A pitch event is an event in which authors pitch their manuscript to literary agents and/or editors (in the case of #SmallPitch, to indie press editors). A pitch a catchy snapshot of your story meant to grab their attention. It has to be both concise and specific, including information about your protagonist, the inciting incident, and the stakes. A pitch event can happen in person (during writing conferences, for example) or be virtual like this is the case with #SmallPitch which is hosted online. Historically, most pitch events have been hosted on Twitter/X, but we have made the decision to move away from social media and to host the event on our own platform.

With social media platforms coming and going, we find it risky to remain on a platform that may become obsolete in a few years or even months. Using our own platform gives us more stability. Also, when using social media platforms such as Twitter/X, we cannot control who participate in the event. Bot accounts often highjack popular hashtags, drowning the actual pitches in the algorithm and a sea of spam. Using our own platform gives us more control and will give all authors a chance to be seen by the publishers, since our platform will only display the pitches, and will display them in a true random order. No algorithm, no bot, only your pitches! Finally, this will allow more authors and publishers to participate, since all you will need is a computer (or similar device) and access to the internet. You won’t need to have an account on Twitter/X or a similar platform to participate as an author or publisher.

You can review a demo version of the form here. The official form has a few more genres and underrepresented categories to choose from, but it is overall the same as the demo version.

No. The submission form will not allow you to upload a moodboard or other file.

A small/independent press is a traditional publisher. It is deemed independent because it doesn’t not belong to any of the “Big 5” publishers (Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster) and small because their teams and budget are usually significantly smaller than those of big publishers. Since they are traditional publishers, they still operate in a similar manner. When you work with a traditional publisher, big or small, they cover the cost of editing, covers, marketing, etc. Since the budget of small publishers is smaller, they will likely not offer as much as a big publisher, but they will still not require you to pay anything out of pocket.

Publishing with an independent publisher is different than self-publishing. Self-published authors usually call themselves “indie authors” and sometimes, you may hear authors published by an independent publisher call themselves “indie authors” too, which can lead to confusion. At #SmallPitch, we prefer to avoid using the term “indie authors” for authors traditionally published with independent publishers and let self-published authors use the term. A self-published/indie author put all the work and money into publishing their book. They hire freelance editors, cover artists, and other book professionals to help create their book. It can cost them up to several thousands of dollars for a well-polished book. They also cover all the marketing costs. In exchange, they retain all their rights and get a bigger cut on their sales since they don’t need to share royalties with a publisher. They can also publish their book faster if they choose too, since they are in control of everything. It’s a path that many authors choose which is a different experience than publishing traditionally.

Vanity presses are not like independent publishers, nor are they similar to self-publishing. They will publish anything, unlike traditional publishers that have a selection process of the manuscripts they decide to publish. This is because vanity presses will charge you for their services (editing, covers, etc.) and will likely not do much in terms of marketing no matter how much they promise they will do. In addition, they will likely take some of your rights away. They don’t care about the quality of your manuscript as long as you pay them, and they have no incentive to sell your book since they get their money from the author, not from selling the book to readers. We strongly advise you NOT to work with a vanity press. If you are considering paying to publish your book, we recommend you to self-publish, so at least you remain in control of your book and can get your money back if you do a good job writing and marketing it. An alternative is hybrid publishing.

Hybrid publishing is halfway between self-publishing and traditional publishing. The publisher and the author split the cost of publishing the book. Reputable hybrid publishers will still have a selection process of the manuscripts they publish and will have an incentive to sell the book to readers since they pay for part of the production, so they need to recoup their investment. We still recommend you to be wary of hybrid presses as some can be vanity publishers in disguise.

#SmallPitch doesn’t allow vanity and hybrid publishers to participate in our pitch event. This being said, our vetting process isn’t failproof, so please do your due diligence before submitting to a press.

First, congratulations! By requesting your pitch, the editor invited you to submit your manuscript to their press. Please note this doesn’t mean they will offer you a publishing contract, but you still caught their attention, so kudos on you for crafting an engaging pitch. Next step is to learn more about the press and confirm they are a good fit for your manuscript. You have no obligation to submit. A request is an invitation to submit, not a summoning.

