New #Pitmad Thursday March 23

by Susan J Berger

PitMad is coming up on March 23rd 2017. 8:00AM to 8:00 PM EDT
What is PitMad? I am so glad you asked. It's speed dating for authors.

This information is from Brenda Drake's site.
#PitMad is a pitch party on Twitter where writers tweet a 140 character pitch for their completed, polished, unpublished manuscripts. ANY Genre

New Rules:  you may only tweet three (3) pitches (they can be different pitches or the same pitch) per project for the day. You may pitch more than one project. I suggest every four hours or so tweet a different pitch. Or tweet during breakfast, lunch, & dinner breaks.

The pitch must include the hashtag #PitMad and the category (#YA, #MG, #A, #NA, #PB etc.) in the tweet. The “#” is important to include. It will sort the categories to make it easier for the agents/publishers.

For more information about Twitter Pitching visit this post by agent@carlywatters here and this post by #PitMad alum @DianaUrbanhere. And here find a post from Diana on how to filter out spam from the #PitMad feed.

What an opportunity.  3 pitches per project. Each of the three tweets must be slightly different. (easy way? Change the position of the hashtags in the post. Put them on a spreadsheet.)

First job. Compose your enticing tweet. approximately 126  characters (You have to leave room for the hashtags #pitmad #YA  That's 13 characters right there.

I searched the internet for advice on how to compost a great tweet. On Ava Jae's Blog I found this:

By the end of your Twitter pitch, readers should know a few key things about your novel: 

• Who your MC is. 
• What’s at stake. 
• Essence of plot. 
• Genre. 
• Bonus: What makes your story unique. 
• Bonus: Conveying the voice. 

Her example: 

Cade is unaware a secret society has been watching since he killed his gf w/ a kiss—now an assassin isn't his biggest problem #PitMad YAPar

I got more examples from Literary Agent Carly Walters' Guide to Twitter contests.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
When escaping WWII 4 children go to magical, tyrannical land through wardrobe to fulfill prophecy & save both worlds. #PitMad #SFF

The Three Little Pigs
Brothers devoured by a killer known as Big Bad Wolf, third pig fights for his life with a pile of bricks between him & death #PitMad #A

Alice in Wonderland
Girl abducted by rabbit from family picnic to fight war in magical dimension. When put on trial for her life, will she wake up? #PitMad #YA

I hopped on over to Twitter to check their lengths and try one of my own.

For composition purposes, I suggest putting your hashtags first. Then you will know how much space you need. By the way, if you are an author/illustrator you can include a picture.
I am setting up mine in buffer now.

 

#PITMAD 1 sound easy reader. When Nat the Rat disses Fat Cat,  Fat Cat brings in his enforcer -Matt, the Bat! Is peace possible? #PB #HA #PITMad #MG #IRMC. Can wishing on a statue fix a broken family? Or is friendship the real magic? (This one's awful I have to fix it. Mind scrambling for answers. Coming up blank.) Here are the Hashtags …Age Categories: #PB = Picture Book #C = Children’s #CB = Chapter Book #CL = Children’s Lit #MG = Middle Grade #YA = Young Adult #NA = New Adult #A = Adult Genres/Sub-genres:#AA = African American #AD = Adventure #CF = Christian Fiction #CON = Contemporary #CR = Contemporary Romance #DIS = Disabilities #DV = Diversity #E = Erotica #ER = Erotic Romance #ES = Erotica Suspense #F = Fantasy #H = Horror #HA = Humor #HF = Historical Fiction #HR = Historical Romance #INSP = Inspirational #IRMC = Interracial/Multicultural #MR = Magical Realism #M = Mystery #Mem = Memoir #LGBT #LF = Literary Fiction #NF = Non-fiction #R = Romance #P = Paranormal #PR = Paranormal Romance #RS = Romantic Suspense #S = Suspense #SF = SciFi #SPF = Speculative Fiction #T = Thriller #UF = Urban Fantasy #W = Westerns #WF = Woman’s Fiction

How to set up your Pitchmad day.

Practice your tweets on the twitter app.

Move your final tweet to an excel spreadsheet or word doc.

Copy/past it three times. Change the position of your hashtags on each tweet so that you have 3 different tweets.

Save and repeat with the next project you plan to pitch.

Start the process now. It's not that easy coming up with the tweets. If you have time, run your tweets by your critique group. They will help you.

You can set up and schedule tweets.
Tweetdeck
Step 1
Open TweetDeck, then select your Twitter account. Click the clock icon to the left of the Send button.

Step 2
Enter the date and time that you want the first tweet to post. Click "Set Time" to schedule the tweet.

Step 3
Type your tweet into the entry field, then press Enter to send the message at the scheduled date and time. Repeat for each tweet that you want to schedule. Stagger the publish times to if you have tweets that need to be published in a particular order.

Remember many of the people you want to reach are on the East Coast. So I suggest scheduling to match their 9:00 AM, noon and 4:00.
Do a few minutes off those exact times.

There are a number of tweet scheduling apps. here's another.
https://buffer.com/ (ten free tweets a day)
HootSuite

Come on. Try it. What have we got to lose?

PitMads for 2017

March 23, 2017 (8AM – 8PM EDT)

June 8, 2017

September 7, 2017

December 7, 2017

Other pitching opportunities: You can find a complete list of 2017 pitch opportunities on author John R Berkowitz's site.

Also don't forget to check #MSWL on Twitter. You can always find agent's wish lists there. Happy selling.

