Welcome to the Geneva Writers’ MTA Pitch Board! During the weekend, you have the chance to pitch your work to the agents present, even if you’re too shy to do it face to face! At the same time, your peers can see what you’re working on, and maybe even provide some helpful hints on how to improve this oh so elusive and yet vital one-liner.

What is a pitch?

A pitch contest is much like your standard elevator pitch, but to be judged in written form. So, tell us about your main character, major plot point and stakes in a few short sentences.

How does it work?

You prepare your pitch, and write it down on the cue cards provided at the pitch board, next to the book store. You stick up your pitch on the board, where everyone can see it.

What are the rules?

• Everyone is welcome to pitch, all genres/categories are welcome

• You can pitch more than one manuscript, with a maximum of two pitches for each

• Maximum Pitch Length: 50 words + hashtags describing age and genre categories

• Pitch should be written out clearly on the provided cards, and should include the author’s name and email address at the bottom for easy reference by agents/editors

Why the hashtags?

Borrowed from social media (Twitter, Instagram…), hashtags allow the reader to quickly skim through the cards, deciding whether or not they want to read it. For example, if your story is a Memoir (#Mem) but the reader is more interested in Woman’s Fiction (#WF) and Humour (#HU), they will easily see which ones would be of interest to them. Hashtags do not count in the overall word count.

What’s the process?

The agents will be asked to go through the pitches, and judge their favourites, but placing a sticker on their top three. The top three pitches from the board will be read out at the end of the day, on Saturday afternoon.

Hashtags

Note: we may not have covered every hashtag. If one is missing, please include