2024 Wrap Up | PitchDis

2024 Wrap-Up

Whew! #PitchDis 2024 is now behind us and I am exhausted! 😂

Before I get to anything else, I want to thank EVERYONE who participated. Whether you pitched or whether you’re an agent or editor who took the time to review and request pitches, thank you from the bottom of my heart. This event wouldn’t be possible without all of you.

Here are some quick stats for this year. We had

-478 eligible pitches

-326 requests

-35 registered agents and 8 registered editors

I’m floored by the response, and so excited about it. Posting that many pitches and sending out so many requests was more work than I anticipated, but I was incredibly happy to do it.

This year was a big change from previous years when we held the event on Twitter. Some things worked out very well. Others…not so much. We knew there would be a learning curve to this format, but I’m hoping to work out the glitches and have it run more smoothly if we have the event next year. So, in usual form, I’m going to talk about what worked and what didn’t, and what WE (not just me) need to work on.

What worked

Because of your feedback, I found out that pitching via Google form worked very well. It gave participants time to enter their pitch exactly how they wanted it, and made genre and age group hashtag options clear. I heard from some participants that they enjoyed that it wasn’t as stressful and chaotic as pitching on Twitter.
We’ll touch on this again shortly, but all in all I feel like we had a great timeframe for getting the pitches in. #PitchDis used to be a 12 hour event, but this year it spanned three days. Things happen and sometimes people are extra busy on certain days, so having the extended timeframe helped a lot of people get their pitches in who maybe wouldn’t have in a shorter window.
Agent and editor registration. Even though I wasn’t able to completely vet everyone, the registration process helped ensure that only actual agents and editors could request pitches. No random people saying they work at an agency or publisher or likes from well-meaning followers who didn’t know the rules. Any requests received were legitimate.
The #BVM category worked very well. The majority of #BVM pitches received at least one request. Considering that wasn’t the case in past #PitchDis events, and other pitch events, I’m happy we were able to help boost Black disabled voices, which are so often overlooked.

What didn’t work

Unlimited optional hashtags. I wanted to include them so you could tell a little more about yourself, and I still want to do that. But several people used that space to continue pitching their book or to add more genre hashtags beyond the two allowed. So many, actually, that it became a big problem and very time consuming. So next time, only three optional hashtags will be allowed. You’ll still be able to use whatever hashtags you’d like to self-identify and I won’t have a list of them, but any additional hashtags that extend your pitch or add a genre will be deleted.

What needs to be worked on.

The web site was a big problem on my end and the agents’ and editors’ end. Here’s what happened.

Before announcing #PitchDis in March, I worked on the site to see how I could password protect the pitches. I tested it using some of my own pitches, made a few tweaks, and everything seemed to be working properly. I even decided to lock down the entire site during the event and only have it available to registered agents and editors.

A day after the request window opened, I received messages from two participants who said they had been able to access the password-protected area without the password. They were both kind enough to tell me how they were able to do it, so I retraced their steps and was able to add extra security measures to the pitch area of the site. After doing so, I tested the pitch area again, and all seemed to be working the way it should be.

Right before the request window was supposed to close, a participant publicly posted that they were able to see their own pitch and even linked others to it. They then publicly shared how to bypass the safeguards I had in place so others could access the pitches. Thankfully, I happened to be online at the time and saw the posts as they were posted on Twitter. I went in and had to shut down the entire site for everyone until I could figure out what was happening. I’m still not clear about what happened, but the extra layer of protection that needed to be added after that definitely made it more cumbersome for agents and editors to go through the pitches.

As I mentioned, this happened at what was supposed to be the end of the request window. This isn’t why the window was extended, though. I had two agents reach out to me to let me know that their requests didn’t go through. Both of them made their requests around the same time on a particular day, and after looking at other requests I discovered that was a very busy time on the site, so it may have just been too much for the page to handle. So, I extended the window just in case any other agents or editors had problems, and I am happy to report that the two agents who reached out to me were able to still make all of their requests and we got more requests during the extended time.

I don’t know what the answer is to the site problem, yet. I either will have to add extra safeguards to the site, which may make it more tedious for agents and editors to make requests, or I may have to move the site away from Wix and host it elsewhere. But until this gets figured out, I don’t want to plan for another #PitchDis event quite yet. Safety is my top priority for everyone, and this absolutely can’t happen again.

I do want to add, though, that if anyone gives out information on how to bypass safeguards I have to protect the pitches, they will be banned from all future events. No exceptions. The pitches were protected for a reason, and I won’t allow anyone to ruin this event for everyone.

