Quit Bitchin' and Get Pitchin'!

Have you heard of online pitch parties? Many take place on Twitter. If you haven't then you may need to crawl out from under your pile of manuscripts. That is if you want to get your novel in front of actual agents and editors.

There was definitely no shortage of great pitches flying through the Twittersphere yesterday thanks to Dan Koboldt who hosted the #SFFpit contest for works of fantasy and science fiction.

For those of you living under your desk. You "pitch" your book in 140 characters... and you thought writing a book was tough--wait til you try and whittle it down to just the hook. Lurking behind the scenes are agents and editors. If an editor or agent likes your pitch, they will favourite it with the little yellow star button. Based on their instructions, you send a query with a partial/full/synopsis, whatever they want.

Here are a few of the different styles of successful pitches that not only won me the invitation to query but eventually led to requests for partials and fulls. Thanks to the Pitch Party phenomena, I currently have full manuscripts with five different publishers and one agent and I'm about to send out four more requested queries with partials. All I need now is one big YES!

• Cursed librarian must learn to use the magic of her family heirloom to trap a soul gone rogue or be dragged back into the past.#SFFpit #FA
• Sophia never realized how soon the present becomes the past. Then she inherited the sapphire & now she's a time traveler on the run. #SFFpit
• Curse of the Delhi Sapphire is a mystery-thriller about a woman hunted through time by a man obsessed with her magical inheritance. #SFFpit
• Magical realism meets mystery-thriller as a cursed woman is stalked through the past by a killer obsessed with her family heirloom. #SFFpit
• A woman cursed by the Purple Delhi Sapphire is stalked through her past lives by a psychopath set on possessing that power.#pitmad #fantasy
• A woman cursed by the Purple Delhi Sapphire is stalked through her past lives by a lost soul set on possessing her. #SFFpit #cf #tt #fa
• Curse of the Delhi Sapphire is a mystery-thriller about a woman hunted through time by a man obsessed with her magical inheritance. #SFFpit
• A woman stalked through time for her family heirloom is shocked to uncover her fiancés heritage is tied to her own cursed past. #PitMad #A
• Cursed by a family heirloom, a young woman finds herself chased through time pitted against a murderous soul eager to possess her.#PitMad #A

Beware: Twitter Pitch Parties are fun and addictive. You may need a 12-step program to get back to real life. Don't worry. You're not alone.

Pitch Parties are happening all the time. Here are a few websites/people to follow to stay in the loop. I recommend stalking them on Twitter.

http://dankoboldt.com/
http://www.brenda-drake.com/
http://michelle4laughs.blogspot.ca/
http://pitchmas.blogspot.ca/

http://www.jessicaschmeidler.com/

Twitter Pitch Party Rules:

1. Only pitch finished manuscripts
2. Pitch only once or twice an hour (depending on the contest)
3. Do not favorite other's pitches (this if for the agents/editors). If you like a pitch, retweet it only.
4. If you receive a favorite, scroll through that agent/editor's feed to find out their instructions of what to do next (submission guidelines).
5. Don't forget to use the Pitch Party hashtag!