The Perfect Pitch: Pitching to Agents at a Writing Conference
by Sue Fagalde Lick
Is it worth the stress? Yes.
Many conferences allow writers to schedule short face-to-face meetings with agents and editors. It's a great opportunity to pitch one's book. It's also terribly nerve-wracking. After all, most of us are more effective on paper, and a bad meeting can ruin your chances with that person forever. But one successful meeting can make your book-publishing dreams come true. It can also save months of mailing queries and waiting for answers.
Preparation is the key. David Hale Smith of DHS Literary, Inc., attends six to eight conferences a year looking for "that one diamond in the rough." Smith urges writers to prepare a three-minute pitch in which they boil their project down to three to five sentences. Practice that pitch until you can deliver it smoothly. The whole point of the meeting is to get your writing read. You're not there to chat, make a new friend or list the problems you're having with your writing but to convince the agent to give it a look. "You're sitting there and the door's open."
Pitch sessions are obviously stressful. Smith admits he still gets nervous pitching books to editors, but he can handle his nerves because he is prepared. "Think of it as a business meeting," he says. "You're coming to a business meeting with a product." The writer must be able to describe his book clearly and briefly. If he can't, how is the agent going to describe it to an editor, who in turn has to pitch the book to his superiors and ultimately to the publisher's sales force, which has to pitch the book to the buyers?
Agent Jillian Manus, who spent several years as a development executive in the movie business, knows the importance of a pitch. She bought movie scripts solely on the basis of the writers' pitches, then turned around and pitched them to her production team. These days, the book publishing industry has also adopted the pitch as an essential sales tool. Writers who can't describe their work in four or five lines don't have a clear idea of what they are writing, Manus says.
For fiction, Manus suggests dividing the pitch into three points: the setup, hook and resolution. For nonfiction, the title should convey the main concept of the book. Explain what the book is about, why you are qualified to write it, who will read it and what you can do to promote it.
