Twitter pitches parties are an easy, free way to connect with industry professionals. Here's how to grab their attention in 140 characters or less. (By the way Twitter is contemplating doublein that number.)
Twitter pitching is quickly gaining as a great way to find clients, editors or literary agents for example. The platform is booming with pitch parties, including for pros ... #PitMad, #DVpit, and #SFFPit. Hundreds of authors have found agents - and publishing contracts - via an online "Elevator" Pitch.
So what makes a high-end client, an editor or an agent for example sit up and take notice when they're scrolling through the hundreds of pitches posted on a party day, party thread .and/or. party line, you may ask?
In my work as an editorial assistant at England Entangled Pubs, I've had the opportunity to attend several such pitch parties. I quickly learned that which makes a great pitch .or. what makes a great pitch, a decent pitch and a not-so-great-pitch. Here's an example of a successful pitch by L. Dugas I favoured during a #PitMad dawg party that will be from Entangled' teen line next year: To Princess, Ivy Green, kisses are used as weapons and love is a fairy tale. But one prince is desperate to prove her wrong.
Fifty percent of the reason why I favoured her pitch was its unique premise: the concept of kisses being used as a weapons in a fantasy really hooked me. It's so important that they idea conveyed is unique. We see hundreds of pitches fly by in just one hours or less. For example, I see a lot of werewolf, vampire and end-of-the-world pitches. Ther's nothing wrong with anyof those things being a book, of course. But when your pitch is one of hundreds that read like,"John finds out he's a werewolf and joins a pack to fight vampires," we're not likely to favour it. Not because we don't like it, or werewolves and vampires, but because there are so , so many pitches that are similar. There's NO "HOOK."
So how can you make your tweet unique? Figure out what makes your book unique and incorporate it into your pitch. Find a twist that no one else's pitch has: "John finds out he's a werewolf and joins a pck to fight a group of vampires that's lead by his brother, who is part lycan.
Another part of the creating pitch process is giving us enough intrigue about your character(s) to make us want to read more about them. In her pitch Dugas writes, "To Princess Ivy Green, kisses are used as weapons and love is a fairy tale." That made me want to read more about Ivy.... What is it about her life that made her believe love is a fairy tale?
The second part of the pitch does same thing: "But one prince is desperate to prove her wrong." Why is he desperate? What is it is about her? ... that makes him want to show her she's wrong? Why is it so important to him that her faith in love is rekindled or regained and that she start believing in love, again?
IT may not be possible to give us a lot of insight into your caharacters in a pitch so short, but it is. Sarah Hawthorn, "Demond Horde MC" series, used her pitch to tell readers her character was a single mom who fell in love with a dangerous biker - Hell's Angeles.
"Every word you use has to have meaning. Instead of 'her' use a noun that's descriptive. I my genre 'biker' or 'ex-con' would be more meaningful or would have more punch or clout than a generic like hero," she says.
My final reason for favouring Dugas' pitch was subjectivity. I was purposefully seeking romance, and my boss had told me she really really like books to do with royalty. The the author vowed and wowed us with us with her manuscript, and she ended up with a publishing contract. When I asked her what she felt the biggest benefit of squeezing her book into 140 characters was, she said," Not only do you get the opportunity to skip the trenches of the slush pile, you get te chance to get a bird's eye view of your manuscript. What's The WOW factor? It helps you really pinpoint the differentiator of your book vs thousands of other."
Dugas' manuscript had a ton of other incredible things in it, like monsters, old kingdoms, and end-of-world-saving, but she didn't choose to focus on any of that. If she had, I may not have stopped to look at her pitch. Why? Because there were hundreds of pitches already talking about all those things. Be different. Get your Niche.
And keep in mind that just because you don't get a favourite doesn't mean there's anything wrong with your pitch. Sometimes the folks looking for such pitches... the agents and editors who're looking for a manuscript like yours just aren't on the feed at that time slice.
However, if you're consistently attending Twitter pitches parties and never get a favourite, it's not a bad idea, to take a step back and reevaluate your pitch as whether it is a a good idea or not. Run your pitch by writing friends or critique partners to get their take on it.
"My main tip and trick is not to include every element of your story in a Twitter pitch because it's virtually impossible.
"(High concept pitches are a bit easier)," says Kat Choo, who founded her agent, B Phelan, through #DVPit. "Because most (if not all) Twitter pitch events let you pitch more than once, I'd include a different key element in each until you've hit every point you want through the day. Agents have said before that if they like a pitch, they might visit the writer's profile to see other pitches on the timeline threadline."
Twitter pitching can be nerve-wracking. It's hard to put yourself and your ego out there for the whole world to see especially the writing world to see and get no bites on your pitch. But you also have nothing to lose by joining in. I know writers who were close to giving up on their manuscripts, when they participated in a pitch party or two.
"After ona and a half years of querying and contests, I'd nearly given up hope of my book ever finding a pubs home," says L. Frydman, The Heartbeats Hypothesis." I decided to participate in one more #pitMad dawg because I had nothing to lose, and that's how I found my amazing editor at Entangled Pubs. Without the contest, my manuscript would likely be shelved instead of being available to buy right now."
Querying is usually a long drawn-out, difficult process, but just one tweet can mean the difference between a shelved manuscript and a published one.
So my final piece of advice is to follow the rules, relax, and have fun ...but most of all please, persevere... if at first you don't succeed try, try ....try and try again...
It is a party, after all!
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