In this post I’ll include pitch parties locations (Bsky, Google Form, their own website etc), links to official party websites and note when parties have been discontinued. I’ll also give detailed advice on effective pitch and party preparation and on making the most of Writing Community support.
But First… If you’re pitching to query; Is your book Ready?
Have you edited your MS for every aspect of character, conflict, story tension etc you’ve read up on? Have you received constructive feedback from critical readers focused on making the book a better reading experience? Did you edit again and possibly get a second (and third round) of critical readers? (Especially if you’re a fellow pantser ?). Is your query letter up to scratch? Have you researched its contents, how to ‘sell’ the book to literary agents or acquiring editors in your pitch, and received critical feedback?
If not, see this post to kick your query letter into shape!
Which Pitch Party is for Me?
Note: while pitch parties began exclusively for writers querying literary agents, and some presses, many of Bsky’s are also open to wips and indie authors, who are pitching for writing community interest/ to readers. So there are two sections here; #AmQuerying, and below that Bsky Hype parties, the latter being the open to all publishing paths parties.
Parties for #AmQuerying
#IWSGpit Most fiction. Last event March 17th 2024, 8am-8pm EST, Twitter.
2025 continuation in doubt. IWSG
#KidLitPit Children’s books from PB to YA. January 11.59pm in your time zone (all/ any). Last one March 27 2024 (website not updated since). Running in 2025? On Twitter. Their Website.
#P2Ppit is a mixed hype (so wips and indie books), and Querying party. Its for all genres and audience/ reader ages. (Participating agents are listed on their website). Website. Jan 17th, 9am-9pm EST, 2025. On Bsky.
#SFFPit Fantasy, Sci-fi, Speculative Fiction. August, 8am-6pm EST has not run since 2022. Cancelled? Website.
#PBParty Picture Books. PBParty Website. 2nd February 2025, via Google Form.
#CuPit, February 14th, 2025, Romance, querying and indie books. I saw one post saying a writer got an agent like (that’s my evidence for agent participation, but being linked to Valentine’s, I suspect makes it romance-agent-discoverable). No website. Bsky account.
#PopUpPit, March 17th, 2025. Apparently for all genres. Appears to be big, so odd there’s no website. A post claiming a writer got two agent likes is my evidence for literary agent participation. Bsky account. On Bsky.
Savvy Authors Pitchfest begins 9am March 19th 2025, June & Oct. This event is by registration on their Savy Authors Site.
MG Hub Pitch Party, for Kidlit, May 28th- June 4th 2025. Website.
Participation via this Google Form: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F…,
#SEAsianPit for South East Asian authors, May 31st 2025, on Bsky. seasianpit.carrd.co
#JoyPitch The opposite of Pitdark, for ‘light hearted feel good fiction and non-fiction’ of all categories and age ranges. June 6th, 8am -8pm, 2025, on Bsky. (and Twitter?) Joypit website (not updated since 2024, so doesn’t mention bsky, though their Bsky account shows it ran there in June 2025).
#PBPitch -Picture Books. PBPitch Website. discontinued June 2024.
#SmallPitch, for writers wanting to query small presses. July 7-8 2025, Bsky smallpitch.org
#QueerPitch LGBTQIA+ Authors, August 1st, 2023. Queer Pitch Website. Does not appear to have run in 2024. Cancelled?
#CanLitPit for Canadian authors. Cancelled 2023. The organiser aspires to move to a new platform and has left Twitter. CanLitPit Website.
#LatinxPitch T/ #LatinxPitch Bsky -For Latino Writers of PB-YA Fiction- September 15th, 8am-8pm CDT, 2024. Latinx Pitch Website. 2025 dates TBC, Twitter.
#PitchDis for authors with a disability & neurodivergent authors. Sept 9 2025, By Google Form. PitchDis Website.
#PitBLK For black authors. September 21st-24th, 2025. Party on their site www.pitchpitblk.com
#DVPit returning Oct 2025, on Bsky. Check their website for the date dvpit.carrd.co.
#PitDark Dark Fiction. May 24th & Oct TBC, 8am-8pm EST, 2024. website. 2025? Twitter. (As of July 4th 2025. Looks discontinued)
#KitLitGen, October 31st, for writers and illustrators of children’s graphic novels. Website.
#MoodPitch Fiction, all audience age ranges and genres. 2023 November party ran on Twitter, Bsky and Instagram. Website still says stay tuned for future direction. Moodpitch website. Two years on, I’ll assume MoodPitch is cancelled.
Bsky Hype Parties
Note: if a pitch party does not list literary agents and presses they have personally contacted and confirmed will be attending the party on their website, and I have not seen people receive likes from literary agents during that party, I’ve listed it here as pitch ‘hype’ event. Their aim being to show off your wip/ querying or on submission work/ self published books, get excited about other people’s writing, pitch to fellow writers, or to readers, to interact, have fun, etc.
In this section ‘All Writers‘ means; every genre and audience age, every writer identity, wips, querying and self published books (which you’re pitching to potential readers).
