How to Have a Successful #IWSGPit

Oh yes, you are not seeing things. The IWSG (Insecure Writer’s Support Group) has thrown their hat in doing a twitter pitch event. And next week Thursday, July 27th is their first ever pitch event.

Are you an IWSGer? Have you queried your manuscript far and wide and still haven’t received a response? Or rejected more times than you can count? Do you have a manuscript that’s polished and ready to submit to publishers and agents?

Well, #IWSGPit might be your chance to get your baby in front of them.

The rules are simple. One Twitter pitch per hour, between the hours of 8am to 8pm. And per manuscript. That means you get to pitch twelve times!

The pitch must also include genre, age (market audience) and the hashtag #IWSGPit.  And most importantly, only publishers/agents can like/heart the pitches they like.

Now that you know the rules, there’s one thing left for you to do. Make your pitches, in the words of Ruby Rhod:

Credit image: Memegenerator.net

Your pitch is your hook, your logline and essence of your story. And it needs to do two things: 1) summarize the story’s central conflict and 2) whet a reader’s appetite to crave more.

How? By introducing the character, stakes (motivation & crisis) and genre. Everything your book is made of.  And condensed into 140 characters and less. Like Genie from Aladdin says:

My adult romance manuscript, Dreaming of You and other WIPs aren’t ready. But until then, I plan to use their loglines to help practice writing my pitches. For example:

Dreaming of You

Sharon must survive her ex’s wedding while safeguarding her heart from Justin, the sexy, charming devil from her childhood.  #IWSGPit #R #A

Here are some links with tips to write and strengthen your pitches. With practice and polish, you’ll be ready to take on #IWSGPit.:

How to Pitch Like a TV Guide

How to Write a Great Twitter Pitch

Crafiting the Perfect Twitter Pitch

You can also try using a pitch generator to help create pitches. Plus it’s fun. Carissa Taylor, a YA SFF author, has four fun pitch generators on her blogspot site. Here and enjoy:

http://yawriterstoolbox.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

Good luck and may your pitches be ever in your favor!

PS Tweeting 12 pitches is a lot, especially if you’re pitching more than one manuscript. It’s best to schedule your pitches throughout the day using a social media management system or tool. I like to use Hootsuite, but there’s also TweetDeck, TweetSuite, etc.

Age Hashtags:

#C – children’s	#MG – middle grade
#YA – young adult	#NA – new adult
#A – adult

Genre Hashtags:

#AD – adventure	#CF – Christian fiction
#CO – contemporary	#F – fantasy
#H – horror	#HI – historical
#LF – literary fiction	#MCT – mystery/crime/thriller
#ME – memoir	#NF – non-fiction
#PB – picture book	#PN – paranormal
#R – romance	#SF – sci-fi
#WF – women’s fiction

Publishers/Agents Participating:

 

Acorn Publishing

Bond Literary Agency

Tiny Fox Press

Dancing Lemur Press

Dystel, Goderich & Bourret LLC

Entangled Publishing

Curiosity Quills Press

Rainbow Nerds Literary

Blaze Publishing

Inklings Literary Agency LLC

Owl City Press

Donald Maass Literary Agency

Carina Press

Anaiah Press

Speilburg Agency

Blue Ridge Literary Agency, LLC

Emerald City Literary Agency

Red Fox Literary

Fraser Bub Literary

Golden Wheat Literary

AB Literary Agency

Holloway Literary Agency

Dingbat Publishing

Aevitas Creative Management

The Knight Agency

Prospect Agency

Keen Editorial and Literary Services

The Friedrich Agency
Gandolfo Helin & Fountain Literary Management
Writers House LLC
The Seymour Agency

And don’t forget. Always, and I can’t stress it enough, always research the publisher/agent before you submit your query.

Are you excited about IWSG’s first Twitter pitch party? Will you be participating?