Anatomy of a Twitter Pitch #4

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.

The fourth successful pitch we’re breaking down is @dovehanaswan‘s domestic thriller pitch: https://twitter.com/dovehanaswan/status/1425847715297103878

Image Alt Text

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

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

FROM BLOOD + ASH X SHADOW + BONE
Night Princess Kallie runs away from her cloistered life to find a vengeful half-brother on a feuding kingdom’s throne, a warrior soulmate & a Moon-given duty that, if unfulfilled, will unleash a plague of beasts to eat her realm #canlitpit #YA #F

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):

“FROM BLOOD + ASH X SHADOW + BONE”
Reason for Highlight: COMPS – We know exactly where this book would fit on bookstore shelves

Highlight #2 (blue):

“Night Princess Kallie” + “a Moon-given duty”
Reason for Highlight: WORLD – Just enough detail to create interest without overwhelm

Highlight #3 (purple):

“vengeful half-brother” + “warrior soulmate”
Reason for Highlight: ENSEMBLE – Briefly introduces cast of characters

Highlight #4 (green):

“will unleash a plague of beasts”
Reason for Highlight: STAKES – If the rest wasn’t enough author ups the conflict ante