5 Easy Steps to Being a Twitter-Pitcher

This post is brought to you by
the one and only, Lisha Cauthen.

Twitter-pitching. It’s a thing. And you want to get in on it. But that Twittering–it’s so intimidating.

AW COME ON…

Don’t let an opportunity pass you by, follow these steps to get in on the next pitching day on Twitter.

HANDY-DANDY GUIDE TO PITCHING YOUR STORY ON TWITTER:

1.  Set up a Twitter account. Go to Twitter.com and follow the steps. Be sure to write your short bio–it doesn’t have to be much, just a little something about yourself that seems engaging. “Jenny McAuthor scribbles away at MG in her writing dungeon, fortified by Earl Grey tea and chocolate scones.” DON’T SWEAT IT. You are simply establishing a little of your personality on The Twitters. And PLZ PLZ PLZ upload a picture, preferably a semi-closeup of your darling face. Or a pet, that’s acceptable. But do not, under any circumstances, leave the Dreaded Egg as your avatar (thumbnail picture).
2. Check the #hashtag for the particular contest your are participating in–#pitmad #pitchmas #pitchmeariver…your tweet must contain this #hashtag for the participating agents and editors to see it. Your pitch should also contain your category: #PB #MG #YA #NA #A, some pitchers also use a genre #hashtag: #SFF, #W, #WF, #M, etc. See a list of #pitmad genre #hashtags here.
3. Get your pitch ready. A tweet is 140 characters in length. That’s 140 CHARACTERS–including punctuation and spaces. Remember, you will be including your #hashtags, which will take up a certain amount of characters in that 140 count.
4. You’ve read the rules, you’ve got your pitch-plus-hashtags honed to a beautiful 140-character paragraph, the clock strikes PitchIt o’clock…now pitch! Be sure to read the rules concerning how many times you are allowed to pitch. Do not be the imbecile who pitches every five minutes–agents and editors will block you.
5. NOW. The good part. When the contest closes, go to your Twitter.com page and sign in. Click on “Notifications” at the top of the page. There will be a list of your tweets that have been quoted, retweeted and favorited. Right now, all you care about are the favorited tweets, which are noted with an orange star. Those are the agents and editors who want to take a look at your query, or partial, or whatever is stated in the contest rules.

EASY PEASY, HUH?

I KNOW!

There’s a lot more to Twitter, including TweetDeck use and all sorts of stuff, but you don’t need all that to get in on Twitter Pitching. So get in there and pitch your heart out.