I participated in my third pitching contest of the year. First, I joined Twitter to jump on the "PitMad" bandwagon. I believe I demonstrated I had no idea what I was doing for that one. Next was the "PBPitch" event, I do have a couple children's books I wrote, Mary the Fairy Without Wings and Bridgette Breathes Fire. My pitches improved, and I got some encouragement from the writing community. The latest event was the "SFFpit," which focuses on Science Fiction and Fantasy, and I feel I almost did everything right.
Let's discuss the pros and cons of these contests, and I'll also share a couple of dos and don'ts.
Cons
1) The purpose of these pitch events is the idea that agents and publishers are aware of them and watching the hashtag to "like" the pitches from whom they would like to receive a query. However, there is no way to know how many agents and publishers are actually participating.
2) Your Pitch can be quickly buried due to huge piles of retweets. In the weeks leading up to events, writers agree to promote each other and retweet the pitches to keep them relevant. Some of the pitches get RT well over 100x, and if your pitch isn't getting much action, an agent is unlikely to see it.
3) No feedback. You pitch your heart out, some pitches get the retweet love, some get none, but either way, you don't know what you've done well or haven't done well. You can't use the retweets as a reliable gauge because some people will have more friends than you who will be retweeting the pitch regardless of whether or not they believe it is good. You are your only judge of how successfully you pitched your story.
4) It can be a lot of work. Some of the pitching events only allow you to pitch a few times during the event, which isn't so bad. The "SFFPit" allowed for up to 10 posts. At first, I was excited at the idea of creating 10 unique pitches. It was actually exhausting and hard to keep up, especially since I needed to keep up with the RTs I promised while also following up on any likes or comments I received. I was glued to my phone all day.
Pros
1) Perfect your elevator pitch. You will see many agents ask for a one or two-sentence pitch for your book when querying. Twitter limits you to 280 characters, including the hashtags, so it is a great way to practice summarizing your story.
2) Building camaraderie with the writing community. As I said before, in the weeks leading up to the event, there will be posts offering to RT your post in exchange for the same, and some others will not be participating in the event but still enjoy seeing the pitches and helping out others. I kept my promise list of RTs under 15 because I felt that was what I could reasonably handle. The Twitter writing community is very active, and I enjoyed seeing which of my posts got the most hype from the other writers.
3) You can see what else is out there or soon to be out there. Everyone has the main hashtag when they participate in the event, and almost everyone has at least one additional to help narrow down the category. For instance, for The Light Keeper, I used the tags #MG (middle grade) and #UF (urban fantasy). Not only does it help the agents know what kind of story it is, but you can search for those hashtags on Twitter and see what else is trying to be marketed right now. You can believe if someone is partaking in the pitching contest, they have also sent plenty of normal queries. If you see a lot of ideas like your own, it may be a clue as to why you haven't received an offer of representation yet.
4) It can help your Twitter stats. The more you tweet, the more likely your tweets are to be seen by others. During pitching contests, you'll be active from not only posting your pitches but also from your retweets. I hit 104 total tweets yesterday, 9 were my pitches, 3 posts to the writing community, and the rest were RTs. When the pitching contest concludes, you should have good visibility on Twitter, so don't squander the opportunity by sliding under a rock until the next event comes about.
What is my overall opinion of pitching events? I enjoy them, but I am not banking on them to actually find me an agent. Unless I can find an event specifically for middle-grade fantasy, I think the pitching events aren't searching for me. I can say, those with the more niche hashtags, like #OWN #DIS #BVM, have more success. Many agents are searching for those who have historically been underrepresented.
Here are a few dos and don'ts. Please remember, this is only my advice and not hard and fast rules.
DO use appropriate hashtags
DON'T mislead by using the wrong hashtags
DO retweet pitches you like and anyone you promised to RT
DON'T intentionally not retweet anyone, retweet yourself, or like anyone's posts (that's only for the agents/publishers).
DO use comp titles. This is another way for the agents/publishers to know the style and voice of your book.
