Column by Kenley Conrad
Kenley Conrad talks about how the Twitter pitching event #PitMad worked for her.
I have a Twitter account that I almost never use, and I always find that fact ironic because I owe almost everything to Twitter. Two years ago, I happened upon some information about an upcoming Twitter event called “PitMad.” It sounded like a really great opportunity. At the very least, I could gauge what the interest level in my book was and gain some good knowledge that could help me out in the future.
I work full time, so I used a feature called TweetDeck that would automatically post tweets for me during the day. The best tweet that fully captured my book, Holly Hearts Hollywood, said this: “The record company doesn’t like 16yr old Holly’s plus-sized body, so she sells her voice to another girl to pass off as her own. #Pitmad #YA.” And next thing I knew, I was getting requests for my full manuscript from agents and editors!
It was a whirlwind from that point on. The weekend passed, and I was doing my morning run on the elliptical machine at the gym when I decided to check my email. What I saw in my inbox nearly made me fall off the machine. I had an email from a publisher, and they wanted to publish my book! After years of knocking on doors, I managed to get a publishing contract (and later, an agent, too!) from one simple 140-character tweet. Suffice it to say, I stood outside my gym that morning and cried my eyes out.
Now, I’m working on the THIRD book to the series, and the second book is set to be released later this fall. PitMad has opened up so many doors in my life that I thought would be closed forever. If nothing else, PitMad really challenged me to understand what the heart of my story was and to narrow it down to a short, simple sentence. So, tweet away! You never know what could happen!
Kenley Conrad is the author of the young-adult book, Holly Hearts Hollywood, with a second and third book on the way. She lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her cats and large book collection. When she’s not at her day job, she’s either writing, reading, or binge-watching shows on Netflix. If she can find the time, she also loves to participate in local community theater productions.
Originally posted on 6/2/15.
