The Imagined Reality of Twitter Querying
The #WritingCommunity of Twitter is well-known for its overwhelming support, group chat forming, and creating life long friends in the industry.
It is also well-known for pitch events, moodboards, and a reliance on “vibes” when it comes to catching the attention of bird app scrollers.
This article is inspired by a thread and conversation I had with BLM Agency Agent Assistant Julie Gourinchas when it comes to how marketing and querying is evolving with the rise of Twitter as an entity in the publishing industry.
This thread introduces theories from both agent side and author side, despite the love and participation the two of us have for pitch events and moodboards. Which is to say, this discussion is not to discount the incredible results and fun that surround these aspects of publishing, but that there is also a lot to say in being self aware.
Chapter 1 : Judging A Book By Its Cover
We start with Julie’s thread which notes her “creeping sense” that these online pitches and moodboard may be the new “judging a book by its cover”. This is due to a moodboard’s visual nature — parallel to book covers, and the desire to make a pitch trendy, catchy and manufactured for the platform.
Snippet dialogue, popular comp titles, the latest trends on Tiktok.
What more would readers and potential agents want when viewing a possible book to read and love?
But this is to note that just because something has a flashy hook, punchiest quote and beautiful moodboard, doesn’t mean you can guarantee a good query.
Chapter 2 : Marketing Stripped Down
The rise of these events and moodboards can likely be owed to what marketing is at its core — trends and adapting to the audience. More specifically, the attention span of the audience.
Moodboards and pitches expand on this with a few more points — visual stimulation and “why should I care?” in 280 characters. A simple way to work your way to the attention of scrolling agents and readers.
The mention of “vibes” is vital. They are feelings, vague enough that we can relate our own experiences or imagination to what we are presented, specific enough to see a story being formed in our minds from words and images not even from the written piece itself.
Pitches are meant to elicit curiosity and desire, which are feelings that work in the author’s favour to garner the attention of industry pros.
There is a lot of room to agree that pitches and moodboards are a great way to catch attention in an app that is very noisy and users are finding themselves scrolling and scrolling for that stimulating post. Though, it certainly shouldn’t be restricted to this, or heavily relied upon.
Chapter 3: The Problems that Arise
- Agents may rely on pitch vibes over quality of writing that usually comes with traditional queries. These pitches can grab industry professionals based more on popularity or vibes
- A book’s marketing and publicity could just be a lazy patinated version of the author’s original pitch
- Pitch events can end up feeling like a popularity contest for who can create the most pretty/quoteable/viral content
There is nothing wrong with querying writers going to pitch events as part of their querying journey, but rather it could be an issue with pitch culture. A lack of graphic skills, follow count or social skills could put you at a disadvantage in a noisy community. Are your chances of representation less because of how pitch events are establishing themselves in the industry?
Chapter 4: A Path for Accessibility
It may be ironic that writers such as myself go to pitch events to “query” because it feels accessible, since agents are already looking through lists and lists of pitches.
It’s not hard to write up a pitch in 280 and throw in some hashtags, then hit send and wait. It feels easier than emailing an agent a query letter and pages of writing.
The irony sits in what was previously mentioned. If I can’t take advantage of trends, or I can’t quite make as beautiful of a graphic as others, do I really have a chance at a few likes from cool agents?
Many authors are fortunate to get engagement from agents during pitch events, I am part of those authors. But there are also many that leave pitch events each time disheartened due to a lack of social media interaction.
Even then, with likes from an agent, if you get rejected after that via querying, well, that may just feel worse than normal rejections…
Chapter 5: The Imagined Realities
Having a feed of pitches in front of you is like being able to absolutely bolt through a query inbox with no repercussions for skipping a pitch (because who’s to know you saw it?) and not much to lose for hitting ❤️
Typing a bunch of characters and hitting send, and seeing professionals interact with your tweet, it’s as good as receiving a request or offer!
When we participate in pitch events we are creating a reality where an agent and author have interaction, which forms an illusion of representation in a way.
This is why it hurts so much to receive a rejection on a pitch like request — because it enables us to hold hope in easier representation from a social media interaction, and it’s crushing when that reality is stripped away.
Does this mean we shouldn’t do pitch events?
It’s completely fine to do pitch events, and I still participate in them. I’ve had a couple successful ones and a couple unsuccessful ones.
What’s most important is that we understand the emotions and nuances around pitch events and how our imagination plays with ideas.
It’s also about continuously workshopping the idea of pitch events to be more accessible and favourable to many writers, not only ones who are good at pitching to a mass audience Tiktok style, or making a pretty moodboard.
There are many stories that deserve to be told, and Twitter “querying” can help marginalised authors and their stories be seen.
As long as we don’t water down pitch events with undefined genre events, or vague trope events, reserving the opportunities for underrepresented voices such as PitchDIS, DVpit and PitBLK.
Agents should also understand that marginalised background pitch events are designed to prioritise underrepresented voices, not just participate for social responsibility but not act on it. But that could be a post for another day.
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