DON'T comp to legendary titles unless there are many similarities. Also, tread carefully when comping to older titles as it can make it seem like you don't know what is popular in the current market.
DO add some variety to your pitches. You get different opportunities to post for a reason.
DON'T tweet the same thing over and over. Twitter will think you're a bot if you don't switch your post up at least a little bit. Rearrange your hashtags at the very least.
DO comment on other tweets that sound interesting to you. If you like hearing someone loves your idea, you can bet they'd love to hear the same. Support each other!
DON'T schedule your tweets and not check in on the live feed.
DO research any publishers/agents who "like" your pitches. Not all of them are well-known or from well-established publishing houses. Some might even want you to invest financially in your book's publication.
DON'T DM the agents/publishers unless they ask you to do so. Most will have instructions on their profiles for how to submit to them if they like your post.
Just for fun, I'll share my pitches and the interactions I received below. If you don't care to read them, that is fine. I hope you found this helpful. Writers- keep on writing! Readers - we couldn't do this without you.
1) 12yo Isaac screwed up big time. He found faeries in his attic and used them to do his dirty work; once released they started rampaging his town. Someone must fix it; Mom says it's him. With the help of his neighbor can Isaac take responsibility and save his town? (45rt, 1 quote tweet, 4 likes, 3 comments)
2) Faeries released from the magic glass must perform any 3 tasks the releaser desires. When 12yo Isaac finds a chest of faeries, nothing is off the table until he learns the released fae are opening the veil between the human and faerie world. Now he must stop them (12rt)
3) ALADDIN X POKEMON #SFFpit #MG #UF Isaac has been getting his wishes granted thanks to releasing faeries from their glass prisons, but he'll have to catch 'em all once they start using their magic for evil and threaten to tear the veil between the human and faerie worlds. (48rt, 1 quote tweet, 1 like, 5 comments)
4) A locked chest. Faeries who grant favors. A lost family secret. Isaac didn't know how wrong releasing a few faeries could go until his town fell to chaos. He must find a way to stop those who he released before they take over. (20 rt, 1 like, 2 comments)
5) Long ago, light keepers were created to protect humans from evil fae. When 12yo Isaac accidentally releases the High King's knight, he must take up his family's ancient title to stop the knight from tearing the veil between the human and faerie realms. (45rt, 2 quote tweets, 1 like, 3 comments)
6) Light keepers protect humans from evil faeries. Guardians create the tools to do so. When faeries take over their town and try to tear open the veil, 12yo Isaac and Yara must use their roles to stop the invasion. Too bad Isaac started it. (12rt)
7) ALADDIN X POKEMON Isaac has been getting his wishes granted thanks to releasing faeries from their glass prisons, but he'll have to catch 'em all once they start using their magic for evil and threaten to tear the veil between the human and faerie worlds. [This was a duplicate tweet as the other had been successful, I moved the hashtags so it wouldn't be flagged as a duplicate] (70rt, 4 quote tweets, 4 likes, 4 comments).
8) PERCY JACKSON X POKEMON 12yo Isaac didn't know he was special. What's a light keeper anyways? Now he has to stop the faeries from taking over his town and capture them all. Thank goodness his friends have his back and a little magic of their own. (11rt, 1 quote tweet)
9) How could 12yo Isaac know releasing faeries was a bad idea or that they would try to tear a hole in the veil between the human and faerie worlds? Together with the strange girl across the street, he will try to stop the problem he created. (64 rt, 2 quote tweets, 9 likes, 5 comments)
** I missed my opportunity to tweet when I was out to lunch. Other than that, I tweeted once per hour. You can see which posts were more popular amongst the community. The comments and quoted retweets made me smile and feel like people are excited about my book.
I would like to add that #PitMad is likely the largest event of all the contests, it happens quarterly and is not restricted by category. The next #PitMad event is scheduled for September 2, 2021. Please remember, these events are intended only for those with a complete and polished novel. If you wouldn't query it otherwise, this event is not for you.