ASPIRING authors inspired by Scot Douglas Stuart’s Booker Prize success could secure a deal with a literary agent by carefully crafting just 280 characters.

The XpoNorth Writers’ Tweet Pitch, now in its sixth year, returns on January 15, giving writers from across Scotland the chance to pitch to agents and publishers.

Writers can pitch their work to a select panel, including Jenny Brown, Birlinn, Sandstone Press, Canongate, Floris Books and Saraband using the hashtag #XpoNorth to be in with the chance of a book deal.

Completed work or projects still in development from all genres will be considered from writers living and working in Scotland. The only requirement is that the work must be unpublished.

The panel will review all tweet pitches in real time and will contact authors directly to find out more or make a deal to represent or publish their work.

Last year’s event, produced by XpoNorth and the Association of Scottish Literary Agents (ASLA), trended throughout the day with more than 1000 direct pitches, reaching over 650,000 people. A free Tweet Pitch Masterclass will be held for aspiring authors on December 15.

Jenny Brown, ASLA’s co-chair, said: “This year, alongside fiction, I’m hoping to see more memoirs, not celebrity biographies, but extraordinary and well-told stories from ordinary people which give insight into their lives, be they care workers, vets, shop owners, firefighters, or mountain rescuers.

“One of the most successful memoirs I’ve represented is Shaun Bythell’s Diary of a Bookseller about his experiences running a bookshop in Wigtown.

“It’s now been translated into 25 languages.

“I’d love to find more memoirs which shed light onto experiences and ways of life we know little about.”

Peter Urpeth, publishing sector specialist advisor at XpoNorth, added: “This year more than any other, I would say if you have not tried this approach, try it now, and that’s especially true of writers in communities who might feel that professional publishing is not open to them.”