Writing's been a bit slow since I got back from Swanwick. Yes, I've been procrastinating again, playing through another campaign in Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom while I pass the time before going back to university.
Anyway, yesterday I took part in Pitch Madness, a quarterly writing event hosted by the Pitch Wars mentoring programme intended to help writers find agents. For 12 hours on a given day, writers tweet pitches for their works, using the tag #PitMad. However, users are specifically asked not to like any of the the pitches unless they're an agent or publisher (but retweeting is fine).
In order to illustrate this, I've included a screenshot of my pitch. This includes the hashtags, an "X meets Y" statement if it fits, and the pitch itself. The hashtags include the mandatory #PitMad tag, a mandatory age catergory (New Adult), and some optional genres (Action, Adventure, and Historical Fiction).
In fact, I actually came up with this pitch during one of the courses at Swanwick this year. If you want advice on how to pitch, I believe you must ensure that your pitch contains a situation, a protagonist, an antagonist, and an objective.
I've taken part in Pitch Madness a couple of times, and this was the first time I've had someone like my pitch (who wasn't just a bot advertising hair treatment). So, the next step is to research the two publishers in question. I'm relatively new to this side of the writing world, so my general rule of thumb is make sure they're not asking for any kind of upfront fees.
Of course, if you don't get any likes, it's still a good way to network with other writers on Twitter. As Pitch MAdness usually takes place on a Thursday, I like to dedicate the traditional #FollowFriday shout-outs to anybody who shared my pitch.
Now it's time for some shameless promotion.
I received a like from Something or Other Publishing (SOOP), who run an unusual model in which writers submit a story idea and then people can vote on it. If the idea receives 2000 votes, then a publishing contract can be drawn up. There are also a few milestones in which other services are offered if they receive a certain amount of votes.
If you'd like to vote for my story, you can find the link to the SOOP page here. I'd very much appreciate the support.
If you'd like to learn more about Pitch Madness, you can find the guidelines here. The next one is due to take place on 5th December.
Happy writing.
