CanLitPit

**IMPORTANT NOTE** There will be no 2023 canlitpit event. We are no longer active on Twitter/X and do not yet know what platform canlitpit will move to. Please keep an eye on this page for updates. Thank you!

Overview

CanLitPit is a pitch party just for Canadians!

During CanLitPit, Canadian writers can pitch completed, polished manuscripts via tweet for publishing professionals to browse. If an agent, editor, or publisher hearts a pitch, it means “please submit this manuscript to me.” The writer can then submit the manuscript per the publishing professional’s instructions, but they get to mark it as a “canlitpit request” so that it stands out in the slush pile. It’s a potentially great way to get noticed by industry professionals!

Starting in 2022, we will be adding an additional layer to CanLitPit to make it easier and more fun for everyone! During the event, organizers of CanLitPit from WritingCommunity.ca will also be liking pitches and requesting submissions. These submissions will be reviewed by CanLitPit organizers, and only the best will be selected for a PRIVATE showcase that agents and editors will be invited to attend. This does not replace the existing opportunity to get a like from a publishing professional during the live event, but it is an additional opportunity to have your work seen! Think of it like an art gallery for canlit. WritingCommunity.ca is committed to reading every pitch and requesting standouts. More details below!

Not Canadian? Check out our full list of pitch parties for writers.

History of CanLitPit

DigiWriting.com founded CanLitPit in 2016. The inaugural event, which took place in July 2016, was the #6 trending topic in Canada that day. In 2017, it became the #3 trending topic. DigiWriting hosted several CanLitPit events from 2016 to 2018, at which time they announced a hiatus.

In 2020, we reached out to the execs at Digiwriting.com to inquire about the status of CanLitPit and offer our help. With DigiWriting’s blessing, WritingCommunity.ca adopted the program. The event ran for the first time under the WritingCommunity.ca banner in 2021 and reached #2 on the trend list for Canadian Twitter.

Our 2022 event will be even bigger!

CanLitPit 2022

When is CanLitPit?

The live Twitter event will take place June 1, 2022 from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm EST. Publishing professionals and CanLitPit organizers will be browsing the live feeds and requesting submissions during the live event.

Writers who receive hearts from publishing professionals during the live event can submit their materials directly to the requestor either via their regular query channels, or via special instructions announced on Twitter prior or during CanLitPit.

Those who receive a heart from #canlipit organizers will have until no later than June 7, 2022 at 11:59 pm EST to submit their work for consideration for the private showcase. Manuscripts selected by CanLitPit organizers for the private showcase will be announced on Canada Day, July 1, 2022.

The private showcase that only publishing professionals will attend will take place from July 5-20, 2022. Those who are selected by publishing professionals during the showcase will get a private response shortly thereafter, and will have the option to announce their selection publicly or to keep it private.

Who is eligible to participate?

CanLitPit is for Canadians: writers who live in or were born in what settlers call Canada, or Canadian ex-pats. You don’t have to be a Canadian citizen.

Participating agents, editors, and publishers don’t have to be Canadian, though most will be. We encourage writers to be diligent in vetting participating agencies and publishers. Participation in CanLitPit does not mean the organization has been vetted by us.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not like or “heart” or retweet any pitches. Hearts are for publishing professionals and organizers only, and retweets get confusing. If a publishing professional hearts a retweet, the original pitcher may never know about it! Feel free to comment on each other’s pitches to show your support.

IMPORTANT NOTE #2: On the day of the event, only use the #canlitpit hashtag if you are a publishing professional or are using it in a pitch. This keeps the feed clean. If you’re talking about CanLitPit on the day of, please write “canlitpit” without the hashtag.

Publishing professionals who have participated in CanLitPit in the past include (but is not limited to):

-Book*hug Press
-BookLand Press
-Boulder Books
-CookeMcDermid
-Douglas & McIntyre
-Golden Wheat Literary
-P.S. Literary Agency
-Palimpsest Press
-Pulp Literature Press
-Radiant Press
-Random House Canada
-Second Story Press
-Transatlantic Agency
-Turtle’s Back Publishing

