Apply to pitch at Writers Day 2025
Are you ready to pitch your novel to editors at Hachette and Headline? Look no further!
PLEASE NOTE: Pitching is only available to people who have booked tickets for the event. You can book your ticket here if you’ve not yet secured yours!
We’re very excited to offer pitching opportunities exclusively to writers joining our Writers Day - Write and Thrive in ‘25, where we will be joined by Frankie Edwards from Headline Publishing Group and Lucy Twist from Hachette Children’s Group. We anticipate this will be a popular opportunity and as such we are operating a two stage process for pitching slots this year.
Submit your pitch! We will be accepting pitches up until 11:59pm on 25th January 2025. Pitches should take no more than 250 words (approximately 60 seconds when read out loud).
Frankie and Lucy will select 6-8 pitches that they want to hear live on the day, where they will also give live feedback to the writers. On the day, selected writers will have 60 seconds to make their pitch and will receive their feedback. All pitches submitted will be read by Lucy and Frankie and will receive brief written feedback from The Writers Workshop.
The cost to submit is £5. This includes brief written feedback on your pitch, as well as the opportunity to pitch live on the day. To submit, purchase your pitching place below. You will then receive a link to submit your pitch. You can purchase your pitching place at any time before 25th January 2025 and you do not need to immediately submit your pitch. Please note that any pitches submitted after 25th January, even if you have paid for your place, cannot be accepted.
What is a pitch?
The classic scenario is that you find yourself with the publisher of your dreams in the elevator of a tall building and you have however many floors you're travelling to convince them to read your book! You've got to be quick and really hook their interest in just a few lines. Here are a few suggestions to help you.
Your pitch is not a synopsis so you don't need to tell the whole story. The publisher, at this stage, also doesn't need to know anything about you. What they want to know is whether they can sell the book and who's going to read it. Imagine that you're writing the blurb for your book or the advert on the side of a bus or a movie trailer. It's time to use your persuasive writing techniques: the law of threes, alliteration and rhetorical questions.
Make sure you include some or all of the following:
The title
The genre and where you see it sitting on the shelves or who will want to read it
Comparison titles or the authors you see yourself sitting alongside
The main protagonist, their circumstances or problem and a sense of the journey that the book is taking them on
The setting or time period
The key conflict, problem or question at the heart of the story
Why it's likely to be a hit
Top tip! See if you can sum up your book in a one-line sentence or premise.
NB Google is your friend for pitching tips!
Got questions? Get in touch with us at workshopwrite@gmail.com.