It’s #Pitmad time! This is a contest on twitter, hosted by the fabulous Brenda Drake, where literary agents troll the tweets to see if they want to make a request for your story. Remember, this is for completed manuscripts only! How to enter:

• Create a 140 character pitch, including the category and genre. (Hint: Abbreviate the category. Adult=A, Young Adult=YA, Middle Grade=MG. And do the same for the genre. Urban Fantasy=UF, Fantasy=F, Paranormal Romance=PR…etc.)
• Be sure to add the hashtag #Pitmad in the 140 character pitch or it won’t be seen in the feed.

Rules to follow:

• If you see another person’s tweet you like, DON’T favorite it. (This is for agents only.) However, you can retweet the pitch.
• Switch your words, category, and hashtag around when you pitch. (Twitter sometimes won’t repeat the same tweet.) You can also have creative alternate pitches to use. I’d recommend having at least three different pitches for the same story.
• Don’t overpitch. Check Brenda’s blog for her exact rules, but usually she asks writer’s to pitch only once every thirty minutes to an hour. This keeps the feed from being clogged up and agents running away screaming.

How to know if an agent likes your pitch and what to do:

• If an agent or editor likes your pitch, they will favorite your tweet. (That’s the little star that turns yellow when they like it.)
• Agents and editors usually will tweet what to do after they favorite your pitch, so check their twitter feed. Some may want only your query, others may want pages from your manuscript. Follow their rules! If you can’t find their guidelines, ask them politely. They may just want you to follow their standard guidelines on the agency website. (I recommend adding the #Pitmad hashtag in the subject line of any email sent so they know they requested your material.)

The contest runs today, September 9, 2014 from 8:00am-8:00pm EDT. So you’ve plenty of time to join the fun.

Good Luck!

P.D. Pabst
Writer and blogger of MG/YA fiction