Calling all aspiring authors with polished manuscripts to sell! The lovely ladies at BookEnds Literary Agency have joined twitter. To celebrate, they’ve announced a new opportunity to pitch your book in 140 characters. Follow @BookEndsJessica and @BookEndsKim this week and be ready for the windup when they ask you to “Start Twitching!” Respond to the agent who announced it with your pitch. Remember, you can use no more than 140 characters and must complete your thought. @ replying to the correct agent takes up valuable space, but you can’t reply to Kim when Jessica sent out the call. Check out their blog for more info.

Let’s practice, shall we? Describe the last book you read in 140 characters:

“Regency star-crossed lovers reunite after botched elopement. Must forgive meddling fathers, realize big misunderstanding & risk hearts again.”

(EVERYTHING AND THE MOON by Julia Quinn)

Dorchester, the publishing house that brought you the American Title and Mr. Romance contests, is again looking to social networking for their next publishing contract. (Marie Claude Bourque, the winner of American Title V, will be published in February 2010.) Dorchester is bringing cell phone novels–popular in Japan–to America by inviting aspiring authors to post their novels in short increments online. Fans and readers will download, read and vote on their favorites. The winner of the NEXT BEST CELLER CONTEST earns a coveted publishing contract with a $2000 advance.

“Our increasingly fast-paced and chaotic lifestyles have created challenges for many individuals who can’t or won’t make the time to read.  Between fragmented attention spans, the enthusiasm and devotion cultivated by fan participation in reality television and the social networking revolution, we think the time is perfect to bring readers and writers together through Textnovel and we hope to discover America’s Next Best ‘Celler’.” -  Brooke Borneman, Dorchester’s Sales and Marketing Director

The serial novel was popular in the Victorian era, with now-famous authors Charles Dickens and Louisa May Alcott making a career out of it. Dorchester’s latest contest pairs Victorian romanticism and futuristic technology; Did someone say Steampunk?

Agent Angela Knight twittered about a new contest today. Can you pitch your book in 140 characters? The Knight Agency (representatives of Nalini Singh, Gena Showalter and Jessica Andersen) is currently running a query contest. You have until April 20th to boil your plot, characters and emotion down into three fabulous sentences. Check out #queryfail on twitter for ideas of what NOT to do.

Here’s a chance to have your project reviewed by one of the agents at The Knight Agency. Submit three compelling sentences (150 words max) about your completed, unpublished manuscript to submissions @ knightagency.net (delete spaces). Write BOOK IN A NUTSHELL in the subject line or it will not be deemed eligible. One submission per project, please. Twenty of the best submissions will be chosen and requested by various agents who will then give feedback on your work…and it may even lead to possible representation. Hurry, the deadline is April 20, 2009. Winners will be notified by May 1, 2009.

I also recommend practicing by writing haikus.

My current WIP:
Cruising for love with
best girl friends. Ruthless tycoon
sweeps her off her feet.

Needs work.

Dreaming writer reads
more than she writes. So many
social networking sites books, so little time.