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literary agent, Pitching your Manuscript, Pitching your Novel, Query Letter, Writer's Digest Conference 2012, writers, writing
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I joked (here) about having “Query Letter Writer’s Block.”
If you need 500 words about the wonders of the paperclip, I’m your gal. Ask me to write a query letter and I get as far as, “Dear Scary Agent.”
If you ask me what my novel is about, I freeze. The most intelligent words I come up with are, “er, uh, hmmm, well, you see . . .”
I’m fairly bright (Hey you in the back. Quit sniggering.) and I know what my novel is about, but I get an uncomfortable version of writer’s stage fright when I talk about it. It is the strangest thing.
I can hear you yelling at your computer screen, “For Pete’s sake, Robin. There are hundreds of books published and articles on the Internet on writing query letters and how to pitch your book.” I know, I know. I’ve read every one of them. No help.
However, all of that changed when I attended the 2012 Writers Digest Conference. Phew.
Katharine Sands from the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency presented “Pitchcraft!” during one of the conference’s sessions. She boiled down how to pitch your manuscript to an agent in three elements. I now think and talk about my novel in a fresh and clear way. I hope her advice helps you too.
Place: Where and when does the story take place?
Person: Give a thumbnail sketch of the main character(s).
Pivot: What is the turning point in the story? What struggle causes the main character step off the path they are on and follow a new one? What did they learn? What transformation takes place?
Granted, this brisk formula doesn’t leave room for subplots and minor characters. There isn’t enough time in a 90-second pitch to cover everything and everyone.
Ms. Sands suggested pretending you are a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show to promote your newly published masterpiece. What questions would you want her to ask you about your book? Write them down and play the interviewer/interviewee game.
She wrapped up her lecture with, “The agent needs something to takeaway and remember about you and your manuscript.”
Easy peasy, right? Nope. It wasn’t for me the first 20 stabs at it. I would attack the first element, but by element two, I reverted to the old blah, blah, blah I used before. I forced myself to answer elements one, two, and three in bullet points and then, bingo, I saw what my story is about.
This formula worked for me when I pitched my book to Ms. Sands the next day of the conference. Nervy of me, right? But I figured that since I threw myself into the literary agents’ lion’s den, I might as well have a chat with the head lion. She, and the one other agent I pitched my novel to, asked me to send them partials.
Writing a query letter is a different beast than an in-person pitch, but they are related by marriage.
I’m curious . . . does this cut the “pitch-advice” clutter for you like it did for me?
P. S. No wonder we writers are a skittish lot . . . during a panel discussion at the conference,” an agent said, “If you aren’t published, you haven’t written a book. You’ve written a manuscript. If you aren’t published, you aren’t an author. You are a writer.” Rather snarky, don’t you think?
P. S. S. Thank you for the well-wishes while I’ve been attending to my dad. It means a lot to me.
This is fabulous. I bookmarked it.
Her lesson sure helped me cut through the clutter of describing my novel.
This is fantastic advice, Robin! I don’t think you’re stupid at all. This is exactly how I feel about it. It’s so hard to ‘big yourself up’ and blow your own trumpet – you know, all of these cliches! I think that you were quite right to take advantage of your opportunity. Good for you. Now you get to send your excerpts away. Have you done so? Good luck with it! 😀
Great advice from Ms Sands too, which I shall try and use. 🙂
I sent the partials to both agents. I heard back from one of them within 3 hours! 3 hours! It was a big fat NO. Oh well.
Incredibly helpful post. You’re a Godsend!
Wow! Thanks. But I can’t really take the credit since I heard the information at the conference. I’ll take credit for stealing it and putting it here tho!
Well, the freezing-up part I understand…
It was nice to find a way to thaw the freeze and get beyond the meandering blather about my novel.
Good advice. This is the part of the process I dread the most. Like you, I have difficulty in summing the story up into a sound-bite. I had a story and its taken me 100,000 words to tell it. If I could tell it in 500 words it would have been a piece of flash fiction 🙂
Good luck with the next phase. There’ll be a bidding war happening soon i’m sure.
Let the bidding war begin!
