#ShelfLuv 2024 -

I’m so excited to introduce #ShelfLuv, a Twitter event dedicated to celebrating the books we’ve shelved. This is a memorial for our dead books. The books that died in the query trenches. The books that died on sub. The books we couldn’t finish writing.

How to participate

The event runs formally from 10 eastern to 8 eastern on Saturday, April 20th. You’re welcome to tweet outside of those times.

Unlike most Twitter events, this is for books that are not currently being worked on, queried, or published. This is for the dead books, the ones that you wrote, threw into the world, and never found a place for. You are welcome to tweet about your shelved manuscript in whatever detail you feel comfortable, whether that is a traditional short pitch, a moodboard, a list of tropes, some combination of the above, or something else entirely. As this is not a pitch event, there is no formal structure. Do include the #ShelfLuv hashtag so you can be part of the community!

You’re also welcome to thread your tweet to include information about your journey like when you wrote the book, what the book’s significance to you was, and how it felt to shelve it. Again, the format isn’t very structured. This is just an opportunity to revisit the manuscripts we had to say goodbye to.

Please also interact with other authors. This is a great opportunity to support other authors.

Here is an example tweet where you can see a traditional pitch type tweet followed by a threaded tweet talking about my experience with the book.

First tweet text: Asexual Rosie's song for her boyfriend goes viral on the night he dumps her. Her breakup and new fame shatter her life plans when she's publicly outed and trolled. Rosie must take control of her own narrative, but she risks losing her old self if she does. #YA #LGBT #shelfluv

Second Tweet text: I queried this in 2020 and knew it was "good enough." Despite a decent request rate. It died a slow death with a couple rejections on fulls that had been out over a year. It was also my first queer book, which made shelving it extra hard.

General rules

If you’re posting anything NSFW, please tag it as such.
Please limit to four manuscripts to avoid overwhelming the tag.
Please only use the hashtag on one tweet per thread (see example above where the first tweet has the hashtag and the second does not).
Please do not include the hashtag when responding to other’s pitches.
This is not a pitch event and not intended for agents and editors to like pitches. Shelving a book often comes with a lot of emotional baggage which may be exacerbated more than helped by recieving industry attention.
Include alt text on any images included
Only use images that you have rights to (eg, images you created, images you paid for, images with a CC license).
No AI generated images
You are welcome to include genre hashtags, but not required as this is not a pitch event.
You are also welcome to specify if you are seeking critique partners or positivity passes.
Please support other authors participating in the event.

Stay Safe

The Twitter landscape is really more of a hellscape these days, so be mindful of how you participate. Concerns about AI, privacy, and idea theft are all valid. So please only share as much as you feel comfortable. If you are not comfortable sharing project details but wish to use the tag to talk about your experience shelving a book, feel free to do so.

Online harrassment is also a concern. Per our code of conduct, we do not condone attacks on authors or their pitches. However, due to the public nature of Twitter we are limited in our ability to exclude bad actors from the event. I’m a firm believer in blocking trolls and logging out when needed for mental health. If a situation arises, you may also contact me via my Twitter DMs (@kyramnelson) or via email kyranelsonwrites @ gmail. I will be monitoring both throughout the event hours to provide additional support where possible.

Code of Conduct

#ShelfLuv is an event dedicated to celebrating creative work. In the spirit of the community, we want to respect work from all creatives. This means not using images from generative AI. Existing generative AI models are disrespectful to artists whose work they build on without attribute or financial compensation. Stealing work from other creatives does not fall in line with our values. Please do not post AI art or interact with tweets that use it.

We are also committed to promoting a safe and inclusive environment. Bigotry in all it’s forms including racism, queerphobia, transphobia, body-shaming, ableism, and sexism are unacceptable. Respect others or uninvite yourself from this event.

Please be kind. This is not the place for constructive criticism or mocking. Please do not make craft suggestions or tell an author you don’t like some aspect of their idea. The purpose of this event is to celebrate and uplift. As a note, identifying problematic content is not unkind. In other words, when we ask you to be kind in your responses, we are not suggesting that you should not tell an author if they are working with a problematic premise or using problematic language.

Thank you for your commitment to keeping #ShelfLuv a positive and inclusive space.