Then, if you decide to submit, please read their submission guidelines and follow them carefully. Some editors will ask you to follow their regular submission guidelines, or to follow special guidelines for the event (such as adding the name of the pitch event in the subject of your email or to use a special email address to submit). We repeat: follow the guidelines. The best way to get your manuscript rejected is to ignore the guidelines and not follow them.

You cannot pitch during the summer session of the event in July. If you belong to an underrepresented group, you can pitch during the winter session in January.

Yes. The event is open to all authors, previously published or not. You can review this thread we did about the topic.

No. The event is for unpublished manuscripts only. We do not accept manuscripts that have been published before in any form (self-published on Amazon, on Wattpad/similar websites, on your author website, published by a press, etc.), even if you own all the rights. This is because most publishers prefer to publish new, unpublished manuscripts. Some are okay publishing previously published books if the rights have reverted back to you and/or you remove it from the internet, but since most aren’t, we prefer to focus the event on new manuscripts so all participating editors can fully engage with the pitches without worrying about the manuscript being previously published.

No.

You can pitch up to three manuscripts, with a limit of one pitch per manuscript.

In the context of our winter session, it means all authors who have been historically, and still are underrepresented in the English-language publishing industry. If you identify with one of the categories listed in our submission form under “Marginalized/Underrepresented Authors,” then you can participate in the winter session. Please note self-identification remains optional.

Here are the categories that you will be able to select in our submission form:

• Asian & Pacific Islander Writers
• Bi+ Writers
• Black Voices
• Chronically Ill Writers
• Desi Writers
• Diaspora Voices*
• Disabled Writers
• English as a Second Language
• Indigenous Writers
• Jewish Voices
• Latinx Voices
• LGBTQIA+ Writers
• Lower Socioeconomic Background
• Middle-Eastern & North African Writers
• Mental Health Voices
• Muslim Voices
• Neurodiverse Voices
• Palestinian Voices
• Author is a Person of Color
• Ukrainian Voices
• Senior Writers**
• Sub-Saharan African Writers
• Trans Voices

*We use this definition of diaspora, in particular the second sentence: Dispersed ethnic populations, which are often termed diaspora peoples. The usage of the term diaspora carries the connotation of forced resettlement, due to expulsion, coercion, slavery, racism, or war, specially nationalist conflicts.

**We choose not to specify a minimum age as the definition of “senior” varies among people. For some it’s 65, for some it’s as early as 50. Ask yourself if your age has hindered your publishing opportunities compared to younger authors.

Most other pitch events are heavily focused on finding an agent, and only a handful of indie presses who accept unagented submissions participate in these events. This time, we want to put the focus on indie publishers for a few reasons:

1. Most agents only accept novels and novel-length work. This means new authors who write novellas, short story collections, or other type of work can’t participate, or have a very low chance for their pitch to interest anyone. An indie publisher-only event will allow for more types of works to be pitched and get proper attention, as there are many indie publishers who take shorter works, or even only publish poetry, novellas, etc.
2. We want to break the agent/big 5 combo vs. self-publishing binary mindset. Despite what many imagine, in North America, indie presses represent 35% of the market share in book publishing. We want to showcase these indie presses that contribute so much to the diversity of traditionally published books and help people see that the industry is more than Big 5 vs. self-publishing.
3. We also hope to facilitate connections between authors and small presses. It can be hard as an unagented author to know who is looking for what and when (not everyone is on the Submission Grinder or Duotrope), so a pitch event could lead authors to being invited to submit to an indie publisher they hadn’t heard of before the event, and perhaps find a home for their work.
4. As for agented authors, technically they could participate, and if an editor likes a pitch, their agent could submit, but we’re choosing to focus on unagented authors because agented authors already have an industry champion who can place their work with big and small publishers. We believe this is more fair to showcase the pitches of unagented authors who are doing it all on their own, so we can help them get the attention of an editor on pitch day. Exception: in January, the event opens to agented authors from underrepresented groups, as we believe all underrepresented authors, agented or not, need a boost in their publishing journey to help close the historical gap in the publishing industry.
5. Finally, this event will allow editors of small/indie presses to be certain the author who is pitching is interested in going the small press route. Oftentimes, pitching authors in other pitch events are only interested in being noticed by agents, which can be discouraging for editors of small presses. This time, pitching authors will not expect agent likes and will participate only if they consider the small press route. (We will remind authors to participate only if they are genuinely interested in publishing with a small press.)