Pitmad is on! Are you?

[Karen Gray]

Do you have twitter @David Steele ?

 

[Emurelda]

Sorry, don't know what 'pitmad' is....please, not ANOTHER social media platform?

Oh sorry - I should really have explained what I meant. Making assumptions again. On the plus side it isn't another social platform. It's a tool used to search a topic on twitter (now facebook have adopted it). If you type #pitmad on Twitter search facility, then all those people who are participating in the event will show up. This is where literary agents come in. They type in #pitmad and then they type in the genre they specialise in e.g. #mg for middle grade #sff science fiction and fantasy etc. They read your tweets if they are interested in them then they will favourite it. Then, like @Karen Gray has shown us, you submit to them following their guidelines.

Of course your tweet may get completely unnoticed amidst all those that are tweeting too so it helps when other 'retweet' your tweet - you tweet me? Hence my OP.

I like using twitter to see reactions to news events e.g if you want to know more about the tsunami you can type in #tsunami or whatever you wanted to learn more about or research more about.

As writers I think it is not just useful to connect with other writers online but to learn about what is current. Many literary agents announce new authors they have taken on on twitter. I like to read the books that these new authors have been accepted for to see what is the taste of that particular agent. It just gives a bit of live flavour to what is current within the literary world.

For you Marc it might be useful to search 'short story submissions' and see who is currently looking for what. You never know....

 

[Emurelda]

Oh right. Pitmad was an opportunity for writers who use twitter to connect with agents with a sales pitch. Looks like I missed it though, because the word meant nothing to me in isolation!
Is it an annual thing? I know what it is now, but I still don't know what the word means!

Brenda Drake initiated 'pitmad' . http://www.brenda-drake.com/pitmad/

The next one is on September 10 from 8am EST to 8pm.

Pit = pitch
mad = am not sure what this one stands for other than the obvious.

So pitch madly is how my head interprets it. I think you have to be a little bit on the mad side to be fair which is all good

 

[Emurelda]

http://dankoboldt.com/sffpit/
2 weeks time x

Excellent thanks...am going to fine tune my tweets.

 

[Emurelda]

It means 'pitch madness'

"Pitch Madness is a contest held every March, where writers enter for a chance to win requests from the participating agents. Writers submit a 35-word (max) pitch and the first 250 words of their completed manuscript on submission day. Then a team of readers choose the top sixty (60) entries to go onto the agent round. The agents play a game against the other agents to win requests for more pages of their favorite entries. The best played agent request wins either a partial or full manuscript read of the entry. The game for Pitch Madness changes each event. We’ve played poker, paintball, darts, and Monopoly."
http://www.brenda-drake.com/pitch-madness/

 

[Marc Joan]

À la Board Stiff.

Ha ha! I hope not...!!

 

[Marc Joan]

It means 'pitch madness'

"Pitch Madness is a contest held every March, where writers enter for a chance to win requests from the participating agents. Writers submit a 35-word (max) pitch and the first 250 words of their completed manuscript on submission day. Then a team of readers choose the top sixty (60) entries to go onto the agent round. The agents play a game against the other agents to win requests for more pages of their favorite entries. The best played agent request wins either a partial or full manuscript read of the entry. The game for Pitch Madness changes each event. We’ve played poker, paintball, darts, and Monopoly."
http://www.brenda-drake.com/pitch-madness/

OK, so I haven't looked at the link, but it sounds like you are saying that authors' 'pitching success' relies on agents' success in one or more games of chance....Is it just me, or does this sound like a vaguely humiliating way of going about things? Could the authors be any more devalued? Or have I missed something?

 

[Alistair Roberts]

I have a headache now, and I #pitmad once, I hope that was enough.... lol

 

[Emurelda]

OK, so I haven't looked at the link, but it sounds like you are saying that authors' 'pitching success' relies on agents' success in one or more games of chance....Is it just me, or does this sound like a vaguely humiliating way of going about things? Could the authors be any more devalued? Or have I missed something?

Depends on your starting position with respect to twitter. What I find in the world that when choose not to like something then everything about it is wrong. Wrt to pitmad it's just a fun way to get exposure. No guarantees just a bit of fun. Others prefer to keep heads down focus on a different path - all are good.

Am not sure what you mean by games of chance - is it any different to submissions game of chance?

 

[Emurelda]

I just noticed that that pitch madness description isn't the same as the #pitmad submissions. Not sure what that one is about.

 

[Karen Gray]

Excellent thanks...am going to fine tune my tweets.

I'may keeping the one that seems to catch their attention, will have to work on better ones for book 1 and think some up for book 3 eep

 

[Jason Byrne]

It means 'pitch madness'

"Pitch Madness is a contest held every March, where writers enter for a chance to win requests from the participating agents. Writers submit a 35-word (max) pitch and the first 250 words of their completed manuscript on submission day. Then a team of readers choose the top sixty (60) entries to go onto the agent round. The agents play a game against the other agents to win requests for more pages of their favorite entries. The best played agent request wins either a partial or full manuscript read of the entry. The game for Pitch Madness changes each event. We’ve played poker, paintball, darts, and Monopoly."
http://www.brenda-drake.com/pitch-madness/

Publisher paintball...
Takin' all bets!

That is hilarious. I see what you mean, Marc, but social media in publishing it's taking its first wobbly baby-deer steps. Has to be a tie in to the March Madness NCAA basketball publicity. Likely, it will continue to grow and evolve with time. For now, it's another tool available. The same thing was probably said of e-mail submissions, ten years ago.

 

[Emurelda]

Publisher paintball...
Takin' all bets!

That is hilarious. I see what you mean, Marc, but social media in publishing it's taking its first wobbly baby-deer steps. Has to be a tie in to the March Madness NCAA basketball publicity. Likely, it will continue to grow and evolve with time. For now, it's another tool available. The same thing was probably said of e-mail submissions, ten years ago.

To be fair that was a weird example for pitmad. As it had nothing to do with the actual pitmad tweets...only referenced it showing its 'mad origin'.