Resources

What is a Twitter pitch?

What is a moodboard?

If you’re asking either of these questions, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered.

A Twitter pitch is a quick snapshot of your story that should have as many of these crucial elements as possible to grab an agent’s attention: character, inciting incident, goal, conflict, and stakes. You need to fit it inside a single tweet and include comps (book y meets book z) and relevant hashtags so the agents can find your pitch.

You can find a blog post about how to craft the perfect pitch here.

When pitching your project, you need to make sure your query package is ready to send to any agents who like your pitch and who you want to send materials to. Learn more about crafting query letters here and synopses here. If you need help with your drafted query letter or synopsis, Kathleen offers query package critiques here. If you need help crafting your pitches, mention #moodpitch2023 in your order requirements, include what you have for your pitch, and she’ll include one free pitch critique!

As for moodboards, these are visually artistic collages of images that represent the tone and/or themes of your novel. A quick #moodboard search on Twitter will show you a ton of different examples. You can create them in photo collage programs, but we love using Canva for our graphic creations. There are templates there that you can use, and once you get the hang of how it works, you can create your own from scratch.

Here are some examples of moodboards the #MoodPitch hosts have created in a slideshow below. To view the image and alt text individually, there is a gallery at the bottom of the page.

Screenshot of a Zoom call between Taylor Grothe (left) and Kat Foxx (right). Both are light-skinned women with lonmg blonde hair, and both are smiling. Text at bottom: Taylor | Kat.

We have a video where Kathleen chats with author Taylor Grothe about how to make moodboards, and Taylor makes one right before your eyes! Take a look by clicking on the image here.

We also have a moodboard tutorial post that Taylor made for us that includes step-by-step instructions and photos. You can find that on our News tab.

Choose images you have the right to use. This means either using free images that allow you to use them (Canva has several of these, and there are many other websites you can find free images on) or paying for the use of them (Canva also has a subscription service that gives you a plethora of “Pro” photos, videos, templates, and other elements). Generally speaking, photos of movie stars that you may want to “cast” your story with are free for the public to use as they are in the public domain. When in doubt, reach out and ask permission from the artist. You can also use your own photos if you’re artistically inclined! If you use a photo that is licensed, try to credit its artist wherever possible. Although the moodboards are generally for personal use and not to profit from, it’s always nice to give credit where credit is due.

Here is a great Twitter post by writer Jessica Froberg that takes you through how she plans and creates her moodboards. It’s a detailed and excellent step-by-step tutorial on how to make aesthetics in Canva (including animations!). Please know that we encourage the use of fair use images (as noted above).

DISCLAIMER: #MoodPitch founders/hosts will not be held responsible for the inappropriate use of images. It is up to the author who is creating the moodboard to ensure proper use of all images in their collage.

If you have questions about pitches and moodboards, reach out to us here.

A collage of 9 images; a silhouette of a man in a dark forest with eerie grey light behind him; old sepia photographs and a pocket watch; candles burning; a man in blue and tan Victorian clothing sitting on a blue settee in front of a window; a woman in a Victorian dress holding a candle in the dark; an old English manor; a carriage being pulled by horses with trees in the background; a scared woman with blonde hair gripping a doorframe; a foggy image of a field with an old stone well in the middle of it and trees in the distance behind. Over the collage is a sprig of lilacs and a fleur-de-lis diamond pendant.
A collage of 8 images; a bearded man with blonde hair and a blue suit with white shirt; a coastal area of Portugal with white buildings on cliffs and green-blue water below; a stone passageway with stairs leading down into darkness; a blonde woman with black-rimmed glasses smiling; a woman with brown hair in a blue dress; an old compass on a map; a man with a beard and brown hair in a black shirt. On top of the image is a sprig of lavender, a string of pearls, and an old coin, and a colour swatch with dark blue, forest green, peach, and beige.
A collage with 7 photos; a full moon and a figure standing onshore looking out over the sea; stormy seas with an old masted ship going down in the waves; a bunch of old coins; a skull and crossbones; an old town square; a man in a pirate hat and overcoat standing on a ship; a woman with brown hair and a crown. On the photo is a colour swatch with brown, blue, gold, and ivory.
A collage of 9 photos: a masted tall ship on the ocean; a man with grey hair and black-rimmed glasses; a Portugal seaside town on a hill with terra cotta and white buildings with the ocean in the background; a man with a scary look on his face, grey hair and grey beard, in a black suit; a woman with brown hair and a black top; a man in a pirate hat and over coat; a close-up of an old coin, a man with blonde hair and scruffy beard, and a portrait of a male Portuguese poet from the 1500s. Colour swatches are dark blue, light blue, beige and terra cotta.
A collage of seven images: an arm in a black sleeve with a blue hand reach up and a blue-green background; a road heading off into some hills with a sunset sky; a pair of holding hands with a red background; a mountain at sunset, which is illuminating the mountain with a dark sky behind it; a DNA string; a translucent image of white brain synapses with a dark background; and an overlay of text in the middle that reads: Living FOREVER, trapped in some MACHINE. Was that LIFE?
Background image of a shoreline, sand and shells; then, a collage of 9 images: a pregnant woman standing by a window holding her baby bump; the back of a man wearing a police vest; a paper Last Will & Testament on a desk; a woman laying on the ground in some red leaves, and she's wearing a red shirt and she looks unconscious; a red background with text that reads: The LIES He Told Me by Kathleen Foxx; a person in a hospital bed in blue linens; a man behind a woman, cupping her mouth, and she's reaching up to pull his hand away; a woman looking back as she's running away in the dark; and a man's hands in handcuffs, standing behind jail bars. Overlayed is the text: A sociopath's deadly mistake... a survivor's perilous path the freedom.
A collage of 8 square/rectangular images: top left: a person in a black dress and black veil holding a human skull; top middle: melted, lit white candles; top right: an old mansion in the grey fog with lights shining out of one window and the silhouette of someone standing on a balcony, with dead tree branches to the left; middle left: a pair of young women with long dark hair dressed in long white nightgowns holding hands and facing away from the camera; middle right: dark, foggy forest; bottom left: a doorknob on an old door; bottom middle: a scary image of a hole in the wall with a face lurking in the dark hole and fingers hanging out of the hole; bottom right: a child's hand holding a beige stuffed bunny. Overlayed on the collage is the logline: The only thing that ends a family curse... is when there's no more family left.