Hello, I’m back again.
I’m starting to feel like Jack Nicholson in the Shining, popping up like a horror movie villain. Anyway, I’m back, and not only have I added more Twitter followers, right now I am involved in something called a Twitter pitch contest. This is a contest of sorts where you throw out a simple one or two-sentence “pitch” about your book on Twitter and supposedly a bunch of editors and agents look at it and jump at your brilliant pitch.
I swore I would never do that. Mainly because it is so public, and I am terrible at the one sentence pitch. But, also because it feels so weird, like begging maybe, or maybe just unprofessional. I’m so used to academia; this seems very juvenile and a dumb way for people to find talent. But, mostly I can’t pitch to save my life. Seriously, I would rather someone asked me to write a book, than to write ad copy! If I could write copy, I’d be making money!
But, now that I’m on Twitter, I’ve watched as people pitched their books in various contests and I’ve felt kind of bad. A voice in my head kept screaming, “YOU will never get anywhere if you don’t even try — stupid!!!! And, who are you? Are you so much better than everyone else that you can’t do this? Get out there and stop being a snobby ass!”
So, I did it, and I will let you know what happens (I’ll put a note at the bottom #NothingHappened — see, told you so!) just to let you know how things go. How could it go well? My husband just pointed out a grammar mistake in my one-sentence pitch. I’m such a dope!
What is fascinating to me is that in this day and age, it seems that you have to be able to get people to care about you online. There are lots of ways to do it, and different people find interesting ways to make connections, but that seems to be the key. And I worry, because some people are just not good at that. Being older and starting from a different place myself, it’s different for me, but I can’t imagine how it must be for young people. What if they can’t find followers? What if people act like they don’t care? It must be devastating for them. It makes me want to get on Twitter and tell all my followers how great they are and how I love all their stuff so they know at least one person cares. See, this is a woman, wanting people to feel good, while a lot of men would say, “Screw everyone else — I want my book contract,” and people would love them for it. That’s why it’s so complicated. It’s not about just being nice. It’s about being human, and being yourself, but not in a needy, creepy, sad or irritating way. Capiche?
Anyway, gotta go — Gotta check my #SFFpit thingy (smile)!
@PClepage
So what happened….
#learned!, #connected with lots of writers, #got a few nibbles, #definitely worth it!