Writers in the Storm

Literary Agent Carly Watters

In the past year Twitter pitch contests are everywhere. There’s #PitchMas and #PitMad (which is next Tuesday: Sept 9^th!) and many others for specific genres. I’ve done one with the Women’s Fiction Writing Association with the hashtag #WFpitch. Some writers are seasoned at it and it comes naturally. Others think: “140 characters? How could I possibly pitch my book in that little space?”

The good news is you can do it with a little help.

Here’s a guide to answer your burning questions about Twitter pitch contests.

Should you enter?

This is the big question! Ask yourself these questions below:

• Is your novel complete?
• Are you done with revisions?
• Are you querying it anyway?

If you answered yes to these questions, you’re in!

But…

• Do you have an exclusive with a specific agent?
• Do you already have an agent?
• Are you feeling rushed?

If you answer yes to these questions, you’re out.

My big advice is that if your book isn’t done, don’t jump in. There are many Twitter Pitch Contests every year so don’t feel like you have to be involved in every one. Wait until your book is ready. You only have one chance to impress an agent.

How do I craft my Tweets?

• In advance! Don't stress yourself out on the day of the contest. Make sure you’re practicing and even show a friend to see if they get the gist without the context like an agent would.
• Use the hashtag or else the agents or editors won’t see it
• Use a qualifier: i.e. #WF = women’s fiction, #YA = Young Adult, #A = Adult, #MG = Middle Grade, #SFF = Sci Fi and Fantasy
• Make sure you tell us enough, vague tweets are seldom helpful
• Don’t use character or place names, they take up too much space
• Every word counts, you can omit articles (the, a, an) to make your point and get in under 140 characters
• A trick that works wonders is varying your tweets about the same book. Have 3 different pitch options and vary them throughout the day. Don’t repeat the same pitch 8x—we’ve read it already.
• Here’s a top tip: A Twitter Pitch is just the hook so be sure to include the motivation, crisis and the secret.

Samples: How to pitch in 140 characters

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

When escaping WWII 4 children go to magical, tyrannical land through wardrobe to fulfill prophecy & save both worlds. #PitMad #SFF

The Three Little Pigs

Brothers devoured by a killer known as Big Bad Wolf, third pig fights for his life with a pile of bricks between him & death #PitMad #A

Alice in Wonderland

Girl abducted by rabbit from family picnic to fight war in magical dimension. When put on trial for her life, will she wake up? #PitMad #YA

How do I send my material to those who requested?

Agents will be looking at these Twitter feeds all day. Some early in the day and some later in the day. Patience is key. Once they star your tweet here’s what to do.

• Agents will use their Twitter feed to explain how they want their material (which email address to send to and what format)
• If an agent forgets to state this in their feed (and please look first) then you can tweet them to ask how they would like it sent
• Use the subject heading to explain the contest and your book title: #PitMad Request: MY BOOK TITLE
• Follow the agent’s guidelines
• If you have submitted to them in the past still send your material, but let them know in the body of the new email

Twitter Pitch Contest Etiquette

• Leave the starring of the Tweets to the agents and editors—don't get someone’s hopes up or confuse them
• It’s okay to Retweet your friends (but not star!)
• Only post once per hour or 6 times per day. Agents trolling the feed all day will get annoyed if it’s more than that.
• You can be sneaky and see when your favorite agents are going on via their Twitter feed and plan your tweets accordingly.

How do agents feel about Twitter Pitch Contests?

Rest assured, some agents definitely make time for these contests. But not all agents. And remember, we end up seeing a lot of the books that were pitched to us in the slush pile too. Twitter pitch contests are a great way to get your project in front of people’s eyes who you’re not aware of. But if you have a specific agent you want to target make sure you query them.

Personally, I haven’t signed a client from a #PitMad or #PitchMas, but I have signed clients from #MSWL and Brenda Drake’s Pitch Madness.

That said, I still keep an eye out and star Tweets whenever there is a Twitter pitch contest. I’m always looking for great new talent.

It’s not a deal breaker if you can’t write a 140 character pitch, but it sure does impress agents that you can boil your hook down like that.

Remember: A Twitter Pitch Contest is not a substitute for a query.

Now, are you ready for a contest? What’s your experience been with twitter pitch parties? What advice can you share with those jumping in for the first time?

Here are the dates for our upcoming #PitMad events:

•  September 9, 2014
• December 4, 2014
• March 11, 2015
• June 4, 2015
• September 10, 2015
• December 4, 2015

#PitMad starts at 8AM and ends at 8PM EST

About Carly

Carly Watters began her publishing career in London, England at the Darley Anderson Literary, TV and Film Agency and Bloomsbury. She completed her MA in Publishing Studies at City University London with a thesis on the social, political and economic impact of literary prizes on trade publishing. Now a VP and Senior Literary Agent at the P.S. Literary Agency she is actively building her list and looking for new writers. Never without a book on hand, she reads across categories which is reflected in the genres she represents: women’s fiction, upmarket fiction, YA, literary thrillers and select non fiction. She has placed books at Penguin Group, Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Adams Media and more for her growing list of authors. Find her online at www.carlywatters.com and on Twitter @carlywatters.

We decided to have a bit of fun on this first day of September (right after hyperventilating that we're already in September) and issue a friendly 9-1 flavored writing challenge.

Here’s how it works: Go to your work in progress or upcoming release or recent release. Pick the 9th paragraph of chapter 1 OR the 1st paragraph of chapter 9.

Post it in the comments below. And please cheer on all the brave writers who share their paragraphs with us.

