So this year, I’ve jumped into my very first pitch contests! As a brief explanation, pitch contests are day-long Twitter mosh pits for aspiring authors. Many are themed—two of the ones I participated in this year were—and there are a range of sizes and community involvement.
A little more clearly: pitch contests are where you go on Twitter, use a specific hashtag dedicated to that particular contest, and use the character-constrained posts to write brief pitches of your novel (or project). Agents, editors, publishers, and other industry professionals go through the tag and see if there is anything you like. If you connect, then you’re welcome to query them, with an edge!
It’s free to all involved, and rules vary by which one you participate in, but generally there are specific tags you use—one for the overall contest, then for genre, age range, and more—and you are restricted to a certain amount per day (and per hour).
I participated in #LGBTNPit in April, and it was something. It was my first ever jump into that particular writing pool, though I’ve been aware of it, and have seen others’ pitches. (It’s considered supportive to retweet or reply to others’ pitches that you like!)
I also decided to participate the day before.
Usually, pitches are very meticulously crafted. They are just as refined as query letters and synopses. I’ve given feedback on friends’ pitches and have seen others asking for it, too.
I decided to just go for it. Not to say there wasn’t thought and work put into them—and I did ask one friend for feedback—but with the 4 pitches I wrote for the day, I think I will only keep/rewrite 2 of them. (Protip: Write several different pitches for the same novel! Cast a wide net and show off different angles, characters, or plotlines. You never know what will hook another’s attention.)
I didn’t get any agent likes, but these things are a longshot, and it was my first go. I only used comp titles in one pitch; there are a lot of pros and cons to using comparison titles, and I’ve never felt confident in them, aside from “hey this series of mine is kind of like Supernatural, except no queerbaiting and it actually ends well!”.
The next one I participated in was specifically for dark fantasy, #PitDark. It was at the end of May. It allowed 1 pitch per hour, during the full 12 hours of the contest, so that’s a lot more pitches being tossed around. I reworked my existing ones but added a few more—the freedom of having more pitches to dedicate to my project allowed me to get more creative with them.
I wrote probably my favorite pitch in this one: “Worried about the end of days? Scared of what horrors magic could unleash unto us all? Have we got the guide for you! HOW TO KILL GODS & MAKE FRIENDS: guaranteed* success! *Only successful if run by deathless exorcist, spellwriter witch, & chimeric ghost.”
So a Twitter-constrained character limit gives you a short paragraph to work with. It’s actually very, very nice practice for thinking up elevator pitches, AKA when you are stuck in an elevator with your dream agent and only have 2 minutes to hook them onto your most magnificent manuscript. Summaries and synopses are often the bane of authors’ existences, so practice at the most boiled down, ruthlessly edited form is a valuable skill to hone.
I decided not to use any comp titles in this one, mostly so I could use my valuable wordcount for actual sentences. Using or not using comp titles is largely up to personal preference, and while they make for excellent, quick hooks of attention, I have still struggled to find anything that’s as perfect as “Supernatural but gay and not overstaying its narrative welcome”.
#PitMad is probably one of the biggest industry pitch contests on Twitter; most people, if they have heard of the concept, have heard of that one. It was yesterday, 6/3, on Twitter. What creative chaos.
Its rules were more like #LGBTNPit, in that you are only given 3 pitches per manuscript (within a 12 hour window) to post. So it’s a little less frantic than the #PitDark one, but I got to look over the 12 I posted for that one, and see which were most favorably received. (The one above definitely made the cut.)
Within the first five minutes of posting my first one, I got a like from a small publishing house! They weren’t what I’m looking for, since I was primarily doing pitches for agents, but the ego boost was undeniable. Someone in the industry liked my pitch enough that they casually requested a submission, after all!
Those are the only pitch contests I’ve done, and the only ones on my radar for the near future. After this, I’m jumping into the traditional process of throwing query letters at agents and keeping a very meticulous spreadsheet. But I learned a lot about conveying a lot in a little space, which is invaluable for any writer, but especially me, Queen of Unbearably Long Projects. Who knows? Maybe I’ll compete again, whether in the fall, next year, or with my next project!
