After the astonishing success of the last three years, XpoNorth’s Writers’ Tweet Pitch is back.
On Friday 11 January, from 9am-9pm, writers from across Scotland can tweet pitch their work to a panel of Scotland’s literary agents and publishers.
Twitter channels will be open to pitches of unpublished fiction, nonfiction and writing and illustration for children from writers living and working in Scotland. Their projects can be complete – or may still be in development.
The panel of eager literary agents and publishers will read writers’ tweet pitches as they come in, and if they like what they read they’ll make contact with the pitching writer directly – to find out more with a view to potential representation or publishing.
In January 2018, XpoNorth’s pitch received more than 2,500 tweets pitching hundreds of unpublished books, and as a consequence many writers started the New Year with the keen attention of an agent and publisher!
Tweets are a maximum length of 280 characters, and this year pitching writers use just one hashtag: #xponorth
The Tweet Pitch is produced by XPONorth and the Association of Scottish Literary Agents.
Jenny Brown, co-chair of the Association of Scottish Literary Agents said: ‘There is no better way for a writer to start the new year than to pitch their work, to start the year as they mean to go on and to make 2019 the year in which their writing gets attention. Although some writers prefer the traditional, slower methods of submitting their work to agents or publishers for consideration, many others prefer the direct opportunities that social media offers to engage with agents and publishers.
‘Constructing a pitch in 280 characters is a hard task, but if you know your work inside out and really understand its core purpose and storylines, then the tweet pitch is for you. It’s fun, it’s free, it’s fast and it works!’
Iain Hamilton, head of creative industries at Highlands and Islands Enterprise said: ‘We’re delighted to be running the XpoNorth Tweet Pitch again in 2019 in partnership with the Association of Scottish Literary Agents. The process is a really dynamic way for writers to get their work accessed by a diverse range of agents and publishers and has directly led to several deals being secured over recent years’.
Full details can be found by clicking HERE.
This is the fourth year of the New Year Tweet pitch, and each year it is attracting more entries. Successful pitches have resulted in publication for writers. In 2016 debut writer Esther Rutter’s pitch resulted in an offer of representation, and her book (This Golden Fleece) will be published by Granta Books in September.
In 2017 Jemma Neville pitched her debut book Constitution Street which is being published by 404Ink, also in September.
XPO North is Scotland’s leading creative industries festival and takes place 3-4 July 2019 in Inverness.
The Association of Scottish Literary Agents is the membership body for Scotland’s eight literary agencies.
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