Anatomy of a Twitter Pitch #1

Pitching on Twitter is an art form unto itself. You only have 280 characters, including hashtags and spaces, to convince a publishing professional your manuscript will be worth the read. Not an easy task!

Over the next few weeks, we’ll share some of the successful pitches from #canlitpit 2021 and show why we think the pitch got hearted by publishing professionals. In every case, the author gave permission for us to screenshot and share their pitch online.

First up is @TrishWrites1‘s pitch, which falls in the book club fiction genre:

Image Alt Text

For those who can’t see the image, this is what it shows:

Screenshot of Twitter pitch by user @TrishWrites1, which reads:

LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE + Pacific Northwest
15 yrs ago Felicity took her baby & disappeared – new names, new life. Now her husband is looking for them, her daughter discovers their true identity, & the past might just be catching up to her with nowhere left to run.#canlitpit #WF

On the screenshot is an overlay of colourful arrows pointing to highlighted sections of the pitch. Colour-coded text indicates why each section was highlighted.

Highlight #1 (red):

LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE + Pacific Northwest”
Reason for Highlight: COMP – Recognizable and relevant, but also shows how ms differs from comp

Highlight #2 (blue):

“Felicity took her baby & disappeared.”
Reason for Highlight: CHARACTER – We know what gets MC out of bed in the morning.

Highlight #3 (purple):

“her husband is looking for them” and “daughter discovers their true identity”
Reason for Highlight: STAKES – Details of unfolding action show what’s at risk

Highlight #4 (green):

“with nowhere left to run”
Reason for Highlight: TENSION – The walls are closing in