#SFFpit Again

Pitching the Baby

For writers, the opportunity to pitch their novel induces a certain amount of trepidation. Sending one’s baby, the result of months (or years, unlike a human baby), to an agent, brings the fear that the agent will not love the baby as much as its parent does.

So the opportunity for a pitching activity over Twitter is a blessing. It’s like one of those photo contest people enter their baby’s picture into, hoping for votes. With a Twitter pitch session, the worst that can happen is that no agent asks for a partial or full manuscript, just as if nobody voted for the baby picture. It doesn’t feel as much like a rejection.

To writers, “pit” means a pitching opportunity

I am taking part in a pitching opportunity, #sffPIT. This is a pitching opportunity for unpublished manuscripts in science fiction and fantasy, which is where I do most of my writing. I have three novels that fit this category (actually four or five, but one is not a standalone in a series, and another is a fragment which may never get finished).

To take part in a pitching opportunity, I must write twitter-sized blurbs for each of my novels and post them at intervals during the day of pitching. I have done this, setting them up using TweetDeck, so that they pop up at various times.

Now what?

All I have to do now is hope.

Another pitch opportunity

I found out about #SFFpit on Twitter with two days to spare. #SFFpit is a pitching opportunity on Twitter for people who write science fiction and fantasy (hence SFF). “Pitching” refers to distilling one’s novel into three lines or less — shorter for an “elevator pitch”, longer for a pitch on Twitter.

This is the wonderful thing about Twitter — first, that I can get my work exposed to many agents on the Internet without being in the same room; second, that I can find out about it without having to remember to go to the website to check when a pitch exercise is happening. (Note: always go to the pitch contest’s website to find out their latest rules for pitching.)

I set up my pitches using a web app called TweetDeck, which is free and allows you to put in a series of pitches to be timed for posting throughout the day. So when I set up pitches, I put them into TweetDeck so I don’t have to go back and remember to post them.

So this is another opportunity to hope. I take all the opportunities to hope that I can, and someday I may have an agent!

Try, Try Again

One friend liked my pitch (no, don’t like pitches if you’re not an agent!)

Three followers (also not agents) liked my pitch

One indy publisher with a suspicious business model liked my pitch

No agents liked my pitch.

What is the next move? Right around September or so, I can start pitching the new improved Apocalypse with its new improved query out to agents. I can research small presses to see if some tend more toward traditional and are looking for my kind of stuff. I can look at Manuscript Wish List to target agents to look at my stuff.

Lots of people retweeted me, especially the pitch for Apocalypse. So there’s hope if people recognize its worth.

I’m not quite ready to self-publish yet. I have doubts about my ability to market (which is why I’m wary of “hybrid” presses as well.) But I’m not giving up, because publishing is just the cherry on top.

#SFFpit

Today is #SFFpit, which is a Twitter pitch session for writers of science fiction and fantasy. The idea is one writes a tweet-length pitch for one’s novel and sends it out into the Twitterverse to see if it catches an agent’s eye. If it does, they will ask for a manuscript.

I have done several pitch contests (#Pitmad as well as #SFFpit), and I have never had much luck. But hope springs eternal, as they say, whoever they are. I load up TweetDeck, an automated tweeting app, with 20 pitches (10 for each book I want attention paid to) and wait.

I don’t expect to get any traction from this, because I haven’t before. I

may get moody later today, because nobody likes rejection. I will get over it, because hope springs eternal.

#SFFpit and the Concept of the Pitch Contest (Social Media, Writer Development)

I found another pitch contest on Twitter, which reminds me of why #WritingCommunity Twitter is so valuable. This one is called #SFFPit, and is specific to science fiction and fantasy books.

What’s a Pitch Contest?
In a pitch contest, a writer of a completed and unpublished work distills the essence of their book into a Twitter-sized pitch. The author has the opportunity to pitch their book (using a different pitch each hour to get past Twitter algorithms) once an hour for a set number of hours. The purpose of this is to attract potential agents and publishers, who will ask for a query to further judge your work.

Pitches should illuminate the character, their desires, obstacles to their desire, and the consequences of failure. Be specific of the consequences! Also, all pitches need to have #SFFpit in their body and use other designated hashtags for genre and audience. (Koboldt, 2020).

See more details here!

Koboldt, D. (2020). #SFFpit. Available: http://dankoboldt.com/sffpit/#sffpit-rule-changes [January 20 2020)