I mentioned last week that I was going to go full on with the madness that is associated with querying and participate in Pit Mad. So, I did.
On Thursday 5th September I joined the many writers dreaming of having their work traditionally published and participated in my first Pit Mad.
For those who have no idea what Pit Mad is, it is basically a chance for writers to pitch their novels on Twitter over a period of twelve hours when agents, editors, and publishers can see it. They can request more information by giving it a heart. If an agent, editor, or publisher likes your tweet. you can send them a query or further information about your novel, depending on their submission guidelines. Pit Mad is scheduled every three months.
Until earlier this year I had never heard of Pit Mad or Pitch Wars. I had no idea how to write a pitch. Fortunately for me, before the Pit Mad in June, I was invited to join a Facebook group that did a seven day pitching workshop. It was brilliant. The workshop ran through seven steps to creating the perfect pitch, and what’s more, the group was there to provide feedback and support at every stage. My novel wasn’t ready to pitch in June so, even though I had my pitches ready, I did the final edits on my novel, and waited for September to come around.
So, after the euphoria of submitting my novel to Harper Collins, I decided to run with it and pitched my novel. I followed the standard advice and wrote three different pitches to post evenly over the twelve hours. My first, and best, pitch went out early and I received four likes. Four parties were interested in receiving more information about my novel. I could not believe it! My second received one like, but my third none. Not forgetting the number of retweets I was given by my fellow writers and supporters.
I have to say, whatever happens regarding the initial interest in my novel, my first Pit Mad experience was fantastic. I feel such a sense of achievement that I managed to write a pitch that gained some interest in the first place. I never would have believed I was able to do this twelve months ago. I also got to read some fantastic pitches from my fellow writers, gained some extra Twitter followers, and discovered some interesting peeps to follow back.
Would I do it again? Yes, of course. It was a massive learning curve, but the real learning is yet to come. Now I have to do some research on the parties that showed interest, and send a query letter. Oh, how my nerves are jangling at the thought.