 

 

Getting It Out There

You've written you book. And re-written it a number of times. You've sent it through critique groups, re-edited and sent it back to the critique group and repeated the process till you and your group decide you've written your story in the best possible way..
No it's time to submit it. What do you do? Look for an Agent to do it for you?
Send directly to publishers? Both of the above.
Rules have changed. In the age of eBook and self-publishing, very few publishers claim the right to exclusively sit on your manuscript while they take six or seven months to decide if they wish to see more of your work.

The Right Agent.

Method one: You can put together a list of recent books that you admire or that you think are similar to your work. Then, find out who represents those authors.. Many authors list their agents on the acknowledgments page in the front or back of their books. If you can’t find the agents this way, contact the publishing companies of the books on your list and ask their publicity departments who agented the books you are interested in.

 Method two: Go to AgentQuery.com, The internet's largest free database of literary agents. There you will find all kinds of wonderful tools to help you come up with a list of agents to query. Put in the keyword "Juvenile" and it will bring up another list.  I choose this method.

Method three: Go to Manuscript Wish List. This is the twitter link/site. Search the tags for your type of book.

Here's a link to the FAQ sheet for Manuscript Wish List.com

Bypass the Agent. Go to the Publisher

Submit directly to a publisher. SCBWI publishes The Book with a list of publishers. Author's Publishing is a free magazine which tells who is accepting manuscripts. I know there are other methods. I use these.

However you choose to do it, get it done. I know how hard it is to submit. I sent one out yesterday. Good luck to all of us.

 

 

 

 

Submission and reviewing sources.

By Susan J Berger
I have three sets of links for you:

Submitting

 Manuscript Wishlist http://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/  This is a great place to find what agents and editors are looking for. Also be sure and visit  their twitter regularly. Search the hash tag #MSWL
@ManuscriptWList

Casey McCormick and Natalie Aguirre host Literary Rambles which is a treasure trove of agent interviews. You can sort the agents by the type of books they represent.

Sue Ganz Schmidt recommended this website to me Authors Publish.com It's free and she says sometimes they send you very useful information. I subscribed last night and got some very useful links. http://www.authorspublish.com/the-top-20-publishers-for-new-authors/

Reviewing

I got a request for a list I previously posted about: getting reviews. I had been researching the sites for Picture Book reviewers, but these sites also review Middle Grade and YA

I want to add Middle Grade Mania, which had a list of bloggers who review Middle grade.



Here is a list of reviewers I wanted to contact:

The Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/get_rev.htm Reviewing print books/CDs/DVDs is always free of charge. They charge a 50.00 Reader Fee for eBooks
I now have my books, so I will be sending one.

The Picture Book Reviews
https://thepicturebookreview.com/review-policy-disclosures/

If you’d like to contact me, please send me an email at:thepicturebookreview@gmail.com.

Review Policy: Hello! As of January 1, 2015:  I happily accept picture books for review.  If we love the book, I’ll write a review about it.   I accept physical copies only — ARCs, galleys, etc. are fine — it just needs to be something I can sit down and read with my family.Thank you so much for thinking of me.  I’m flattered that you’d like your book reviewed on my site. Also, good luck with your book!  Picture book authors and illustrators

I will be contacting her. 

Readers Favorites.Com

https://readersfavorite.com/book-reviews.htm  All reviews are free. They post on their Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon and Barnes and Noble. You CAN pay for more stuff. I didn't want to. I submitted an ARC PDF for review on 9/25. The review was up 4 days later.

KidReads.com

Here's what their contact page says:

I am an author, publisher or publicity agent and I would like my book to be reviewed on Kidsreads.com. What do I do?
To submit a book for review on Kidsreads.com, please send it to:
The Book Report Network
250 West 57th Street
Suite 1228
New York, NY 10107
Although we cannot guarantee a review, we consider every book that comes into our office. Due to the volume of submissions that we receive, we cannot contact authors or publishers on the status of a book for review. Typically books are reviewed within 3 months of publication. We suggest you sign up for our newsletter, which will list the content that we are promoting.
Please note that at this time we do not review eBooks, POD Books and other self-published titles as we only offer books that are available with wide distribution offline as well as online.

Places I will not submit:

Kirkus Book reviews. HUGELY expensive. If your publisher is paying. Great.

The Children's Book Review

 $195 for a review. No thanks. They do have a place where you can giveaway a copy of your book. When I checked it out, they wanted me to pay them 65.00 for the privilege of giving away a book/

 Places to check out:

 Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews

This is a collection of websites that TTLG has found interesting and/or useful. Because sites change so fast we cannot vouch for their content. If you have any comments or suggestions about this list please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be adding to these lists regularly so please keep checking this page for new doorways into the world of children's literature.

I have not checked them all out yet. Some are no longer active.  Some seem not to be reviewing sites at all.

Marketing

Planning your marketing campaign. Click the link for an amazing spreadsheet to help you plan marketing.
Incredible 15 tab excel spreadsheet for marketing Andrea Loney graciously shared this with me.
Start with the "About Tab" They sheet was authored by Jenny Blake and it's amazingly thorough, and perhaps more than you want. I would strongly suggest reading it. .
Jenny says Feeling Generous?
1) If you get value from this spreadsheet, please consider making a donation. I will be very grateful...we all know that authors only see royalty checks once in a blue moon (if ever)!
2) Spread the word -- please feel free to share this spreadsheet with your other author friends!
There is a link on the spreadsheet to where to send a donation.
Happy Writing.