You’ll find Bsky party accounts posts on the Pitch Events Feed curated by Adria Bailten. Its a good place to check for upcoming events for all pitch parties; querying ones and hype ones for all publishing paths.
#BluePit, all writers, Jan 13, 2025. Website
#YouDeserveItPit, January, 23rd and 24th, 2025, all writers. No website. Bsky account.
#UnhingedPit. They don’t do dates, or a website. They’re not big on rules and such.
But they say if they’re posting lots, a party is coming. Their Bsky account.
#QuestPit Feb 12th, May 7th, Aug 6th, and Nov 5th 2025, on. Website
#MiseryPit, July 3rd, Mystery, Thriller and Crime. No website. Bsky account.
#BluePit July 13th, midnight till 11.59pm 14th. BluePit website.#WickedPit, July 31st, 2025. For dark, twisty books—gothic, horror, thrillers, and morally gray fantasy. No website. Bsky account. Cancelled and account deleted July 2025.
#PosterPit August 16th, 2025, midnight till 11.59 17th. PosterPit website.
#SkyPitch, Kidlit only, October 23rd, 2025. Website.
#WippIt, November 22nd 2026, May 23rd 2026. No website. Bsky account.
Preparing For Pitch Parties
1. Read Pitch Crafting Advice & Successful Pitches
If you haven’t taken this step, chances are there’s a lot you don’t know or understand about how to write a successful pitch. If you don’t know where to find pitch advice, mine is here for starters.
Reading as many strong pitch examples as you can also helps. To find them, search the pitch party hashtag and the hashtags you plan to pitch on. The ‘top’ feed may have some great examples, but it also has rather ordinary pitches with lots of interaction on them, so I also suggest skimming ‘latest’ too.
A third source of inspiration and understanding is successful query letter pitches. Here’s a spreadsheet of 600+ successful query letters by genre.
2. Comparison Titles & Formatting
Use comps in your pitches. They can indicate more about tone, setting and themes than you have room to indicate in 300 characters. For party pitches, you’re not limited to books published within the last 5 years (unlike query pitches). Film or tv series and older books are ok. Ideally your comps will be recognisable to agents and publishers, and or contrast with each other (e.g. my MG tweet pitch comps were MATILDA X kids INCEPTION).
Alternatively, you could have a notable twist on a comp, e.g. gender-swapped (fairytale/ well-known story) or for example Downton Abbey —with witches. Putting your comps in ALL CAPs at the top of your pitch can help them stand out and encourage industry folks to read and pay proper attention to your pitch.
3. Party Hashtags
Agents and publishers will search genre, audience age and marginalised writer hashtags to find pitches of interest to them. Whichever party you’re pitching in, check if it has its own hashtag list. If so, use hashtags from that list, so your pitches are seen by industry professionals (some party tags vary). I’ve linked every pitch party I know of’s website above.
As you’re identifying the main relevant hashtags for your pitch, and having already chosen comp titles, now is a good time to type your pitch and hashtags into a post or do a character count to check each pitch with comps and hashtags fits the platform or specified party character limit. If you’re struggling with this, you might want to skip to step 4.
4. Get Feedback on Your Pitches
There are a few options for doing this.
Pitch Feedback Parties
#Mockpit (their website hasn’t been updated since 2021) and #Practpit used to exist, and be practice pitch parties run on a particular hashtag, day and time. I’ve deleted my Twitter account, so I can no longer search the above hashtags to see if these are still running. I can tell you they’re not on Bsky.
Asking For Feedback
Alternative to the above, you can post on any platform asking for feedback, or search your pitch party’s hashtag for people offering feedback. Or you can or do a search of ‘Discord’ and ‘#AmQuerying’ to look for servers which may have pitch feedback channels. Mine does. You can ask for an invite in reply to this Bsky post.
5. RT or Comment Lists
Back in the Twitter days/ now on Insta, RTs and comments help boost pitches because algorithms liked them. Bsky doesn’t have algorithms, so interaction in pitch parties there is more about encouraging fellow writers/ making friends etc. People still seem to be posting ‘Support lists’ on Bsky, and I’m sure its popular elsewhere. You can post offering to make your own support list, or type ‘(insert pitch party name) list/ support list’ and see if posts offering to add you to their lists come up.
6. Join a DM Group
Pitch parties can be lonely, stressful and discouraging affairs on your own. Creating or joining a Group DM on Twitter, or a Discord Server to share pitches for RTs and comments, and to chat, commiserate, celebrate successes and cheer each other on makes Party Day much more enjoyable. It gives you a community, whereas spending time on the party’s hashtag feed on your own may give you the feeling of being a drop in the ocean.
If you’re new to pitch parties or have questions about anything, including agents or publishers who like your pitches, a group gives you a bunch of people to ask directly. And as many people in my former DM groups said: pitch parties are more fun in a group!
To find people creating DM groups, search the pitch party hashtag in the Twitter search bar. Again, to participate in pitch parties on that channel on my Discord, reply to this Bsky post.
