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The Perfect Pitch
As conference season gets into full swing, I’ve been pondering the perfect pitch. This might surprise some of you, but I don’t think the perfect pitch has much to do with editors or agents. I believe the perfect pitch is about the reader.
A few weeks ago I attended a conference and I didn’t do editor appointments. I felt my plate was already full with the four other conferences I had scheduled for the upcoming year, so I passed on this one. Yet I still heard pitches. Many, many pitches by authors that probably didn’t even realize they were pitching to me, and I can’t think of one that made an impression, held my attention or stuck for longer than five minutes.
I’m talking about the pitch an author gets when they’re already published, have a book (or ten) released and they get the question from a reader: So what’s you’re book about?
I heard long rambling speeches, dissertations on the background of the book, a verbal synopsis, ummm, uhhhs, and stammers. But not once did I hear the perfect pitch. A short, attention-grabbing hook that made me think “I want to buy/read/get that book now!”
Even if you don’t plan to attend any conferences now—or ever—the perfect pitch should be something you’re always prepared to give. You never know when you’ll run into an acquaintance in the grocery store, a reader in a chat room, or okay, step onto the elevator and see an editor you’ve been dying to pitch your latest project to.
People have short attention spans and limited time, conferences are high energy, fast paced meetings and no one wants to wait for you to get to the point of your book five minutes after they’ve asked the question. After a minute or two they’re already thinking about what they might still need to throw in the grocery cart, who their next appointment is or when they can grab a nap. You need to grab their attention quickly and keep the pitch short.
So how do you compose the perfect pitch? Think of a catchy tagline, a one or two-liner that describes the hook of your story. Not a mini-blurb, not a short synopsis, but a tagline. Something easy for a reader to remember—and the beauty of being easy to remember is that if they like it, they just might pass it on to their friends, all the other readers. So a hooky tagline. That’s your start. I’m not going to go into what high concept is here (you can Google it if you’re curious!), except to say the beauty of high concept and why editors/agents/publishers love it is because it’s a hook: short, sweet, high octane and to the point. “What’s my book about? Think Indiana Jones meets Star Wars with shades of Bridget Jones.” What does that mean? Fast paced, high adventure space opera/futuristic with a slightly neurotic heroine looking for love while saving the universe against the forces of evil. Now THAT is a book I’d spend my money on!
Now, after the hook/tagline/high concept one-liner, if your audience is still interested, have a short mini-blurb ready. Short people, short! You still have to deal with poor attention spans.
If you’re going to be attending a conference or conferences, this is your chance to be prepared. Write your hook/blurb down so you get it as perfect as possible. No one wants to listen to you hem, haw, um, uhhh through what your book is about. Polish your delivery, be prepared to pitch it to a reader anywhere at any time. Your opportunity to sell a book might come at a time and place when you least expect it.
Now get those pitches ready and go out and sell your book—in as much time as you have in the elevator!
Great post! I never thought about the fact that we’re basically “pitching” our book to potential readers when we talk to them.
>insert Lightbulb!<
Nice post, Angie. It amazes me that I’ve never thought to use a taglines for my books description when asked what my books are about in public. Great idea. :)
That’s a very good point! I hadn’t thought about ‘who’ the target idea should be written for either, but it makes sense.
This is my first conference, and I’m looking forward to your workshop in June…
You know, when an author hears “pitch”, they automatically think “editor” or “publisher”, not necessarily the “reader”. But it makes total sense. Pitching a book doesn’t just mean trying to sell it to a publishing house, but trying to sell it to the public as well. :)
Thank you, Angie!
~~Becka
Writer next to me in the elevator: “So, what good blog posts have you read today?”
Me: “Samhain Weblog. Short attention spans and the perfect one-line pitch.”
Writer next to me in the elevator:“What? I’m sorry I wasn’t listening. The tight ass on the UPS delivery guy distracted me.”
Good one, Angie. I need to work on this!
I see what you mean – you don’t want to bore the reader to death with a long book explanation. Thanks, Angie, for a great post!
Great post. Especially since so many writers sweat bullets over how to pitch—me included. Wipes forehead So the catchy tagline is basically what you see when you’re on the website browsing books, and just see the cover and a sentence? That would make sense.
Great post. I think I need to work on this. ;)
So obvious, and yet, so not. Great post, Angie! :-)
Should your tagline be geared toward “every reader” or toward your “target audience”?
My target would be the urban fantasy and paranormal romance crowd. That would make me safe with something like:
It’s Bourne Supremacy, meets Merry Gentry, meets The Sopranos, with shapeshifters in a dom/sub culture.
There’s a good chance that a UF or PR reader will recognize the name Merry Gentry or be intrigued enough by the shapeshifters to ask more. But someone who has just eased into paranormals through paranormal suspense or who is looking for their first romp into paranormals would likely be completely lost.
Also, having watched others glaze over at conferences, is a five line paragraph about the most you ever want to give in one chunk to anyone listening?
Tag! Yes, that’s what I gave a table full of writers/readers at the Birmingham conference when they asked about my book. So I done good? It should’ve been good the tag and blurb went back and forth more times than I can count, but it was worth it.
Pity the agent wasn’t interested in my pitch for my mystery and my romantic suspense WIP.
It was so bad. I mean I was so bad. I needed my editor. sniff sniff
Oh this is great! Thanks for sharing – I’m headed to RT in a few weeks and though I’m not pitching, I can now practice what I’ll tell the readers I meet.
Eeek, now to come up with something good…
:)
Thanks, Angie!
What a great entry!
I saw the notice and thought…pitching to editors.
I know there’s different between pitching to editors and to agents. But, having a short active pitch ready at all times is so very important.
An author’s work is never done!
Mel
Think redneck, meets a chicken, who ain’t crossin a road to go to a confie ever!
I do know that having a short, snappy concept for your book is the key to selling. And I have one for each of mine, but I’d pass out if I tried to pitch a book in person, honestly. I’m a shy flower. Could I pop a few chocolate flavored tranq’s beforehand? Do you think the editor would notice? Yeesh!
Thanks Angie.
Great post! And it’s true…I recently joined a local RWA chapter, and at the first meeting they asked me about my up-coming title, One Night in Boston. You should have heard the way I stuttered myself through a plot description that was WAY too long and convoluted.
Since then, I’ve tried to streamline and improve it a thousand-fold. I think it’s better. I hope!
Well who’da thought? I hadn’t looked at a ‘pitch’ quite this way. It’ll certainly help me get my head around what I need for my next conversation about any of my books.
This is good stuff, plain ‘n simple.
TJ::
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Great post, Angie.
But that example only works if your book has anything in common with something that has been done before. If there’s no frame of reference in the collective consciousness that sort of tag line falls apart.
I suppose everything that can be written has already been done and back again more than a few times.
My own work included… ::sigh::
Or as I would say, The Lovely Bones meets Indiana Jones with shades of Ray Bradbury and Charles Frasier.
Great post.
In my day job, we call this the “elevator pitch”. The premise is that if you happen to be in a lift and the client CEO walks in, how do you make your pitch (and sell your idea) before he leaves? (Alternatively, if your boss’s boss comes in and asks you what you do, how do you justify your existence before you get to his floor?)