The Wide World of Twitter Pitch Contests
If you’ve been hanging around writing twitter, you know there are days when your feed is totally overwhelmed with people writing tweets about their books with weird hashtags. What’s going on? Twitter pitch contests.
These contests - the biggest of which is #pitmad, but there are many -- are designed for authors to pitch their book to agents in a single tweet. (For comprehensive, if slightly outdated, lists of all the current pitch contests, see here and here.)
Agents will “like” tweets that intrigue them, which is a green light for you to query them with their requested material. This is especially great for agents who are currently closed to all but solicited queries.
So how do you get in on the pitch contest fun?
Step 1: figure out what contest you want to do
There are many. The biggest is #pitmad, which happens several times a year, but there are also pitch contests designed for authors of all sorts. There’s #pbpitch (for picture book authors), #dvpit (for authors from marginalized groups), #sffpit (for Sci-fi/Fantasy authors), and more.
Step 2: read the rules
All of the contests have different rules, from whether you can include images with your tweet, to how many times a day you can pitch. Make sure you’re following the rules of the contest! Also make sure that your manuscript is polished and ready to query before you participate in pitch contests--agents will expect you to send your query quickly.
Step 3: make your pitch
The best pitches contain the book’s character, conflict, and stakes. They also have comps* up at the top, and the contest hashtags at the bottom. Here’s a made-up twitter pitch for the novel that got me an agent:
SONGofACHILLES x HUNGER GAMES
Captive priest Levi +unwilling sacrifice Aaron must work together to escape the realm of the gods. Once they're free, they're not safe. They must break the gods' hold on the mortal realm before they're cursed for their disobedience
#YA #F #Pitmad
It gives a bit of info on the main characters, sets up their conflict (they must escape the mountain), and gives the stakes (they’re going to be cursed if they don’t break the hold the gods have on the mortal realm). It should leave the agent wondering what happens next, because the pitch is a teaser for the query.
If pitch contests give you anxiety, schedule your tweets the day before, and then check twitter only after the contest is over. Do something nice for yourself in the meantime.
*When it comes to pitch contest comps, it’s a whole different beast. Pick the splashiest comps you can think of to catch agents’ attention-my prior warnings about age, debut-ness, etc. no longer apply. Obviously, the comps you query with will be different.
Step 4: have fun!
I participated in pitch contests three times before I got an agent (#pitmad twice and #sffpit once). I got a single agent like across all of those contests. That like turned into a rejection three hours after I sent in my query. So while it may feel like if you don’t get an agent like (or many) you’re never going to get agented, that’s simply not the case.
Pitch contests are a great time to see fun pitches, cheer on other authors, and make connections with writers whose projects intrigue you. Enjoy the day! It’s still most common for agent offers to come through regular old querying.