “PitMad Request: TITLE” in the subject line of your email when sending your request.

Don’t tweet agents and publishers directly unless they tweet you first.

Don’t favorite friends tweets. The agents will be requesting by favoriting tweets. so let’s keep that for requests. We allow Retweeting of your friends tweets. Please use Quote-RT and add a comment to the retweet to express your support if possible.

If you can’t be there, you can always schedule your tweet by using Tweetdeck or some other application that schedules tweets.

And finally, be nice and courteous to each other, and especially to the industry professionals. We’ve had some success stories come out of our previous #PitMads and we’d hate to have it canceled due to abuse. If you do see abuse, please report it to Twitter or notify one of the hosts of the event. Thank you!

Below is a list of sub-hashtag categories and genres to separate your pitch from the main #PitMad feed.

Hashtags

Age Categories:

#PB = Picture Book
#C = Children’s
#CB = Chapter Book
#CL = Children’s Lit
#MG = Middle Grade
#YA = Young Adult
#NA = New Adult
#A = Adult

Genres/Sub-genres:

#AC = Action
#AD = Adventure
#BIZ = Bizarro Fiction
#CF = Christian Fiction
#CON = Contemporary
#CR = Contemporary Romance
#DV = Diversity
#E = Erotica
#ER = Erotic Romance
#ES = Erotica Suspense
#F = Fantasy
#FTA = Fairy Tale Retelling
#H = Horror
#HA = Humor
#HF = Historical Fiction
#HR = Historical Romance
#INSP = Inspirational
#MR = Magical Realism
#M = Mystery
#Mem = Memoir
#MA = Mainstream
#MH = Mental Health
#LF = Literary Fiction
#NF = Non-fiction
#P = Paranormal
#PR = Paranormal Romance
#R = Romance
#RS = Romantic Suspense
#STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics
#SF = SciFi
#SPF = Speculative Fiction
#SH = Superhero
#S = Suspense
#T = Thriller
#UF = Urban Fantasy
#VF = Visionary Fiction
#W = Westerns
#WF = Woman’s Fiction

Other hashtags:

#POC = People of Color
#OWN = OwnVoices
#LGBT
#IRMC = Interracial/Multicultural

PLEASE VISIT THE SITE FOR MORE INFORMATION!