Query interest from Twitter

Cobalt Jade

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I've participated in 4 twitter pitch events so far and gotten some interest. The book I was pitching was an older one, the first in a series. There's a second one nearly finished, and a third is plotted. All are older works I finished 7 years ago but haven't worked on since (I had other things going on in my life.) To tell you the truth, I did it as a lark, as practice. I haven't written up an official query for the book yet.

I am wondering now if it's too soon. The book was as polished as I could make it back then, which was considerable and professional (I have a background in technical writing) but I haven't re-read it in a while. Doing another go-round would be very time consuming. I really want to just format it and put it out there and see what interest it gets in its present state, but don't want to shoot myself in the foot regarding chances with an agent.

It's been a month since the first interest and a few days after the second round.

Advice?
 

Sage

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So you're probably too late to use the interest from a month ago.

Do you think you're likely to actually revise the novel that has interest? Significantly enough that it would improve your chances of getting an offer? If so, hold off and pitch again at another contest. They happen all the time, so you're not missing out really.

It's super easy to just be like, "Opportunity! I should send in its current state because surely if they're going to fall in love with it, they'll fall in love with it as is!" I totally said something along those lines in December (during #pitmad, followed by #SFFpit; it was twice as hard to keep cool). But while novels do make agents fall in love with them even when they need work, a polished novel is still going to have a better chance of allowing an agent to fall in love with it, and if you're going to make significant changes (not just clean up some commas and add a scene somewhere), you shouldn't send out something you know you want to change.

And if you're on the fence, do a read-through right now. It'll take a day or two, but will be worth it as you see how you currently feel about the quality of the book.
 

Cobalt Jade

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Why is it too late to use the interest from a month ago?
 

mayqueen

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I second Sage's advice. Read through it again. Be familiar with it. If an agent requests more -- or, hopefully, offers rep -- you will need to have it fresh in your mind, I'd think.

I don't think the old pitch is too late to act on, but I get the feeling that Twitter pitch contests are best when done within a week or so, so that the agent remembers your tweet and is still interested.