What is #PitMad?
#PitMad is a Twitter pitch party run by the writing organization Pitch Wars. It’s a way for writers to pitch their books in a single tweet to multiple literary agents and editors. I’m a big fan of #PitMad because I connected with my agent through it last summer.
When is #PitMad?
#PitMad happens four times a year and tomorrow (March 5th) is the first one of 2020. The other three will take place June 4th, September 3rd, and December 3rd. They run from 8 am to 8 pm Eastern Time.
There are multiple other pitch parties that happen throughout the year not run by Pitch Wars, such as #DVpit (books by diverse authors), #faithpitch (faith-based books), #kisspitch (romance books), #SFFpit (sci-fi and fantasy books.) Check out these hashtags on Twitter to find their pitch party dates.
Who can participate in #PitMad?
Anyone with a completed and polished manuscript can participate in #PitMad. Authors must be ready to send their manuscript right away. #PitMad is open to both fiction and non-fiction as well as all ages and genres.
How does #PitMad work?
Authors must be able to fit their pitch into a 280-character tweet. This is the maximum number of characters Twitter allows for a single tweet and I recommend writing out your pitch ahead of time. It’s harder than you think to pitch a book in exactly 280 characters. Pitches must include the hashtag #PitMad as well as the age category (ie #PB for picture book, #YA for young adult, #A for adult). It’s also recommended to include the genre of your book (ie #M for mystery, #SF for sci-fi, #F for fantasy.) A list of all suggested hashtags can be found here.
Throughout the day, authors can pitch multiple manuscripts but can only pitch each one three times. I would recommend spreading the tweets out throughout the day as well as rewording them to grab more attention.
Agents and editors then like/favourite any tweets that interest them. This is an invitation to query them. Agents and editors may or may not have specific #PitMad instructions for querying so double check their Twitter accounts for more information. When you query, remember to thank them for liking your #PitMad post.
Since liking a tweet is only for agents and editors, a great way to support fellow authors is to comment and retweet their pitches.
If you don’t receive any likes right away, keep your pitches up for a few days because some agents and editors wait until the weekend to sort through the #PitMad tweets. My agent liked my pitch a few days after the pitch party.
Are you participating in #PitMad? Let me know and follow me on Twitter so I can retweet your pitch! Happy Pitching!
Here is the link to the official #PitMad page for more info.
