#Canlitpit Gives Writers a Chance for Their Book to be Discovered on Twitter
Calling Canadian writers! On August 12, 2021, Writingcommunity.ca is hosting #canlitpit, a Twitter pitch event for writers seeking a home for their book. If you live or were born in Canada, you are invited to pitch your finished manuscript on Twitter during the event.
The pitch must fit into a 250-character tweet (no threads) and include the #canlitpit hashtag. Writers can attract their target publishers with additional hashtags specifying form (e.g., #GN for graphic novel) and audience (e.g., #MG for middle grade). The event website includes a full list of hashtags, including ones for marginalized creators to self-identify if they choose.
Participating agents, editors, and publishers will be keeping an eye on the #canlitpit hashtag, so this could be a writer’s chance to skip the slush pile. Receiving a “heart” on your pitch tweet is a direct invitation to submit your manuscript to that publishing professional. This year, P.S. Literary Agency, Douglas & McIntyre, Book*hug press, and Transatlantic Agency will be some of the organizations participating.
#Canlitpit was founded in 2016 by DigiWriting.com, who ran it several times between 2016 and 2018, bringing it to #6 and later #3 on the list of trending topics in Canada. After a two-year hiatus, Writingcommunity.ca is resurrecting the event. Past participants include Crowsnest Books, who published Mother of Floods by Madeleine White in 2020 from a successful pitch White made during a 2017 #canlitpit event.
If you have a piece of writing that needs an audience, start scheduling those tweets for August 12. You still have a few weeks left to polish that manuscript too!
Erica Osko
lives in Edmonton, A.B. with her cat. She studied English in university, but that was a little while ago, so she's excited to get back into writing! She is a theatre nerd who could break into song at any moment, and her latest favourite reading genre is biographies of historical women. She organizes her books by colour, and she's sorry if you find that offensive.