Pitching Your Manuscript On Twitter’s PitMad Event
By: Reija Sillanpaa
Tags: Writing, Pitmad, Writing Tips, Creativity, Writer

Pitching Your Manuscript On Twitter’s PitMad Event

Is It Worth The Time And Effort to Pitch Your Work During This Quarterly Event?

This December was the first time I took part in Twitter’s PitMad. Since I got my manuscript as polished as I can get it in time for the event, I thought I should give it a go.

But was it worth the time and effort?

What Is PitMad?

PitMad is an opportunity for writers to pitch their unpublished manuscripts to agents. The event takes place four times a year and is open to all genres. There are other pitching events throughout the year, but unlike PitMad, they focus on specific genres.

During the day (8am — 8pm EST), writers can pitch a previously unpublished manuscript. You can write three tweets per book. Your book must be polished and ready to go. If you have more than one manuscript ready, you can tweet a pitch three times for each one.

Agents can show they are interested by liking your tweeted pitch. Once you get a tweet from an agent, you can submit your manuscript by following their submission guidelines.

What Are The Positives?

If you want to pitch your manuscript, it needs to be ready to send to any agents that request it by liking your tweet. Why is that a good thing? Because it gives you a deadline. I have been procrastinating with the final edits to my manuscript, but knowing that I wanted to take part in PitMad, meant I had to get a move on. I now have a manuscript that is ready to go.

You get to practise your book pitch. I came away from the event empty handed. But that’s OK. It simply means I’ve got to work on my pitch. Writing a pitch that catches someone’s attention in 280 characters is tough, and creating three different ones was good practice.

Reading through the pitches from other writers gives you a good idea of what works and what doesn’t. I read some great ones that got me instantly intrigued. But I also read some terrible ones that shouldn’t have seen the light of day.

Mine fell somewhere in the middle. This one got the most retweets by other writers.

After 20 years, Kati returns to her hometown hoping to find solace in her new home. Instead, she discovers her home comes with its own dark secrets. Will Kati be able to slay the demons of the past to find peace and happiness again?

The biggest positive I took away from the event was the support of the Twitter writing community. It’s uplifting to have other writers give positive feedback on your pitch.

What Were The Negatives?

One negative is the sheer amount of tweeted pitches. I tried my best to show my support to fellow writers and retweet the ones I liked. But with new tweets posted almost every second, I’m sure I missed lots of great pitches.

I’m sure the agents miss some of them, too. You can narrow your category down by selecting age and genre hashtags, but even then, the agents must scroll through hundreds of pitches. There comes a point when they need a break.

And when the agent gets back to the tweets, hundreds more might have been tweeted while they weren’t looking. What if yours just fell in the gap when the agent wasn’t looking?

Timing your pitches right is a challenge. How do you know what is the best time to tweet? I posted my first one a few minutes past 8am EST. So did several hundred others.

I know this might sound like I’m finding excuses for why agents did not favourite my tweeted pitches. I promise I’m not looking for excuses. I’m the first to admit that my pitch wasn’t as great as some others I read.

My Conclusion

I enjoyed the experience. It was an opportunity to learn and improve.

Would I do it again? Definitely. It was fun and so what if I didn’t get an agent liking my tweets? That doesn’t mean my book is not good. It just means my pitching is not yet good enough.

Would I rely on PitMad to get my manuscript noticed? Definitely not. Because of the numbers taking part, even the greatest of pitches can slip by unnoticed. Which is why the hard road of querying is still a more reliable way to get your manuscript in front of the right agent.