Why is it that writers can talk and write about other writers’ writing, but not our own? I get all muddled up in my pantaloons. But, the advice at the conference cut down the weeds and I could see what my book has to say.
Hope you are well Pete. I’m still not back in full blog-mode yet. I miss reading your posts.
Aww, thanks. I’m feeling good and gearing up for some serious writing. Soon.
Starting a new book?
I’ve still got 2 to edit first. I do want to write another next year though and will probably take part in the June NaNo. Glutton for punishment 🙂
Hope things are going well (trying to catch up on reading- life intrudes some times)
Pitching a book/ idea is really hard…writers tend to babble a lot…Ms Sands comments are reality ( another thing writers often have trouble with). Great job and fingers crossed on your pitches!
Gosh, talk about life intruding on blogging! My email in-box should be condemned for lack of attention and up-keep.
Ha! We do babble. That made me laugh. Give us a piece of paper and we are fine. Make us talk and we mutter.
Over the moon your pitch gained you invitations to present chapters = wonderful 🙂
Thanks Wanderlust Gene! I am rather over the moon about it too.
It’s terrific Robin – enjoy, and good luck 🙂
I’ve never had to pitch a novel, but myself many times, yes. It only gets easier if you do it, do it, do it, and only then if you have the kind of strategic advice you suggest here for example, as a basis. Otherwise you’re floundering and sabotaging yourself. You did well 🙂
I practiced my spiel in front of a mirror. And, timed myself. Gosh, that was painful. But, something clicked with the practice and hurling myself into the on-coming path of two agents!
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Doing a face to face pitch has got to be crazy scary. I give you full marks for doing it twice! It was positive to hear that you found at least two agents who are interested in your work. Let us know how the submissions go. Good Luck.
It was scary until I sat in front of them and starting talking. They smiled, nodded, and asked good questions. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined it could be. I had visions of scoffing, sneering, and a quick dismissal.
I will keep you posted on my submissions . . . If I can stay home long enough to turn them in, darn it!
I always get scared when talking about my novel and direct people to read the synopsis, so you’re not alone! I had trouble coming up with something for a query, let alone a pitch. I’d most probably stammer my way through it, and that can’t be attractive.
I’m glad your pitch worked though. Well done. =D
Funny how query/pitch/synopsis is so difficult for writers. You’d like we could rattle off what our story is about. Heck, we were the one who wrote it! Who else could be able to talk about it. Sigh.
What about self publishing… what are your thoughts on that?
The conference confirmed to me that self-publishing is the way to go. The competition for traditional publishing is ridiculous. And, even if a publisher picks you up, it is a rare book that gets marketing help from the publisher.
I know… I have a publisher. I do ALL the promotion work, they do nothing (They’re pretty small) and I give them 40% of all profits. Which is 40% of almost nothing, but still… ??
Another thing… my book had tons of typos and I had to FIGHT to have them fixed. They are FINALLY fixed. And I can finally sleep again.
I heard at the conference that unless you are Stephen King or John Grisham, good luck getting marketing help.
Why did you need to fight to get typos fixed? You would think they would want anything with their name on it to be the best it can be! That is crazy.
They didn’t want to pay to fix them. I ended up paying for it myself…
I would have done the same thing.
I know you would… anyone with a pinch of pride would.
The shirty agent reminded me of the old saw, about teaching… if you can’t do it, teach it… I wonder if he’s written a book. I’ve had a number of books published, and still call myself a writer – I think to call oneself an author sounds pompous and self-important….On the other hand, I don’t mind other people referring to me as an author!
The agent I referred to is an entertainment lawyer turned literary agent. He said the only thing he can write is a publishing contract.
I give you permission to call yourself an author. Goodness sake, you are one! Put it out there to the world!
Sounds like you did a great job! good advice as well, thanks.
Not so sure about it being a “great job,” but it got the job done!
I don’t think I could ever voice pitch to an agent. I’d stutter all over myself. I have a problem writing my tag line and synopsis. It’s hard to narrow a story to 30 words and make it sound interesting. It is my least favorite part of writing. The steps sound easy but I tried it and I stumbled. “uh, uh, well…uh, uh”. Yeah, that’s a best-seller if I ever heard one. 🙂 I will continue to practice using your tips and let you know how it goes. I’m glad to see you back!
