For the first time, we participated in Pitch Madness on Twitter, hosted by Pitch Wars. We had an absolute blast seeing all the cool pitches (honestly can’t wait to read a lot of them!) and will be most definitely participating in the next one. 

So what is #PitMad and how do you participate? It’s actually very simple. You draft up to three different pitches (though only one is technically necessary) and post them to Twitter. You must use the hashtag #PitMad to be eligible, along with your genres and other available markers. 

Via their website ⇢ #PitMad is a pitch party on Twitter where writers tweet a 280-character pitch for their completed, polished, unpublished manuscripts. Agents and editors make requests by liking/favoriting the tweeted pitch.

Notice they said completed, polished, and unpublished. That’s incredibly important. While you may have a clear vision of your story, if it isn’t finished, you aren’t eligible. This is to protect both sides in this scenario. You don’t want to put out an awesome pitch, have a bunch of agents favorite it, only to have to tell them you’re not finished yet. The momentum from #PitMad is crucial. They’re going to favorite the ones they want to see right then, not in a couple of months or so. 

Now, back to the pitch itself. You are able to pitch three different pitches (like we said above), to see if one variation works better than another, and schedule them for certain points of the day. They advise you to do your research on this one. Most agents will post the day before, at the very least, letting those following them know that they’re participating. It’s held four times a year, so you’re fine if you don’t hit every single one. If you’re trying to get a certain agent to notice you that you think might be a good fit, make sure you post when you know they’ll be on, if they’re participating. 

What happens if an agent favorites your tweet? Most agents will pin a tweet regarding submission process. If they don’t, they should at least have a link to the agency or publishing house they work for in their bio. If they don’t, it’s not a good sign. You shouldn’t have to go on an online safari to find out where to submit to. An unorganized agent isn’t going to do you or your story any favors, so be wary. Also, as a side note, not all people who see the #PitMad hashtag understand what it is. It is supposed to be reserved for agents. If you like another author’s tweet, you should reblog it, not favorite it so there’s no confusion. However, those not privy to all this info might favorite it because they think it sounds cool. It actually happened to us a couple of times. Just make sure you go to the profile and check it out. If they seem legit, go ahead and submit. And make sure you follow their specific process to a T. Don’t just copy/paste the same thing. Personalize it as much as you can. 

What if no one favorites any of your tweets? That happens. #PitMad is a hashtag that will be swamped most of the day. That’s why they restrict people to posting only three times all day. You can post the same tweet three times, or three different tweets. I know if you’re shopping more than one finished novel, you get three tweets for each one. Just don’t get discouraged. It’s not because your story isn’t good. It just means the right agent may not have seen it. You can always check out manuscript wishlist! If you’re not sure what that is, or how to navigate the site, shoot me a DM and I’ll be more than happy to help. 

I submitted. Now what? Well, now you get to wait. Sometimes for a long time. Sometimes you never hear anything else and it stalls at this phase. Publishing traditionally isn’t for every author and every story. 

Overall review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 stars

We will participating in all future #PitMad’s that we have a finished manuscript for. It was run very smoothly, professionally, and was incredibly organized. We also plan on submitting to their Pitch Wars, which is a separate thing. 

We did get several favorites and submitted to all the agents that requested. So far we have had one request for a full manuscript, which looks very promising, and one rejection. The others haven’t responded, but they all had online submission forms we can track, which is incredibly nice. Regardless, none of the agents are required to send any type of information back on why they didn’t like it, if they even read it, etc. Does that suck? Yes, but that’s the way it works. They’re incredibly busy too, so demanding a resolution one way or another isn’t appropriate or professional. Remember, there are so many other things you can do to get your book out into the world if #PitMad doesn’t work out. 

If you have any other questions, just send us a message (or go anon if you need to) and we’ll answer them all. 

Thanks,

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