Twitter Pitch Event Primer
The most important thing to know when working on your Twitter pitch is to understand the purpose of what to write. You need to post something quick, concise, and with enough detail to intrigue a potential agent. Per the pitch even website:
Your pitch should contain four elements:
1. First and foremost, the hashtag for the contest, #PitDark.2. An indication of the book’s age category.
3. An indication of the book’s genre in existing terms. See below for hashtags. A genre hashtag is mandatory.
4. A pitch for your book. Ideally, it should tell us character, desire, obstacle(s), and stakes
This means, that you need the quick and dirty of the book - what makes it interesting and what makes it marketable. I say marketable because that is what agents look for. This is a business, and they want to know that there is an audience for your book. Who will buy it? So, instead of getting bogged down in plot, you need high level. What is the hook? What is going to draw people to the book? Do you have a winding road of love and deceit with 15 POVs with several altering identities each with his or her own varying levels of intrigue? Leave 98% of that out. Boil it down into the hook. Use emojis. Its twitter, you have that leeway. You are character limited, so if your plot revolves around a squirrel. save the characters from typing it out and use the squirrel emoji.
Follow the rules! Every pitch event will have a rule set. For #PitchDark, one of the main ones is that you can only post once per hour. For #PitDark, check out the rules here: https://jasonhuebinger.com/pitdark/. I’ve also posted them here:
General Pitch Party Rules
– Pitch limit. Please do not pitch more than once an hour, per manuscript.– Time-frame: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern. Please do not pitch before or after this twelve-hour period.
So, have a few posts drafted and ready to go, but don’t overload the box. If it says “only once per hour,” then only post once per hour! The rules will also have the short descriptive hashtags to include in your posts. Back to the pitch elements above, 2 (age) and 3 (genre) are hashtags provided in the rule set. For instance - is your book an adult, murder mystery? Then the rule set will show you that you can use the hashtags #A and #MM. All that being said, I don’t think you can get in trouble for not following the rules, but they are there to help you post, and to help the community. If you are over posting, and putting incorrect information, then you are crowding out the other authors trying to get their work seen. Which brings me to my next point.
Support your fellow authors. Retweet posts you think have merit. Comment on what you think makes them compelling pitches. This helps visibility! But, do not “like” these posts. Only agents and editors wishing to see these books in their inboxes should use the “like” button. There is nothing more demoralizing than finally getting a like on your pitch to find it was from another querying author. So, please don’t “like” the pitches. Also, a word of caution, be cognizant that too many retweets can get your account temporarily suspended. I learned this a few events ago. I was going through and retweeting so many great pitches, that twitter locked my account for 24 hours because of “bot like behavior.” So, just be aware that too much retweeting can have an adverse effect.
I know you’re asking, “Well, TJ, how do you do it? How do you pitch?” Look, while there’s no right way to do it. There is away, and that is by not followingu the rules, and not working within the best interests of the community. But, if you would like to know, I have two distinct pitches I alternate every hour. One is the more conventional, “hook” line like you would find in a query letter. The other one is the more twitter specific pitch. It is filled with scintillating aspects of the plot, and several specific emojis. Both pitches include the required hashtags and are within the rules. I welcome you to check it out and retweet them on October 26. Good luck to everyone out there in the pitch trenches.