I think it is unfair to ask writers to take 68,000 (or however many) words and boil it down to a 30 word summary. If I could have told the story in 30 words, I probably should have!
As I mentioned, it took me a bunch of tries to summarize the story using her advice. Then suddenly, it happened!
Thanks Jenny. Nice to be back.
Maybe someday. I still don’t believe I am a writer! lol
Then I suggest you run, not walk, to watch this video I posted. Seriously.
https://robincoyle.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/brilliant-video-for-we-writers/
beautifully clear–you clomped through the muck and mire and brought us clean air–thanks Robin! I hate queries and pitches–but this makes it easier. Odd how one can talk about someone else’s work and not our own
Don’t thank me . . . thank Ms. Sands. She helped me find the “bones” of my story. When you are too close to something, you can’t see the forest for the trees, right?
How about this? I’ll talk about your manuscript, if you talk about mine!
sounds good to me!
These are great tips and I’ve bookmarked this for future use. Except … it brings up more questions. Which of the bullet points should you start with? I’m guessing the pivot point? Shouldn’t we start with something intriguing/exciting/cliffhanger? Thanks Robin.
I’m no expert, but she Ms. Sands said give the “orientation” first. Readers (or an agent) want to know where, when, and who they are reading about to then put the story in context.
It is interesting in hindsight to note . . . two of my beta readers asked for those details. I didn’t include them in an early draft. They asked, “Is it the 80’s? A big city? What is she like?” I had jumped right into the story and didn’t give the context.
Interesting, thanks.
Good for you only talking to the women. His attitude was terrible. Did many of the people appear to be eager to talk with him? … Thank you for sharing all of this. I’m filing it away. I’m hoping some of this self-publishing will make it easier if I some day write a more serious book and want to try traditional publishing.
His line was long. But, many people attended only one day of the conference, so may not have heard him speak. Because I am a people watcher, I studied him interact with the writers who pitched to him. He smiled and seemed engaged.
The pitch session experience was good for me, but I came away from the conference thinking self-publishing is the way to go for me. I’d rather be a small fish in a big pond than a small fish in a shark tank.
I’m surprised to hear you thinking of self-publishing. To have someone think signing you based on your title alone, and the positive feedback you received at conference … well, it seems like you wouldn’t have much trouble getting published, and then you are in bookstores, libraries, and online. Wouldn’t that be so much easier than trying to do all of your own marketing? I think of my fluffy, not-very-serious books as good candidates for self-publishing, but from what I know, it seems your book is much more mainstream and would be of interest to a large audience. So, the questions is – did it really seem like a shark tank?
Well, thanks for the vote of confidence about my novel. I am going to try to get an agent and go the traditional route first. If that isn’t fruitful, I will go the assisted self-publishing route.
And yes, it did seem like a shark tank. The numbers of writers competing for very few places in publishers’ portfolios makes it a one-in-a-million shot. One of the agents said that it used to be publishers would take on 35 or 40 books a year. Now their budgets allows for only 5 or 6. It is a numbers game. As such, agents are even more selective about who they are willing to represent.
Self-publishing seems more realistic, not to mention the way of the future, for me.
I agree with Vanessa. Writing a pitch is seven million times easier. I did just great with my 10 page critique and query letter session with a very, very nice agent at my conference. I’ll be querying her when I’ve made some suggested changes. (She loved my query letter!!!)
However, a rather snarky “published author” who sat with us at dinner one night (the only snarky author I’ve ever met, BTW) asked me to pitch to him. And when I bumbled along like I told him I would, he just looked at me for a second and turned away. It was the rudest thing I’ve experienced in a long time.
Good for you with the agent/critique/query session. Excellent! Maybe YOU should write MY query letter!
I don’t understand snarky people. Why? Why? Why? People just get snarky back at you and don’t buy your high-faluting book! Right?
His book? Not bought. ; )
Ha! So there!
I think the written pitch is definitely and infinitely preferable to the spoken one! It’s so much easier to feign confidence through written words. Thanks for the tips Robin and nice to see you!
Nice to be back!
