Sharon Mignerey on Pitching Your Book

Every writer out there needs to learn to pitch a project. Whether you're participating in a formal pitch session at a conference, asked what you're working on by an agent at a mixer, or on the phone with your editor when she says, "So tell me what you're writing next," you have to be able to boil down your idea into something concise, appealing, and hopefully marketable. Even if you're not great at thinking on your feet, a well-written nugget can be tucked into a query letter or an e-mail and used to great effect.

Recently, author Sharon Mignerey, who's also an amazing writing teacher, wrote an article so terrific on the topic for the Happily Ever After, the newsletter of the West Houston Chapter of the Romance Writers of America, that I asked for her permission to reprint it here, in two parts. She'll also be stopping by the blog the next two days to answer your questions on the topic.

The Pitch . . . Formula or Free-for-all?
by Sharon Mignerey
You’re on your way to the RWA conference in July, and you’ve taken that leap--made an appointment to meet with an editor or an agent.

Editors and agents are looking for new writers and new material. That’s why they attend conferences. That face to face contact with a person is as important to them as it is to you, but remember: it’s only an appointment. Important as the time may seem to you, world peace and your career as a writer do not hang in the balance on that ten or fifteen minutes. . . time that will simultaneously seem like forever and will also seem like trying to explain the plots of Kerrelyn Sparks’ Vampire series in two seconds flat.

Michael Hauge, author of Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds has this sage advice: Your only goal is to get an editor or agent to read your story. That’s all. Sounds simple enough, right? Except I know what you’re thinking. That elevator pitch you keep hearing about is a bit like trying to stuff a size 22 woman into a size 2 bikini. And you’re right. It can’t be done, not without things flopping out all over the place that should never, ever flop.

The following pointers will help you.

First, relax! Though you may view editors and agents as god-like creatures who hold your future in their hands, they do spit when they brush their teeth, and they do want the same thing you do – a good book (hopefully yours) in print. Editors, especially new ones, are often just as nervous as you are and just as anxious as you to make a good impression. Agents may be more extroverted, but they, too, want to make a good impression. When you put them at ease, you’ll be doing the same for yourself.

Second, be prepared. Your appointment will go more smoothly if you know what you want to talk about before you arrive. Whether you’re talking to an editor or an agent, they want to know about your work and about you. So, to prepare for that appointment . . .

Figure out what your story is about.

So how, exactly, are we supposed to do that? Stay tuned for tomorrow's post containing a terrific "formula," helpful examples, and some more of Sharon's excellent tips.

If you have questions about pitching fiction project, please feel free to ask away, and we'll do our best to help.

Guest Blogger bio: Sharon Mignerey can personally attest that she gets just as nervous pitching to editors and agents now as she did as an unpublished author. As the saying goes, feel the fear and do it anyway. Sharon’s most recent book is The Good Neighbor(November 2008) from Love Inspired Suspense. She’s closing in on the end of her Masters program at Seton Hill University and expects to graduate in January 2010.

Selling It Starts Here

This past Saturday as part of a session designed to help aspiring authors become more comfortable with the idea, I "played" an acquiring N.Y. editor and took book pitches at my local writers' group. My "character" was a twenty-something (somebody shouted "Makeup!" Smartass) editorial assistant eager to find new talent for (and raise herself above the bottom employment rung of) a large publisher of popular mass market paperback fiction. She was bright, motivated, nervous about hurting anybody's feelings (it was her first time hearing pitches), and a little freaked to realize she was younger (it's called *acting,* people) than any of the writers. A nice person, she was eager to help those pitching, which is a quality I've found in many of the editors I've met in pitch sessions.

But she needed help from those writers she was meeting. She needed ammunition she could take back to the scary senior editor and the marketing department to help sell them on the writers' book (*if* she falls in love with one, after reading the requested material). This also goes for manuscripts she "discovers" on the slush pile or in an agent's submission.

So what kind of ammunition does our theoretically-young editor need to sell the publishing house on a project? Bear with me for a moment.

Imagine yourself walking into your local independent or chain bookstore with a parent or a spouse or a sibling or a long-lost friend and proudly walking that significant person to the shelf that holds several copies of your brand new, published book. While you're basking in the warm glow of your loved one's ooohs and aaahs, take a moment to look up at the sign marking the section of the bookstore where your baby's shelved.

Where are you?

Since you're good at using your imagination (otherwise, you wouldn't be a writer, right?), now shrink yourself down to to fly-size and secretly watch shoppers visiting that same bookstore and others. Who is picking up your book and looking at its cover? Turning it over to read the copy on the back? What other books does this person have in hand? What other established authors is the customer most likely to be reading?

Again, where are you in the stack?

It's important -- critically important -- to communicate quickly and clearly, whether in a pitch session or a query letter -- where your proposed book will be shelved in the stores. Is it a mystery? Suspense? Romance? Science fiction? Or can you better picture it with the memoirs or in the fiction/literature section or elsewhere? Which popular authors would appeal to the same readers you're hoping to attract? This doesn't mean you write exactly like them (unless you bring something special to the table, you probably won't sell), but it's a starting place for the publisher's marketing department and sales force to get your book into the hands of the right readers.

And without this starting point, your submission is in trouble.

Here are some examples of pitches or queries that will immediately get an acquiring editor or agent on a selling wavelength:

"My contemporary romance, NEUTERING TIGERS WITH TEASPOONS, is a sexy, humorous love story featuring a jilted veterinarian who runs away to join the circus and the handsome big cat trainer who might just be the key to taming her cynical outlook. I think fans of Rachel Gibson and Jennifer Crusie would enjoy this story."

"SPATTER PATTERNS is a suspense novel featuring a pharmaceutical salesmen who returns home from a business trip to find the wife and child he loves missing, with the only clue splattered bloodstains that lead police to think he's brutally killed them. On the run and desperate to find his loved ones, Joe Blow finds even more evidence pointing his way -- and a connection leading straight back to his big drug company employer. This is a regular-guy-in-way-over-his-head story, somewhat reminiscent of the suspense of Harlan Coben and Dean Koontz."

And if you're in a pitch session, after saying this (and spewing any writing credentials you may have), just sit back and allow the editor/agent to ask the questions. A give and take discussion is far more engaging than listening to writer after writer read at warp speed off a sheet for the whole time.

I hope this is helpful. Anyone have any other pitching tips to share?