Following the Rules. Before I go into this, I want to stress that this does not apply to most of this year’s participants. But there are enough people it does apply to that it needs to be addressed in order to prevent future problems.

When people submitted pitches, the form clearly stated that only one pitch was allowed per project, and only two projects. That would be a TOTAL of two pitches if you had two projects. I had people that submitted four and five different projects. As I mentioned several times, any more than two would automatically be deleted, and they were. Only the first two counted.

Next, I had several entries where the participant stated that their project was on submission with an agent. Huge no no. Please look at our tagline, our social media banners, and the rules. This is a pitch event for UNAGENTED disabled authors. Those entries were deleted as well.

There were some entries that said the project had previously been published with a publisher, but the author was looking for a different publisher. Again, it’s clearly stated in our rules that previously published works are not eligible. And considering a few people reached out to me before the event to get clarification on this, I know it was stated several times in several other areas. Those pitches were deleted.

Lastly, and the major one—trying to submit a pitch past the timeframe. Let’s talk about this in depth for a moment. The window for pitches was officially announced via Bluesky, Twitter, the official site, and newsletter in March. That was nearly six months before it opened. The dates did not change. I decided to open the window 12 hours early to give participants extra time. Also, because I made a typo in the newsletter, I closed the window one hour later than originally planned, and I made a post on social media to let everyone know. That gave everyone more than three full days—73 hours—instead of our usual 12 hours to send in their pitch.

I understand things happen. Things happened from my end too (see the site issues above). Life happens. Technology sucks at times. We forget. But there was ample opportunity to submit days before the window closed, or to create a reminder.

I had nearly 40 people ask me to pitch hours and even days (and even two weeks) after the window closed. But I absolutely couldn’t reopen the window or take pitches via email past the already extended time.

This isn’t me trying being difficult, and I’m sorry if anyone felt that I was. This is me doing the best I can to keep this event going. If I accepted the late pitches, that was at least another day’s work for me. I was in non-stop #PitchDis mode from September 10 through the 30th, working at least 5 hours a day on the contest alone. I have a life, work, and obligations beyond the contest. I had to push some things to the side because of the contest. I have limited time and extremely limited energy. As much as I hated disappointing 40 people, I had to do what was right for me, and what was fair for the other participants who pitched during the window.

Reading and following the rules isn’t just something you need to do for this event. It needs to become a habit. If you bypass the rules/guidelines when you’re querying agents or editors, there’s a good chance they’ll automatically reject you. Don’t throw away your shot by thinking you don’t need to follow the rules.

Lastly, though this isn't technically a rule, I have to ask that you be kind. 99% of people who contacted me were courteous and understanding. But I had some people angry at me for things I literally never said, and for not keeping the pitch window open. It was really upsetting getting those messages. So before sending an email, please just think of your tone and if what you’re actually accusing someone of is true. Think of how you would feel if someone did that to you.

What Happens Next

First, I’m taking a #PitchDis break until at least the end of the year!
I’m going to find out what options I have to secure the site and still make it easy for agents and editors to review the pitches. Every option is on the table at the moment.
I know a lot of people missed the social aspect from when #PitchDis was on Twitter, and I’m trying to figure out what we can do to try to bring some of it back. In the meantime, check out the #PitchDis hashtag on Twitter and Bluesky and see if you can connect with other pitchers, if you’d like.
I won’t be able to schedule another #PitchDis until the site issue is solved.

There are a few more things I want to mention before I wrap up this long message!

If you pitched and didn’t get a request, please don’t let this deter you or make you give up on your project or writing. There were so many pitches to go through and things were bound to be missed. Please continue querying. Pitch contests are fun and they do work for many people, but querying still works, and most people still find representation that way. Remember—the number of requests you receive is not indicative of the quality of your work.
To all the agents and editors, thank you so much for participating this year. I know you had to go through more steps to review and request pitches, and deal with technical issues. I hope to make the next event much easier for you. I truly appreciate all the time you put into this, and I know all the participants do, too.
To everyone who has tweeted, messaged, DMed, and emailed me kind notes—thank you. You have no idea what they meant to me. I had a very difficult September for various reasons, and I admit some of the not-so-friendly messages got me down. Your words meant so much to me, and I won’t forget your kindness.

Anyway, don’t be strangers! I won’t be posting as much, but I’ll still be around to answer questions and hear any ideas you may have for #PitchDis. And hopefully, fingers crossed, we’ll find a way to make things even better and bring the event back in 2025.

Take care, everyone 💜