You know . . . once I started, the in-person pitch was pretty easy. Both agents were engaging, smiled, nodded, and asked good questions. It gave me the confidence I need to put the same words in a written pitch.
One problem about attending the conference I forgot to mention was I learned some things that made me re-think elements of my, dare I say it, BOOK, before I submit the partials. There are some sections I now know I can make stronger. Will the editing ever end?!?
just stopping in to say hello. I am the world’s worst intervieweeeeeee ever. There is no way, no how I could ever pitch anything other than maybe a baseball. My boss said she was not going to hire me because I was such a dead interview but I had such a good recommendation she took a chance. Thank God for that!
Good to see you out and about Robin. Hope the travels at hand went smoothly
Audra
Every time I say or write, “pitch your novel,” I think “pitch it into the wastebasket!”
With how engaging you are on your blog and your comments, I don’t believe you are a “dead interview.” Nope, don’t believe it.
Great to be back, and so far, so good with Dad’s travel to Portland.
I am very excited for you. Cheering you on from the sidelines!
I choke big time. If we met in person.. I would crawl under a table and hyperventilate :0)
and be blushing such a deep red you would be frightened that my face would explode haaa(seriously)
So far so good– excellent.
Nope. Don’t believe it.
Actually, that is exactly the kind of agent who drives an increasing number of excellent writers to go indie. He’s also probably one who rejects a query by saying “I’m only interested in bestsellers, and this doesn’t meet my standards.” Yeah, and he isn’t a billionaire ten times over—why?
The pitch advice sounds good. But I honestly can’t see myself succeeding at pitch slams. And with that attitude, I couldn’t. If I do try the traditional route, I’ll have to cold query. But hearing about more snarky agents is whittling away at the attraction of that route.
I’m happy to report the two gals I pitched to were delightful and engaging. They weren’t scary at all. I did NOT stand in line to pitch to the other guy. I didn’t like his attitude. Oh, and he is an entertainment lawyer, turned literary agent. His other comment was, “I’ll take on your book if I think I can sell it and I think there is someone who will publish it. I don’t care if I like your book or not.” Ugh.
The agent who did the talk said, “I want there to be alchemy between us when I read your work.” Now that is more like it!
I really need this kind of advice! Last year, soon after one of my novels was published I got a call from a radio guy. He wanted an interview about the novel and I was taken by surprise. All I could say was ‘its about a girl’ (upward inflection on the word girl) and I felt like an utter dork! I’m a little more prepared now, but still shudder when I think about pitching any of my work!
That is too funny. When my book group asked my what my novel is about, I got teary. How dorky is that?!?
Did he do the story about your book on the radio?
He did – but I still sounded very dorky! (I don’t like hearing my own voice!) 😉
Bah! I bet you were great. We are our toughest critics.
Wow, that agent certainly didn’t hold anything back, did he? Yikes. But this is great stuff, Robin. Thanks for sharing it. 🙂
This sets the scene with Mr. Snarky a little more . . . he is an entertainment lawyer turned literary agent in Hollywood. He said, “I don’t care if I like your book or not. I care if I can sell it.”
Bah humbug.
It’s all about the money, isn’t it? Sigh.
You made me curious. I went to his website and looked at books he has represented. I didn’t recognize any of the titles.
However, these two jumped out at me . . “Overcoming Yeast Infections” and “How to be A Stripper in 6 Easy Steps: A Guide to Unleashing Your Inner Hottie”
I.KID.YOU.NOT.
Hahahaha–you could not have scripted that better if you tried. Proof once again truth is stranger than fiction. Too funny! And if those books become best sellers, then I might as well throw in the towel now.
If that is what he thinks he can sell, then he sure won’t be able to sell my innocent novel.
Funny, but pitching a novel seems to be a weak point of many authors… oh wait… that’s writers, not authors. Of course it doesn’t help when you’re told in no uncertain terms that you’re talking to God Her/Him Self. And PLEASE, Robin, an agent can not be snarky, you’ve just misinterpreted THE WORD.
The gal sitting next to me leaned over and said, “He put us in our place, didn’t he?”
I like to think I’ve “authored” and unpublished “book.”