We’ll get the party started:

Laura Drake, Sweet On You (released August 26!!! and yes, that's a live link)

Murphy grinned from the seat of the Jeep he’d commandeered—best not to ask where. Last night in the ER, when he’d invited her on a trip to town, she couldn’t resist. Most soldiers longed for a taste of home. They cheered when fast food franchises opened on base. Not Katya. She loved unfamiliar spices and exotic local dishes. She’d even tried the boiled sheep’s head a street vendor once offered, finding the flavor of the facial meat fabulous once she got past the staring white eye and the grinning exposed teeth.

Jenny Hansen, A Sister in Need

The woman in front of her wore a pink mini-dress. Agatha tried hard not to focus on the pert bottom playing peek-a-boo with the hem. When the bells on the door jangled again, Agatha jumped, swiveling toward the sound. The woman who entered had a towering pile of red hair secured in glittering clips. Her dress was nearly a replica of the blonde’s, but in a vibrant sapphire blue.

Orly Konig-Lopez, Healing Hoofbeats

I turn and I’m face-to-chest with the man I adopted to be my grandfather. “Simon.” I look up into the same brown eyes that had given a timid girl the confidence to get on a horse for the very first time.

Fae Rowen, Keeping Athena

She saw the Keep ships streak above her then whip around to engage her battle group’s defensive formation. The enemy fighters concentrated their fire on the luminous Wraith. Its hull temperature rose until the safety board sensors screeched.

Okay WITS readers, your turn. Post your paragraph in the comments, below. :-)

Hope all of you in the U.S. are having a great Labor Day!
~ Fae, Jenny, Laura, and Orly

Some brilliant authors I know began a blog some time ago, called Book Pregnant, to document their travels (and travails) as their first books were born into the world. They’ve moved on to other things, but if you’ve just made your first sale (or published on your own for the first time), the wisdom is still lying there for you to pick up.

It occurred to me in the shower this morning that we all go through being ‘book pregnant’, with every book we write.

Think about it. First, there's -

Conception

You are friggin' brilliant. You came up with a plot that is so fresh, so clever and unique, you cannot WAIT to get your hands on a keyboard. Depending on your process, you may actually run to a keyboard. Or start outlining. Or take notes longhand. Or... You get the idea. The concept is bright an shiny in your head, and you can picture the book, complete and perfect, in your hand.

I call this phase the, 'It's perfect because I haven't had a chance to screw it up yet.'

You are giddy. You're smug. And like a couple who have waited to conceive, you're relieved. And totally unrealistic about the journey. Oh yes, you may have written six books, so you know your process, but this time, it's going to be different. Easier. PERFECT.

Then comes -

The First Trimester

You've written an amazing beginning. The setup is engrossing. The first line is so good, it made you cry. Now you're going to dig into the meat. You are filling out the character's personalities, flaws and backstories.  You're playing. Like an expectant mom, you're in love with all the changes taking place. Linger here as long as you can, because next is:

 

The Second Trimester (aka: dreaded middle)

Oh yeah, it looks all happy and cuddly, right? And it is - in the beginning. But then that cute little blue elephant above starts stomping on your head, during the day, and in your nightmares. Mothers-to-be start worrying about defective genes, birth defects, nightmare birth stories . . . and so do you, the author. What sounded brilliant in the beginning now is revealed as folly. You're bogged down in detail and impossible blind alleys. 

Oh, and you're starting the hate this friggin' book. You have nightmares of your editor's (or crit group's) maniacal laughter.  You consider giving up the writing gig to become an airport bathroom attendant.  By the end of this trimester, you're wishing for those toilets.

If you survive this phase, next is:

 

The Third Trimester

You've pulled yourself out of the mucky middle. You're not sure if that part holds together, and at this point you don't really care. Because you detest this damned book. The deadline is bearing down on you like a crazed bull, and you're not even sure it wouldn't be better to be trampled under his hooves. Because then you wouldn't have to worry about this flying-monkey-of-a-book anymore. 

But then, a miracle happens. You stop angsting about the plot holes, the character issues, and fall into the book again. Because that kick-a$$ ending you pictured from the very beginning is coming. You can feel it. By the last couple of chapters you and your characters are doing an intricate forest faerie dance, and bluebirds are twining all the loose threads together in a magical beautiful bows that you hadn't even seen coming!

As the expectant couple, you're looking forward to that amazing day:

 

The Birth (aka: The End)

You did it! You typed THE END, and your book was born! (except for the 14 edits and rewrites).  Yeah, you have all that baby weight to lose (put on due thanks to stress, spoonfuls of peanut butter and remaining plopped in a chair for months).

You're now in love with the hero yourself and are a little jealous that the heroine ends up with him. But you're willing to let bygones be bygones, because your characters are walking hand in hand, into the sunset.

*Sigh*

Damn, I love this book.

Or is this just MY process? They say every pregnancy is different. How is it for you?

 

Sweet on You, Laura's August 26 release, was completed long ago so it's now her favorite book. But don't trust a proud mom, because Romantic Times liked it too!

4 ½ Stars TOP PICK!

Drake does it again, with a terrific contemporary western. She takes this time-honored format and injects such fully formed characters and realistic scenarios that you might think it is nonfiction dealing with everything from PTSD to the aging athlete, all while giving us a wonderful romance. Just top notch. While this is part of a series, the Sweet on a Cowboy books are completely independent of each other.

‘*******************

SUMMARY: Army medic Katya Smith is unable to get past the experience of losing a fellow soldier. She can’t go back to her unit until she can keep from melting down, so she takes a job as a medic for the pro bull riding circuit in an effort to recover her mojo. She doesn’t expect to become attached to the sport or the riders, especially the king rider of them all, Cam Cahill. Cam is a two-time world champion, but those years have taken a toll. It is time to retire, but he can’t imagine himself off the circuit. Katya does wonderful things for his body, but he is not certain he is ready for the things she does for his heart. She has made it plain this is a temp job, but if he could get her to stay, he can see a whole new future.