Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Why I'm Not Ready for #PitMad

Why the image of this gross old crock pot, you ask? Just hang on a second, okay? I'll get to that. Calm, yo self. It will eventually be a lame attempt at metaphor-ing it up, but please be patient. First, I need to vent about my lack of participation in today's awesome #PitMad. For those of you who don't know, it's an opportunity for authors in the twitter-verse to pitch their book ideas to eager agents, in 140 characters or less. Now you know (if you didn't already). On to the venting:

Gah, this is excruciating. I'm sitting here, reading all of the awesome submissions for today's #PitMad and I wish I could participate. My book is so close, I've now been working on it steadily for just over a year, and I'm bouncing all over the place at the thought of throwing my pitch out there to the wolves. Granted, I expect it to be torn to a bloody-pulp, but even that sounds freaking amazing to me.

Here's the thing, though: I'm not ready. It'd be easy enough for me to tweet my pitch out there, to see what ya'll have to say to me (good or bad). I have a bunch of variations of my pitch ready to roll. I'm ready in that sense. But the book, what would inevitably need to be ready for someone's else's (an agent's) eyes, needs more time in the crock-pot.

See what I just did there? Crock. Pot. Let that just simmer a moment.

See what I just did again? Simmer. Like in a crock-pot.

No matter how much I want to get the agent-ball rolling today, it would be the wrong decision. Why work as long and as hard as I have on this thing to rush it before it's ready? I still have months of beta-reader-ing and revisions to do. Currently, I'm on what I'd call a third draft and, just yesterday, I realized how far away I still am. The worst thing I could do right now (at least from an inexperienced/unpublished-author-point-of-view) is to false start. I need to take a step back, maybe use this day to really explore which pitches are getting the most favs, and then continue on at my own pace.

Remember, there will always be more #PitMads and similar opportunities available. This isn't my only shot. I'm seeing that my next chance might be June 4th.

The questions is, will I even be ready then? My magic 8-ball says:
.
I guess I'll just have to wait until then to know for sure.
 
 
good luck to all you #PitMad-ers out there. I'm rooting for you all!
 
...wellll, maybe not ALL of you.
 
Love,
Tom


5 comments:

  1. There is nothing harder than watching these kinds of events and contests go by when you know you're not *quite* ready. This whole writing and publishing thing sometimes feels like it takes FOREVER. I think you're wise, though! Better to wait on everything until you know that book is the best it can be.

    (BTW, I was just looking at your post about finishing your 2nd draft and appreciated your observation about how the 2nd half of your novel is better than the 1st - that's exactly where I'm at right now so I totally get it. Opening pages are hard!)

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  2. thanks for the support. I know that one day i'll be ready to start into literaryagentland... but i'm just not ready yet. Soon enough. Very soon, I think. And, yah, I'm spending so much extra time revising those opening pages. Need to make sure they're good enough to get everyone to read on to the awesome stuff later on. Thanks for checking out my blog!

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  3. So true. I'm almost-but-not-quite there too. I know from experience that querying too early is a mistake. Best to be all the way cooked. Like the photo, btw!

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  4. haha, thanks! glad to hear from more voices in the same place as me. keep on cooking!

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  5. Hang in there. There will always be another contest just around the corner, but there will only be one "first time" for your book!

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