On Writing - Dream Fulfillment in progress

June 3rd, I was debating myself over whether or not to pitch in PitMad the following day. Luckily, I have exceptional friends. Two called me to ask whether or not I'd pitch and when I waffled, they (screamed) cajoled me to go for it.

There was no denying their enthusiasm and they pushed into the PITCH camp. I fine tuned yet another Twitter pitch, and the following morning, I was revved up. Come to find out that Pitchwars/Pitch Madness added a new hashtag for Black authors #BVM for Black Voices Matter.

Bear in mind, I've pitched in PitMad before for the same manuscript. My pitches weren't that great, but I didn't know it at the time. I pitched my heart out to crickets. I'd pitched in DVPit (diverse voices pitch) 2019. One agent indicated interest by liking my pitch, but he passed away before signing me to his agency. I survived the rough and tumble of Pitchwars and the mentorship program and #ThisDarknessIsMine got fine tuned, structured and edited. When I pitched in January, I got interest from four agents, all of whom declined representation in the end. Rather three of whom declined representation and one of whom simply ghosted me (along with 95% of the mentees, so she's on our collective shit list).

That's the baggage I had to let go of for June 4th, and enter the contest with beginner's mind and a new well of endless hope.

I can't tell you how exciting the day was, but I'll try. With pitching contests on Twitter, the rules want retweets and comments from supporters, but LIKES are reserved for publishing professionals like literary agents, publishers and editors. They're sticklers for this, but I was advised not to be upset when non-industry-professionals like my pitches. There's an algorithmic metric for why, and I'll let it go at that.

I got dozens of likes from non-industry-professionals. I didn't sweat it.

I got hundreds of retweets.

The main takeaway is I got interest from 14 (FOURTEEN) agents and editors. I was simply over the moon, maybe even over Mars! The day's efforts were a solid golden opportunity, and I'd nearly talked myself out of putting my hat in the ring.

When it came down to the wire, two agencies offered representation. It's a writer's dream to get ONE offer. But I had two solid offers from heavy hitters to choose from and after a couple rounds of conversations, the choice was clear: Serendipity Literary. They're the largest African-American literary agency in the States and the president is a whirlwind, nonstop champion (who happens to have a pilot's license and flies planes in her leisure time).



A word about Kelly Thomas, who's representing me. She and I have a ton in common and every time she kept me in the loop about where she was in the manuscript, she always said, "I love this story and your writing is beautiful." Her passion got my attention, but when she mentioned #PublishingPaidMe, she won me over.

We're not going into negotiations willing to get lowballed. We know the score.

That's the key ingredient for a successful professional relationship. I'd always wanted a fighter to love my story and Michelle Delphinia's struggle because I knew the publishing game is a hard one, not for the faint of heart. Kelly is my champion and I believe we're going to kick some ass together!

Follow me on Twitter: @mackenzielitt13
Follow Serendipity on Twitter: @SerendipityLit


Have a magical day!
Mackenzie