Twitter Pitch Events

The most fun and frustrating fun way to write an elevator pitch for your manuscript!

I'm very new to the phenomenon of Twitter pitch events, but since today marks #CarinaPitch, I thought it would be a great day to write this post!

For anyone even more new to the concept than me, basically writers attempt to pitch their stories in 280 characters or less, including the required hashtags for the event. It really forces you to get at the heart of your book while also being entertaining. If you succeed, you may receive a heart from an agent/editor. You then go to their Twitter page (or in some cases, they may DM you) to find out how to query them. The pitch is only the icebreaker, you then have to follow-up with a query letter, possibly a synopsis, and pages from your manuscript. It's no different from normal querying, except in this case, you go to the top of their slush pile because they specifically requested you to query them with their "heart."

Each event has its own rules. For instance, with #PitMad, you should only be pitching if you have a polished, complete manuscript to pitch. However, for today's #CarinaPitch, they are requesting proposals and pages, so even if your manuscript isn't complete, you can still pitch. I'm pitching one complete manuscript and one WIP. Before participating, I advise everyone to review the rules for the event you're interested in. These events happen throughout the year, some are open to the general public and others are tailored to specific types of work and/or writers. 

The other important thing about pitching via Twitter is the hashtag game. Again, each event has its own set of hashtags, though they're often similar. I noted for #PitMad, they require pitchers to put the age for their audience (e.g. #A for adult, #YA for young adult, etc.), but #CarinaPitch I think only works in adult fiction, so they don't require that hashtag. Most importantly, you must include the event's hashtag so that the participating editors and agents can find your tweet! The upside is that with additional hashtags, you can really cater your pitch to an agent who is looking for exactly your book. If an agent is seeking, for instance, a romantic suspense from a person of color, you can include hashtags if you fit that criteria that allows an agent to find you.  The downside is that a lot of hashtags can eat up your available characters. Spaces, letters, and punctuation all eat up characters, so consider whether each hashtag is necessary.

Most events allow you to pitch more than one tweet per book you're pitching. Today's #CarinaPitch allows two tweets per book and #PitMad allows three tweets per book. It's good to have different tweets ready to go because you never know how a tweet might hit an agent or editor. Last #PitMad, my most popular tweet was actually a recipe using the "ingredients" of my book. I received a heart from an agent for that one, and while the query ultimately resulted in a rejection, it's one I plan to use again today. If you have two main characters, try doing tweets from their different POVs. I took a class called "Pitch Perfect" (not to be confused with the movies) and it really helped me to narrow down my focus for my tweets. 

One of my tweets during #PitMad was liked by a questionable publisher. I won't name names, but I include this tidbit to warn writers to vet whomever likes their tweets. Unfortunately, there are many vanity press type publishers who are participating in events. Additionally, sometimes our family and friends don't know what these pitch events are and they like your tweets, which can be really disappointing when you get the notification. You can try to counteract this by either warning them ahead of time or posting the morning of the event, but there's no guarantee they'll see it or remember. Most fellow participants know the drill and they comment and/or retweet to boost your visibility. 

My final word of advice is to not take it too seriously, especially if you don't get a heart. I don't recall the exact numbers, but there was quite a turnout for last #PitMad. Even if your favorite agent was participating, and didn't like your tweet, that doesn't mean they might not like your book. As the teacher of the Pitch Perfect class said, you still have to do the work after the event to query agents whether you received a heart or not. So, have fun, enjoy reading other people's tweets, and best of luck to everyone participating in #CarinaPitch today!

For more information on Twitter events, I recommend bookmarking these pages:
#PitMad
2021 Pitch Contests
Crafting the Perfect Pitch