The Ten Commandments of Twitter Pitch Contests

A Twitter pitch contest is a great opportunity to start a "relationship" with an agent so you don't have to send your query in cold. Participating in the contests can be confusing, so I wanted to share my 10 Commandments of Twitter Pitch Contests. The advice here varies from Twitching manners to the construction of the pitch itself. I hope it is helpful!

1. Keep your pitch to one tweet. Don't split it between two. Don't link to the "rest" of it. 140 characters is all you've got for your pitch and any necessary hashtags. Use it wisely.

2. Don't flood the feed. Most contests will dictate how many times throughout the day you are allowed to post your pitch (generally, it is once or twice per hour) but read the contest rules. If you post more often in hopes that more eyes will see your pitch, you'll get your wish, but the feeling towards you won't be a positive one--from agents or from the writing community in general.

3. Stick to one (MAYBE two) named characters. There simply isn't space to name more than that.

4. Avoid asking questions, rhetorical or otherwise. Of course, there are always exceptions, but this seems to be the general consensus among agents.

5. Favorites are for agents. Don't favorite a fellow writer's tweet in hopes of encouraging them. You'll only give them the false joy that an agent wants to see more of their work, and they'll be sad when it's just little ol' you. If you want to show support for your fellow writings, retweet their pitch instead.

6. State the stakes. It's tough with such limited space, but do include the stakes in your pitch. What will happen if your MC doesn't succeed? Be as specific as possible.

7. Vary your pitches. Say that you can post twice an hour and the contest runs for eight hours. That's sixteen chances to get your pitch out there. Rather than posting the same thing sixteen times, vary your pitches. Come up with several strong pitches and rotate through them. When you do repeat a pitch, be sure to switch up the wording or order of words, otherwise Twitter may flag the repeated tweet as spam and you'll miss valuable pitch opportunities.

8. Respect the time limits. If the contest runs from 8AM - 8PM PST, tweet only within those hours. Be sure to adjust accordingly if that is outside your time zone and don't be that person who is posting hours early or hours late. It's bad juju.

9. Be prepared. Schedule your tweets in advance using sites like TweetDeck or HootSuite, then you don't have to worry about missing a tweet day-of.

10. Seek feedback. There are plenty of people who offer to critique Twitter pitches free of charge, so take advantage of these opportunities ahead of time (follow blogs, twitter feeds, etc. of other writers as they will often notify people in advance of these opportunities). You could always try offering a "give to get" as well! Swap pitches, offer feedback, and even if you don't hit gold (stars, that is) with an agent, you might just make a new best friend.

Best of luck to you in all your Twitching endeavors!