#PitMad? No Problem! The Ultimate Guide to Creating the Perfect Pitch

Now that most agents have re-opened to queries, and #PitMad is in full swing, it’s time to talk about the right way to prepare your pitch to sell your book. In this March series, I’ll be focused on selling your novel or memoir, because selling other kinds of nonfiction requires a different process. However, in terms of selling your book, memoir works more like fiction, so we can treat them together. 

What is #PitMad, you may ask? For a full explanation and all the rules, head on over to: https://pitchwars.org/pitmad/. Basically, it is a series of specific days where you can shoot your shot on Twitter, tweeting out your pitch and hoping it will get a “like/favorite” from an agent. If so, you can send your query to that agent (following their guidelines). This is a bonus because a) it gets your pitch in front of many agents at a time and b) when you send your actual query, they will have already indicated an interest in your book. Of course, it doesn’t mean they will take it, or even request more pages, but deals do happen from #PitMad. 

Conversely, don’t get discouraged if no one likes your pitch. It might be that the right agents weren’t on Twitter that day (not every agent in the world participates, and they don’t always do every date) or they simply didn’t see your pitch – remember, hundreds will be appearing every hour.  

General Guidelines:

1.     First, have a completed manuscript ready to go. Do not pitch an incomplete project, just to see if it garners “likes” from agents. They will not want to see a partial manuscript! Also, it must be completely unpublished. Please be sure to follow the rules at the above link!

2.     Make sure your pitch is strong – more on that below. 

3.     Always tweet with the correct hashtags. Use #PitMad but also any hashtags that identify your work = age range, e.g. #YA, #MG;  and genre, e.g. #F (fantasy) #H (horror) #HF historical fiction, etc. You may also want to add special hashtags relevant to your work such as #OWN (own voices) #POC (person of color) #BVM (Black Voices Matter), #ND (neurodiverse subject matter), etc. You can find the complete list of possible hashtags at the link above. Keep to the ones on the list. Don’t make up your own, or agents won’t be able to find you (they may search for relevant pitches vis hashtags).

4.     You can pitch different books if you want to, but you can only do three pitches per book throughout the day, so choose wisely! You can do the same pitch, or slightly different ones and see which gets the most traction.

5.     Don’t attach links or visuals, and keep your pitch to ONE Tweet. 

6.     Ask your friends on Twitter to retweet your pitch to gain even more exposure. They should simply retweet it, not make it a “quote tweet.” They should NOT favorite it – that is for agents only. Retweeting, however, helps the Twitter algorithms boost it. Also, pin your tweet to the top of your page to help agents and friends find it more easily. 

7.     If an agent does “like” your work, check their recent tweets to see if they have special instructions for #PitMad. If not, check their regular submission guidelines (found at their agency website) and follow them. Always put “PitMad Request TITLE of your manuscript” in the subject line of your email.  

8.     Do your due diligence before sending to any agents. There are people who prey on hopeful writers. Research any agent before you send your query to them: not only their website, but also check WriterBeware, Query Tracker, and other resources to make sure they are not a scam. 

So, you may ask, how to I go about constructing an awesome pitch that will grab an agent’s attention?

First, look at your premise. If your premise is weak, your pitch will be too. It should be high-concept to gain the best chance of being seen. If your book is “quiet” PitMad may not be the best way to pitch. You can still do it of course, but if you look at what is “liked/favorited” over the course of a day, you will see many more pitches that really jump out with a strong hook. Don’t be tempted to create a hooky pitch if it doesn’t fit your manuscript. 

What is a high-concept pitch? It’s a simple premise that grabs the reader in 1-2 sentences by creating a compelling comparison or showing a unique twist on a popular idea, or showing the compelling stakes of your idea (or all three). 

Example: HARRY POTTER x WAR OF THE WORLDS: When hostile aliens try to take over his home planet, a young blind wizard-in-training needs to learn how to defeat them before their technology wipes out all forms of plant life on his planet and turns its people into slaves. 

Here we have: 

a.     Two easily recognizable comparative titles

b.     The Protagonist (a young wizard)

c.     The Conflict (aliens taking over the planet)

d.     The Stakes (all plant life will be wiped out and the people enslaved)

If you can’t think of compelling comp titles, don’t worry! For a pitch, they are not essential, although they can give an agent an immediate sense of the story. 

Remember that Twitter has a limit of 280 characters, which include all your hashtags. In the above example, it’s 277:

HARRY POTTER x WAR OF THE WORLDS: When hostile aliens try to take over his home planet, a young blind wizard-in-training needs to learn how to defeat them before their technology wipes out all forms of plant life on his planet and turns its people into slaves. #MG #SF #DIS

Note that a disability, like the wizard being blind, can’t just be thrown in to make it “diverse.” The wizard’s blindness must be the key to defeating the aliens in some way. If you are blind or significantly vision-impaired yourself, you can add #OWN to the hashtags. 

You can see that you don’t have a lot of wiggle room. Your pitch has to be on point: clear and compelling. 

Example: A girl swept away to the magical land of Oz by a tornado must defeat a wicked witch and obtain the ruby slippers that will give her the power to return home, or remain stuck in Oz forever #MG #F

Note that this is far less than 280 characters, which is fine! Don’t try to cram in too many details just to hit the character limit. Again, we need the Character, the Conflict, and the Stakes. There is no mention here of the girl’s name, the other characters (Scarecrow, Tin Man, Glinda, Wizard, etc.). These details are crucial to the story, but not to understanding what the story is essentially about. 

It is easy to get caught up in the details of your own work, and think you need to provide far more information than you actually do to create a compelling pitch. Or conversely, you may make it so vague it’s hard to tell what happens in the story. This takes practice to get right. You should write a dozen or more pitches, honing them as you go. Share with writer friends and others who can give you feedback since you will likely have blind spots around what you already know about your story.  

There has never been a better time to be a “diverse” writer, in the many ways in which that is defined (see the list of possible hashtags at the #PitMad link). Agents are actively looking for voices and stories that have been historically underrepresented. PitchWars is the perfect vehicle for writers who have not had access to conferences, MFA programs, or other formal (and expensive) entry points to gain the attention of people who may be interested in their work. 

Upcoming #PitMad dates in 2021: March 4, June 3, September 2, December 2. All times are 8:00 am – 8:00 pm. Only pitch between those times!

If you’re not ready to pitch on March 4 but think you might want to for next time, hop on Twitter during the day on March 4 and check the #PitMad hashtag to see what the pitches are like, what is compelling and what isn’t, and which pitches are getting lots of agent love.  

If you do pitch and get likes from agents, the next step is to prepare a formal query. Don’t panic and think you have to query right away! They likely indicated interest in many pitches, and they won’t forget you – that’s the point of putting “PitMad Request” in your subject header. Take your time to craft a great query. We’ll go over this process in the next blog post.  

Have you tried participating in Pitch Wars? What was your experience? Please share in the comments below!