Pitch Contests on X/Twitter - Yay or Nay?

Unpopular opinion on Pitch contests on Twitter/X where we discuss battling AI and idea thievery on social media.

Hello Hello!!

Pitch contests are always a hot topic of discussion in the writers community, especially ones who are waiting to get their foot in the door of the mysterious publishing industry.

A few years ago, pitch contests were all the rage. Many, many writers have got their lucky breaks through these contests. But these contests have been shutting down recently leaving writers without these wonderful opportunities to showcase their ideas.

In my few years of being part of writing Twitter/X, I have learned that the popularity of pitch contests has been on a steady decline for multiple reasons.

1. Writing Twitter is dying.

2. Industry Professionals are slammed with huge slush piles, and don’t want to add more submissions from social media

3. AI thievery.

All valid concerns. Absolutely.

But let me just go ahead and say it. I was querying myself not too long ago and for querying authors pitch contests are absolutely amazing.

It’s an opportunity to put yourself out there and when you are starting, your mantra should be — Seize the Opportunity.

Any opportunity. You never know which one will get you through. And pitch contests are nothing but opportunities.

For this exact reason, I started a pitch contest #JoyPit last year, and I am sure it helped some writers who have since got agent representation or publishing deals. I call that success. I call that opportunity.

Now, let’s talk about the topic of AI and people stealing your books.

Okay some might disagree with me here, but ideas are just that. Ideas.

Ideas are cheap. What really matters is the execution. And you and me both know the execution of a book, any book, is no small deal.

Imagine if someone stole your idea, we are talking about a human being here, their style and execution would be nothing like what you’d have done. So it’s never going to be your book.

The pitch is not your book; the book is.

Now if AI steals your pitch, with today’s technology it may regurgitate a crappy set of words strung together, that’s an amalgamation of your pitch, plus whatever books the LLM model has imbibed. It’s gonna be garbage anyway.

So how does it matter. It doesn’t.

280 character pitches are a promotional tool. Promote your book.

Seize the opportunity.

Consider it a risk for starting your author business.

Okay I am done here. I am an absolute pro for pitch events. Look at the positive side, build a thick skin. It’ll only help you in the long run.

If you are a querying author, consider participating in #JoyPit happening this June 7th, 2024. If you know other querying authors, do share please.

~Toodle-oo~