Lately the buzz word for pitches has become the Twitter Pitch. You may see agents asking for Twitter Pitches in contest or hey, on Twitter! So what is this? Basically, it’s where you sum up the essence of your novel in 140 characters or 2o words.
What are the benefits to a Twitter Pitch?
1. It’s a quick, concise version of your book.
2. You can offer your readers or listeners a snapshot of what your book is about.
3. Catches a person’s attention. (Remember, we live in a fast food age!)
4. Often it’s a phrase or thought rather than a sentence.
How to Craft a Twitter Pitch:
Ah, now here’s the tricky part. We have already agreed that it’s short. But it must also have power, be clear and have a hook that will make your reader want more. Enough to buy the book.
1. Study examples. Below, I’ve listed examples of pitches from the OneFour KidLit authors.
2. Jot down notes of what your book is about.
3. Now start piecing together those notes, slashing unnecessary words.
4. Make sure you include the character, the conflict, and the basic essence of the story.
5. Details. Be as specific as you can without spoilers.
Things to Remember:
1. Add in your own flair.
2. Use power verbs.
3. Use visual words.
Note:
If you wish to write a one sentence pitch and aren’t worried over the length, then check out Nathan Bransford’s blog. I LOVE Nathan Bransford’s simple formula: “When [opening conflict] happens to [character(s)], they must [overcome conflict] to [complete their quest].”
Check out Carissa Taylor’s post for more information here.
Examples:
GILDED
YA Mythological Paranormal (Skyscape/Amazon Children’s)
A girl with a black belt and a deadly proclivity with steel-tipped arrows discovers a Korean god kidnaps the oldest daughter of her family.
HEART BAND (Book 1: I Heart Band, Book 2: Friends, Fugues, and Fortune Cookies)
MG Contemporary (Penguin/Grosset & Dunlap)
A series about the thrills and spills, practices and performances, crushes and crises of middle school band geeks.
Michelle Schusterman
LANDRY PARK
YA Light Sci-Fi (Dial/Penguin)
Gone with the Nuclear
Wind
Bethany
Hagen
NEARLY GONE
YA thriller (Kathy Dawson Books/Penguin)
A math whiz from a trailer park discovers she’s the only student capable of unraveling complex clues left by a serial killer who’s systematically getting rid of her classmates.
Elle Cosimano
SEKRET
YA historical thriller (Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan Children’s)
Psychic teens in Soviet Russia are forced to spy for the KGB against the backdrop of impending nuclear war.
Lindsay Smith
EXTRACTION
YA Sci-fi (St. Martin’s/MacMillan)
A girl wins escape from a brutal life on her planet’s surface only to face the cruel realization that her new life within the core has its own set of horrors.
Stephanie Diaz
THE DELICIOUS DOUBLE LIFE OF GLADYS GATSBY
MG humor/adventure
(Putnam/Penguin)
An 11-year old girl secretly becomes a food critic for The New York Times.
Tara Dairman
This is great! And perfect timing. Good examples for those of us doing Operation Awesome and March Madness pitch fests!
I just did a series of posts related to Twitter Pitches too (what with PitMad and all).
*Running to add this page to the links on my post!
Wonderful! I’m so glad you can use this as a resource. I’ll have to check out your pitch fests. They sound like so much fun.
What’s up, the whole thing is going sound here and ofcourse every one is sharing data, that’s really excellent,
keep up writing.
Great ideas for Twitter and one-sentence pitches! It’s a good idea to leave a few character spaces for hashtags too.
What was “the elevator pitch” is now “the Twitter pitch,” and much more convenient for the tongue-tied!
Exactly!
Hi I am so thrilled I found your blog page, I really
found you by accident, while I was looking on Askjeeve for something else, Anyhow I am here
now and would just like to say thanks for a remarkable post and a all round interesting
blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to read it all at the minute but I have saved it and also included your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a great deal more, Please do keep up the excellent work.
Your post was very informative thank you for that
I think the admin of this web site is truly working
hard in support of his web site, because here every
stuff is quality based information.
Hello, i think that i noticed you visited my site
so i got here to go back the choose?.I’m trying to to find things to improve
my web site!I assume its ok to use some of your concepts!!