Twitter pitches - thoughts

[Handsome John]

So if they're not using those tags then they're deliberately being vague?

 

[oddhero]

I now see myself stumbling into the new world of Twitter and floundering around, puzzled, until I realise I am Tweeting private messages instead of mailing them.
Well done, though, on the responses.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

So if they're not using those tags then they're deliberately being vague?

These sort of things generally run under a #. So you put that in plus the name - in this case pitmad - which sends to a list for agents to see. If an agent picks your stuff, if you're not already following them, you select follow and then you can see their tweets. So, today I didn't see Mouse's agent cos I don't follow them, whilst she does.

For the other question - should be learning to pitch in 140 characters: absolutely. And in one line. And in one paragraph. If you want to get published you have to have something strong you can adapt as you need to. Yesterday I had someone ask me to include why I was the person to write the story, so I upped the strong Ulster voice part of my pitch. I have it in all of them, but not every agent wants that as their focus.

Ok, i hated every minute of learning to query, have spent hours over perfecting 140 words pitches, but it is paying off. So, yes. Sorry. I feel your pain.

Oh, the reply thing: you can reply to another's tweet, or start a seperate one.

 

[Handsome John]

OK, I'm still confused...I'm only 36 so this social media stuff shouldn't be beyond me!!!

I now see myself stumbling into the new world of Twitter and floundering around, puzzled, until I realise I am Tweeting private messages instead of mailing them.
Well done, though, on the responses.

I feel your pain, oddhero.

But then she starts Tweeting comments on the queries she's reading. And that's interesting, you can see her thoughts... but then you start wondering 'is that me?' 'Is that mine she's talking about?'

She posts things like 'great writing, great twists and turns. Request' and then 'great writing, but too much dialogue' or 'this one's brilliant, but too slow.'

I think, if you have time to comment on the queries on Twitter, you have time to reply to that person you've just tweeted about telling them the same thing. So now I'm sat here thinking mine's very dialogue heavy, was she talking about me? And thinking about re-writing, when she might've just thought mine was flat out crap.

A little bit of feedback goes a hell of a long way.

I guess what I'm asking is - If Mouse didn't know whether the tweets related to her submission, that would be because they weren't putting her name in the reply, right? Which kind of seems a little odd to me. Why write replies if the people you are replying to don't know they are the target?

What's the point of that? To deliberately make people anxious?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

OK, I'm still confused...I'm only 36 so this social media stuff shouldn't be beyond me!!!



I feel your pain, oddhero.




I guess what I'm asking is - If Mouse didn't know whether the tweets related to her submission, that would be because they weren't putting her name in the reply, right? Which kind of seems a little odd to me. Why write replies if the people you are replying to don't know they are the target?

What's the point of that? To deliberately make people anxious?

Being generous... The agent keeps her profile high by having lots of tweets and her followers have the adrenalin rush of wondering is it them.

Being less generous, your latter reason seems closer. To keep people on tenterhooks, to make them have to keep following to see if it's them. It is definitely the side of twitter I hate - i do have a giggle at some of the tweets. A power imbalance, if you like. Bullying is too strong, I think, but there is something unsavoury about it. Have a look at one of Hex's recent blogs about it - the ranty one - she sums it up very well.

On the other hand, it's another route to an agent and some do get picked up by it.

I'm done with them, though - the traditional route is giving me more hope, anyway.

 

[Handsome John]

Have a look at one of Hex's recent blogs about it - the ranty one - she sums it up very well.

Just read it, thanks. Seems like what mostly happens is you take all the anxiety of trying to get published and squeeze it into a tiny amount of time, thus amplifying it exponentially. Also, because it's all out in public, you might end up seeing people make the cut who seemed to pitch terribly, thus increasing your desire to murder the entire human race.

Sounds fun. How often do they do this thing?

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Just read it, thanks. Seems like what mostly happens is you take all the anxiety of trying to get published and squeeze it into a tiny amount of time, thus amplifying it exponentially. Also, because it's all out in public, you might end up seeing people make the cut who seemed to pitch terribly, thus increasing your desire to murder the entire human race.

Sounds fun. How often do they do this thing?

I like this guy already!

 

[Mouse]

Mouse, it wasn't you. Doubt anything else if you want, but your dialogue is some of the strongest I've read and I wince at clunky dialogue.

Now, if she has said there was no description....

Chill. It is a nasty way of doing business and you don't want an agent who deals with people so callously.

Cheers. But p) I did make me think that by mentioning too much dialogue it means there's not enough description!

I can't remember who it is now, but there's one agent who goes through queries from her inbox doing "5 queries in 5 tweets". Its scary the way she dismisses work, but then you do have to remember that the replies are tailored to "tweet-size" bites; I'm sure her actual thoughts on the queries are more complex then that!!

Same goes for any twitter-comments on work being reviewed; its a bit like us trying to get our stories down to 75 words - they have to fit their words into tweets.

But my thought is, if they have time to do that, then they've got time to put that into an email and send it off to the poor bugger. At least then that person will know if they're doing something right or wrong.

Too stressful by half. Besides the point my WIP Is completely unsuited to a 140 character pitch. Makes life easy for the agents though...and it is a good platform if you've got something that will suit them.

I doubt anybody thinks their novel is suited to a 140 character pitch. Yet you managed it. I managed it.

You have to pick one strand.

~

Also, it's less (fewer?!) than 140 characters really because #pitmad takes up seven, then when you put 'adult' that's another five gone, plus one for the space, so that's 13 gone! (I did manage to get #pitmad adult contempt with a paranormal twist' into one pitch though!)

And to me, people will cheat this by doing: He went 2 the zoo. (Or whatever). To me, I think that should be an automatic no as you've failed the challenge. Maybe I'm too harsh.

edit: to those of you confused by Twitter, I'm only just becoming unconfused now! For the Entranced one, I didn't even know I'd had a request until springs emailed me saying well done.