Mom Writes Podcast Abby Mathews

Twitter pitching. I always said I’d never do it.

And then my friend Lidija Hilje, the Pitching Queen, talked me into it. Lidija also helped me put the final polish on my query letter, so since she also said she would help me polish my Twitter pitch, I agreed.

Of course she talked me into it two days before PitMad!

So after many iterations of my pitch (lots and lots of back and forth on a Google Doc!), we decided to do an impromptu Mom Writes episode about Twitter pitching contests. Well, specifically PitMad, which happens once a quarter.

I’m still honing my pitch for tomorrow (December 3, 2020) or else I’d share it here. But if you want to listen to Lidija give us all the dirt on PitMad and hear her red pen my pitch, then this is the episode for you.

Since we did it the day before PitMad, I wanted to get this episode up ASAP. So it is unedited. There is no intro. No music. No nothing. Just me and Lidija and a live studio audience! Yes, we recorded this along with a handful of listeners (which was super fun)!

So join us today for some tips and tricks and logistics behind the Twitter pitch.

We had a really great question come in from my friend and fellow writer, Mindy. She wanted to know about “the nudge.” She wanted to know when it was okay to nudge an agent who has your manuscript.

(Side note, Mindy has been working her butt off querying agents while writing her second book. She’s had quite a bit of action on her query, which is super exciting! She’s killing it, and I’m super proud of her!)I was glad Mindy asked this question, because I wanted to know when it was okay to nudge an agent who has your query. One of the agents I queried gave permission to nudge after 4 weeks on her website. But I wanted to know the etiquette. What do you say, and when do you say it?

Jennie has three words for writers looking to nudge an agent: just be professional.

“Always keep in the back of your mind two things. It's a super small industry, and you never know who knows who and who's going to talk to who about what you did. And also, these may be people that you are going to be doing business with for very, very long time.” -JennieIn today’s episode Jennie talks about the different types of nudges, what you should say, and when it’s appropriate to send it. (Spoiler alert, in most cases the answer is you don’t.) When do you nudge an agent who has your query?

When do you nudge an agent who has your full manuscript?

What happens when you get an agent phone call? An offer of representation? What do you tell the other agents who have your manuscript? What if you get multiple offers? So much to juggle!

Jennie’s got some great advice and a few client stories all about The Nudge.

This is not a full episode. This is an invitation. I’ve decided (very spontaneously, mind you) to do something a wee bit different this week. As some of you may know, PitMad is on Thursday.

PitMad is a Twitter pitching contest.

Now, as some of you may also know, I’ve sworn I will never participate in a Twitter pitching contest. Mostly because I’m not that good at The Twitter. But also because, it’s a crazy, frenetic energy that I really don’t dig.

However, I also said I would never teach high school, but then taught it for ten years AND LOVED IT.

So, I’m going to give it a shot.

Here’s where the invitation comes in. I’m inviting you to a live recording of the Mom Writes podcast on Wednesday, December 2. On it, my friend and book coach Lidija Hilje, is going to look at the first draft of my three Twitter pitches and utterly massacre them. I mean, we will tear them down and build them back up again to (hopefully) make them spectacular (crossing fingers).

We’re doing this live on Zoom at 11:30 am Eastern time. If you would like to come and listen in, email me at momwrites@authoraccelerator.com and I will send you the Zoom link.

Also know that I would appreciate your support in retweeting my pitches on Thursday! My handle is @abbysmathews. If you are pitching and would like me to retweet your pitches, too, email me your Twitter handle and I will retweet you! (See email above!)

Hope to see you guys Wednesday on Zoom, and also on Thursday on The Twitter.

My first rejection is in the bag!

Actually, my first two.

Jennie made me promise to screen record opening my first response from an agent. So this episode starts with me (actually) opening and reading my first rejection and Jennie’s response to it. The theme of today’s episode is don’t take it personally. It’s easy (very easy, because we are storytellers at heart!) to make up all sorts of stories about what is (and isn’t) happening to your email queries that are out in the world. I was convinced—totally and utterly convinced—that my query was being passed around one of the agencies. Why did I think this? Because I could see from the read receipts that it had been opened a grand total of 17 times in a two-week period. I saw the open number climb and thought, great! There’s some action on my query!

But Jennie likes to inject some reality into my fantasy. And here’s the truth: we don’t know. We don’t know who is opening the emails or why. It could be a slush pile reader. It could be the agent. The agent could be passing it around. OR it could be an automation! Send it and forget it is a difficult strategy. After all, I am hopeful! I am optimistic! Plus, it’s kinda fun checking email. It’s certainly replaced checking social media, which is a nice change of pace.

What does Jennie suggest doing while you wait on your query responses? Keep writing, of course!

Today Jennie and I talk about the toxic “Pick Me!” attitude that many writers have towards querying. We look at the different types of energy we as writers bring to the pitching process, and how feelings of desperation hurt more than help.

As I look to continue to query, I know I need to personalize each one for the agent it’s being sent to. Seems easy, right? You just take out Dear Mrs. X and replace it with Dear Mr. Y. Then you erase the sentence about why you chose X and replace it with one about how much you like Y.

Not. So. Fast.

Jennie and I take a look at my base query and we talk about how you tweak a personalization in order to speak to each agent directly.

This episode actually made me feel a zillion times better about querying, and it gave me some patience with the process. It’s really no surprise that after only a single week (we’re talking not even seven full days) I’ve heard nothing from the one (ONE!) agent that I exclusively queried. It’s very easy to take this personally. But should you? I mean, you sent her (or him!) this thing— your thing!—that took you years of blood, sweat, and tears to write. Is it just sitting in their inbox? Did they see it and hate it? What is happening?

Today Jennie puts us in an agent’s shoes. What is an agent’s job, and how much of it involves reading queries?

And based on this information, should I adjust my strategy of pitching a series of exclusives to my top agents? Should I instead batch pitch a small group of them?

So if you are querying and need some patience with the process, listen to Jennie’s words of wisdom and take a deep breath. If you’ve done your homework on the agents, followed all the rules, and you have a solid query, you’re on the right path.