When I joined my MFA program and subsequently finished my novel, I thought the hard part was mostly behind me. Sure, there'd be editing and revising to be done, but the book was written, right? Things should be smoother sailing now.
Boy was I wrong, but man have I learned a lot in the last couple of months. Let me start at the beginning. Around the end of May, I learned of a Twitter event called Pitch Madness, or #PitMad that was occuring on June 3rd. Apparently it happens every quarter, and while I could have waited until September's, I wanted to give it a shot. Essentially, writers can tweet three times with pitches for their books, including the hashtag #PitMad and other hashtags to help agents find your book (e.g. #R for romance, #A for adult, etc.). If an agent hearts your tweet, you then follow their instructions for submitting your query (usually you send a letter and however many pages they request).
I joined a challenge on Facebook to help me prepare called the Pitch Perfect challenge. I learned how to write a each aspect of the pitch and how to reduce my book to 280 characters. It was a lot to learn in a short amount of time, but I did it. I knew that I still had a lot of editing to do on my book before it would really be ready to start pitching agents, but I wanted to try this event. So, on June 3rd, I tweeted three different tweets. I got a heart from an indie/hybrid publisher, which was questionable. But then, lo and behold, I got a heart from an agent! I was so excited!
The challenge I had joined also gave us tips on writing our query letters, which were really helpful as I drafted the letter, a synopsis, and put together my pages. I took a little over a week to put everything together and then I sent it out. A few days later, the agent sent me a nice rejection letter, which I was expecting. It was actually a relief to pull the bandaid off, even if I'm not ready to really start querying anywhere else.
I plan to participant in #CarinaPitch on July 14th, which is directly with a publisher, and then do #PitMad again in September and December. I will have submitted my entire book through my MFA program in early September, and I think just having all of my chapters reviewed by tutorial instructors will give me more confidence in pitching agents in the future.
I've also been working on my second manuscript as I'll need more chapters to submit for fall and spring semester. My current program plan has me graduating next summer, so I'll probably get about half of my second manuscript submitted through the program before I'm done. I actually feel a lot more confident about the second book just because I think it's a better concept and really just a better story. I'm hoping to finish writing it during National Novel Writing Month in November. I've been participating in the "camps" that NanoWriMo has put on in April and July. I'm planning to be at 25,000 words by the end of this month, which will put me just about done with the book if I write 50,000 words in November.
But writing and publishing are clearly two different animals, and I'm really glad I took a chance on #PitMad last month. I've learned so much about what to expect with the publishing world, and am coming to terms with the idea that I might not get my first, second, or even my third book published. I mean, technically, I'm on my fourth book now. I wrote a really awful YA novel in middle school and then a really bad mystery in high school. The first I wrote and printed out, but have no idea where the printed copy ended up. The second I hand wrote and, again, have no idea where it ended up. So, maybe my second/fourth manuscript will be the winning ticket to being a published author. Time will tell!
I'm really glad I've taken this journey though. It's been really good for me to get back to my creative roots and I've enjoyed writing again. Even if I have to throw in the towel at some point and self publish, at least I'll fulfill my promise to my mother in some way. But I figure I'll work on my pitching game for at least a few years before I even think about throwing in that towel.
The road to getting published will not be easy, but I'm really excited to see where it takes me!
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