Yesterday was the December edition of Pitch Madness, better known on Twitter by its hashtag; #PitMad. For fellow writers, this brings about an odd mixture of feelings, consisting of excitement, anxiety, and frustration. For non-writers, you might be a little confused.

Pitch Madness is a very unique and exciting idea, through which writers can openly pitch their novel ideas over Twitter, hoping to entice a possible literary agent. It’s a blessing for writers because traditional submissions to agents is mind numbing. Also, you can get a near immediate response to your pitch.

For agents, they can read through the pitches for something that sticks out to them. If they find that diamond in the rough, they can “like” the pitch–which is in a sense a request for a manuscript. It’s a no fuss way to peruse the world of indiscovered talent, without filling up their email boxes.

I, unfortunately, did not get a “like” from any agents. But I also forgot about the event until late in the day, when the whole event was wrapping up. So I shot off a couple of pitches, hoping that it might spark some interest.

An awkward college student’s life is turned upside down after encountering a stray cat. Dragged into a battle of good & evil, as old as the Egyptian Gods, Neil’s courage–or lack thereof–will be tested. But will the results surprise him?
#PitMad #NA #UF

The first one did not garner any immediate response… So like any other writer, you then start to dread the first attempt… Wondering if I made an error in how I wrote the pitch. Why did I make it so boring?!

So you try again…

A grudge between Egyptian Gods lives on in the modern world, and a timid college student finds himself smack dab in the middle of their battle. Neil is forced to leave the safety and familiarity of his former life, and all due to a chance encounter with a cat. #PitMad #NA #UF

But in the end, neither got any attention from agents… But I choose to believe that the reason for this is that I was just late to the game. The agents had spent all day reading through the many, many, many offerings with the #PitMad hashtag. By the time I remembered, they had all turned in for thw night, or were busy with afternoon naps.

I’ll just have to continue to pitch the old fashion way!