Twitter hosts pitch parties for writers, and I participated in my first one this past week. A pitch party is where you pitch your work to potential agents, and they read through the pitches to see if they're interested in any of them. If they like on your pitch, that means that they want you to query them about your manuscript. Getting the right concept to the person who wants to read that kind of work is a big part of the battle of trying to find an agent. You might query thirty agents on your own trying to find one who will respond favorably to your idea. Participating in a pitch party allows you to take the guesswork out of the equation and query the specific agent who is looking for the kind of work you have written.
This week, Twitter hosted the Picture Book Pitch Party under the hashtag #PBPitch. I worked for a day or two on my pitches, trying to word them perfectly. I've currently written four picture books (books that are geared to the 3 to 8 year old age range), but I pitched three of them. Pitches are important because you only have a few sentences to stand out from the crowd (there were tons of pitches each hour), make it interesting and relevant, and show that your manuscript is different and marketable. It's a lot to do in two or three sentences and possibly a hashtag or two. One of my pitches got liked by an agent, so I sent it to her this weekend. Fingers crossed that she loves it as much as I do!
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