Last week, I entered a Twitter pitch party called,
DVpit. Basically, writers pitch their novels in 140 characters and add the hashtag DVpit
to their pitch, along with the genre (if you want, but it helps agents/editors
find you.) This particular pitch party started on October 5th for YA
and Oct 6th for adult fiction. Since my completed manuscript is a
YA, I pitched on the 5th. It lasted from 8am-8pm and I had 12
pitches for every hour, haha.
During this time, I will admit that I began feeling
a bit anxious and nervous. What if my
pitches didn’t garner any attention? What if my pitches are buried underneath
other pitches and become unseen all together? So many thoughts began
circling my mind. However all thoughts vanished when I received a notification on my phone for my first like!
I felt so happy. Slowly, but surely, likes started
to trickle in. I believe I had 9 likes all together, but I’m not entirely sure.
So what happens when an agent or editor likes your
tweet?
When that happens, they are showing interest in your
work and are requesting to see more. This doesn’t mean that you HAVE to send
your material to them if you don’t want, only if you feel it would be a good
match. For example, I received a like from a romance editor from a particular
known publisher. Knowing my novel isn’t focused on romance, I decided not to
send my material.
Fast-forwarding a bit, I didn’t send any of my queries/pages/synopsis
until Oct 6th. The reason I waited was because I wanted to do a bit
of research on a few agents that I was unfamiliar with.
Since Oct 6th, I have received two
rejections from DVpit agents. It was a bit disheartening, but there are still
many other agents that I haven’t heard from yet. I’m hoping to hear some good
news, but until then I will be patient and continue working on my WIP: Atticus.
A few entries ago I mentioned Atticus and I even had
a blogger friend read some of it a while ago. During that time, Atticus was a
new adult contemporary, which a psychological twist. After giving it some
thought over the past couple of months, I decided to change the following:
1. Make the main character
younger (He was originally 24, changed his age to 17)
2. It’s no longer a
contemporary. Instead it is a fantasy, but the psychological aspect remains
Not too many changes, but those are the major ones.
Currently, I’m fleshing out the ideas by starting with the characters and onward. I’ll be doing this while waiting on responses from various agents.
Did anyone else reading this join DVpit? If so,
receive any news from any agents/editors? If you didn’t join, what projects are
you currently working on?
I'm deep in freelance work. I write drafts for other writers. Right now I'm finishing up translating a play into a novel, starting a sequel to a vampire novel and a customer who started then stopped doing a superhero novel wants me to continue. Plus two plot orders, one of which is an erotic plot writing for an erotic novel about a nymphomaniac escaping a psychiatric asylum. I don't draft erotica novels but I do short plot summaries for all genres (though as of yesterday I put my plot orders on break to focus on drafting).
ReplyDeleteSo happy to see you diving in Panda! When I suggested checking out those Twitter and online pitches a while back, I knew it would be helpful. Glad you took your time and chose what to do. Whether or not you get the big acceptance (hope you do), keep pushing forward. Much love and all the best.
Congrats on putting yourself out there and participating in DVpit. It can really be scary but I hope you get good news. I write for fun and don't have any desire to put my work out there but I'm super impressed with anyone who does.
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