7. Post to Explain Pitch Party Etiquette
It never hurts to tell your followers you’re pitching. Crucial with so many industry AND hype events on Bsky is posting to tell your followers whether its a hype party in which likes from fellow writers are welcome. Or an industry party, in which likes are (ideally) industry professionals -agents or publishers- asking a writer to submit their work.
You may like to include a mood board for your wip in this post, as your party participation is also telling your followers (and ideally generating interest) in your writing.
8. Mind Set
2021 March’s #Pitmad saw over 570k tweets on the hashtag (yes this includes LOADS of RTs). Its possible your pitches won’t be seen by industry professionals during a party and its VERY common not to get industry requests. Some agents and publishers made under 20 requests -period not just per genre- in March’s 2021 Pitmad. But if you go in expecting nothing from the industry, and prepare with the goal of improving your pitch craft, making writer friends, and of testing how your pitches are received by fellow writers, to learn what works well for future parties- you’ll be all set for a positive experience.
9. Decide Which Pitch to Post First
This is important because your first pitch is likely to get the most impressions, as people who are supporting pitching writers are most likely to repost and comment during the first hour. (And your followers of all stripes may be more interested in the first pitch than say the third+). So try to identify which pitch sells your character best, makes your conflict and stakes clearest and most engaging, and ideally also the pitch with the most voice.
To get maximum interaction and algorithm boosting on Twitter/ Instagram -pitch in the first 1/2 hour. If you’re not sure how to write a pitch, or don’t know the difference between a pitch, a log line or a blurb (book pitches are different to both and must include certain things to be successful), here’s my post on short (as in pitch party) pitch crafting (not to be confused with a book blurb, which should be longer and more detailed).
But when do you post your other pitches?
Hourly for some parties, but only 2 or 3 pitches max for others. Parties tend to get increasingly quiet after 1pm EST -especially in the final hours- so you may wish to post all your pitches by as early as the first half of the party. That said, I saw a few agents tweet that they were beginning to check Pitmad pitches in the last few hours of March 2021’s Pitmad, so if you are online during the party, checking when agents are online is your best way to decide. You’ll sometimes find their ‘I’m checking out (insert party)’ tweets on the party hashtag’s ‘Top’ feed, including agents searching party hashtags the day after the party. If you have particular agents or publishers in mind, you could also check their social media profiles, as they will normally post when they start checking pitches.
9. Schedule Your Pitches
Use Hootsuite for any social media, Fedica for Bsky or Twitter to schedule. Whether you’re home all day and awake during a party, sleeping because your timezone isn’t compatible with the US east coast, or working -or both- scheduling pitches takes pressure off you during the party. If you’re online, scheduling lets you focus on interacting with other pitching hopefuls.
To schedule pitches on Twitter
1. Hit ‘tweet’.
2. Type your pitch.
3. Select this button (beside the emoji button).
4. Select your time and date.
Timezones: If you’re not on US EST time, most parties run on it, so check your party’s times above (its often 8am to 8pm but again, not always) and convert them to your timezone! If you’re pitching from Australia or New Zealand, remember it’s often the date after the party because we’re a day ahead!
5. Hit ‘confirm’ (top right).
6. Then you’ll see your pitch again. Hit ‘schedule’ (bottom right).
10. Pin your Pitch
This is so writers you know and kind random strangers can easily find and interact it -if you’re also reposting other writers and your feed is cluttered. I’m hearing a lot about how comments do more for Twitter’s algorithms, so I suggest commenting on pitches on Twitter or Insta if you can, and asking others to do so for you. (Bear in mind this only works if they’ve got time and it isn’t midnight or 2am in their timezone -fellow Aussies -and Kiwis- I feel your pain!)
To pin your pitch to the top of your profile, hit the ̇ ̇ ̇ then select ‘pin to your profile’ on Bsky or Twitter.
11. During the Party
Get in your pitch group and or the party’s hashtags to comment on each other’s pitches. When you find pitches of writer friends, associates or pitches you like, reply saying what you like about them. We’re all nervous, so acts of kindness like words of encouragement can really make people’s days. And yes, hopefully you will get some of what you have given -and you will have earned it.
12. After the Party
Celebrate, commiserate -ask how writers how they fared and share anything you learnt or ideas you have for next time with anyone likely to participate again. If you pitch in a future party, try and connect with the writers you’ve met this time and see if you can continue supporting each other in future. This is also a great chance, via DM group, Discord or post, to offer to trade query letter and synopsis feedback with querying writers.
Whichever pitch parties you participate in, Good Luck!
If you’d like a concise PDF of most of these steps, you can download it on the right. (Note: this pdf isn’t post death of Twitter updated).
Related Reading
My Pitch Crafting Tips
For a list of resource links spanning Query Letters & Synopsis to Finding & Communicating with Literary Agents, see this post.
Writer Mentoring Events
#Revpit is Revision & Editor Mentoring for MG, YA & Adult Fiction, which begins with pitching on Twitter in March. For more details, visit the Revpit Website.
