Drop by drop, gentle water carves stone.
To conquer a mountain, all it takes is a first step, and then another.
Word by word, a work in progress (WIP) grows into a novel, a series, or body of works.
Follower by follower, author platforms reach more and more people in the writing community, all over the world, helping us find the agent, publisher and readers we seek.
Sometimes, a drop becomes a flood; steps, a stampede; and a handful of virtual acquaintances, a roaring crowd.
First, let’s consider the pitch process.
Having decided there’s nothing more to do (for now) on your WIP, you decide to cast it to the winds and see what fortune it may find.
In the olden days, a writer posted handwritten or typed pages to a publisher or travelled in person and knocked on their doors.
Which door?
I’ve been researching agents and publishers for years.
While pitching these days involves simply hitting “send”, a reply can still take up to six months or never arrive at all.
Now, consider #pitmad, a Twitter event like speed dating on steroids.
#Pitmad takes place at warp speed.
I created a synopsis of 280 characters, including codes denoting #pitmad, #A for adult fiction, and #R for romance.
We could tweet our pitch three times in the 12 hours, which in Australia converted to a 10pm to 10am timeslot.
As a #5amwritersclub member, I love early starts, but, to make the most of the opportunity, a 2am start was needed.
While #pitmad veterans might use Hootsuite or TweetDeck, I was in the thick of it.
What a thrill to discover so many in our #writingcommunity were retweeting pitches! Suddenly, pitches were ricocheting all over Twitter, reaching not just my followers, but also those of my followers’ followers, and vice versa.
Thanks to these generous souls, my synopsis was retweeted 25 times, exposing my pitch to many more agents and publishers than I’d previously identified.
With #pitmad, if an agent or publisher takes an interest in your pitch, they give it a heart. How exciting is that for a romance writer!
I pitched to three new contacts directly after #pitmad. Exhilarating!
Blips in the silence.
Light in the darkness.
Magic.
Email me at AmberJakemanSydney@gmail.com to share your views.
Visit www.amberjakeman.com
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