Rules for Writers

Your manuscript must be complete, polished, and ready to submit before you pitch it. No pitching ideas or partials.
Your pitch must fit into a single 280-character tweet. No threads or links. For illustrated manuscripts, you can attach one or two sample images.
Your pitch must include the #canlitpit hashtag. Other hashtags and rules/guidelines for using them are below. Do not @ Writingca in your pitch.
You can pitch as many manuscripts as you have polished and ready for submission, but you can only pitch EACH manuscript TWICE throughout the day. This keeps the feed clean and avoids overwhelm. We encourage you to use your two posts as an A/B test to try out different versions of your pitch.
Your manuscript can be any style or length, and it can be intended for any audience. We’ve invited book publishers, magazine editors, literary journals, and educational publishers to participate. Use the appropriate hashtags from the list below to reach your target audience.
Not all publishing professionals will be able to participate on the day. Keep your pitches up for a few days to give late-comers a chance to browse your pitches.
If your pitch is hearted by a CanLitPit organizer, please submit your query letter and the first 5 pages of your manuscript (or whole manuscript if shorter) to us via email info@writingcommunity.ca. No attachments! Just copy and paste your pages into the body of the email. Any item submitted June 8th or later will not be read (EST time zone).
If a publishing professional hearts your pitch, do not DM them on Twitter (unless encourage to do so). Instead, check their Twitter feed for instructions on how to submit, and if none are present, submit to them via their normal submission channels with “canlitpit request” in the subject or referral line.
A request does not equal acceptance. Your manuscript may still be rejected once the full submission has been reviewed. Please don’t take this personally. Publishing is a competitive industry and you may have better luck next time around. While pitch parties are fun, regular querying is still the best way to get your work seen. Keep writing, revising, and querying. Your time will come!
Be respectful, follow the rules, and have fun! 🙂
We will post a link to an “exit survey” a day or two after the event. Please come back and participate so we can improve and better serve your needs.

Guidelines for Publishing Professionals on the Live Event

You do not need to be present for the whole event. Feel free to pop in and out when you have time. You can also come back after the event is over to browse pitches, but remember, anxious author may take down their pitches after a day or two to avoid having the ideas out in the open, so don’t delay!
The feed can be overwhelming! Please make use of the hashtags below to help narrow down your search. You can also used the “advanced search” function on Twitter to clean up the feed, too. This is especially helpful when returning a few days later as you can filter results by date.
On the day of or in the days before the event, please post submission instructions on Twitter with the hashtag #canlitpit. You do not need to share your email address on Twitter. A simple, “If I heart your pitch, please submit to me via my normal submission channels” works. This reduces confusion for the writers, and reduce the chance they will @ or DM you.
Predatory agencies and publishers have not been invited, but they will likely be lurking. If you see any of these organizations participating, please let us know so we can warn writers.
We will post a link to an “exit survey” a day or two after the event. Please come back and participate so we can improve and better serve your needs.
If you are only participating in the private showcase, no need to worry about any of the rules above. You will receive an email with instructions for participation in the showcase. If you are unsure that you are on our email distribution list, please reach out to us at info@writingcommunity.ca.

Hashtags

The default audience category is Adult. If you have not written a manuscript for adults, please include one of the following hashtags in your pitch.

#BB – Board Book
#PB – Picture Book
#CB – Chapter Book
#MG – Middle Grade
#YA – Young Adult

The default form is Novel. If your manuscript is not a novel, we recommend using one of the following hashtags:

#ESS – Article, essay, or editorial
#GN – Graphic Novel
#NV – Novella
#PO – Poetry
#SS – Short Story

The following hashtags are completely optional, but may further help categorize your pitch so the right publishing professional can find it.

#AA – Action/Adventure
#BCF – Book Club Fiction/Women’s Fiction
#CF – Contemporary Fiction/General Fiction
#CNF – Creative Nonfiction
#CR – Contemporary Romance
#COM – Comedy
#E – Erotica
#EDU – Educational/Scholarly
#EX – Experimental
#H – Horror
#HF – Historical Fiction
#F – Fantasy
#LF – Literary Fiction
#M – Mystery
#MEM – Memoir
#NF – Nonfiction
#P – Paranormal
#PR – Paranormal Romance
#R – Romance
#RS – Romantic Suspense
#SF – Science Fiction
#SH – Self-Help
#SPEC – Speculative Fiction
#T – Thriller/Suspense
#W – Western

Representation hashtags are for marginalized creators only. If you do not personally belong to the group the hashtag represents, DO NOT USE IT.

#API (Asian, Pacific, Islander)
#BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Colour)
#DIS (Disabled)
#GNC (Gender Non-Conforming)
#ND (Neuro-Diverse)
#Q (Queer/LGBTQIA+)