Pitching Your Book
A pitch is a short, gripping introduction to a project that captures what the book is about and why an agent or editor might be interested in it. Basically, you are selling the story itself.
Think of it as a trailer for your book, sixty seconds in which you get your audience to care about your character(s) and wonder what happens next. Your pitch should include the title, length, and genre of your novel.
You want to hook your audience, so make sure to introduce your characters and provide a short description of the call to action and conflict. Because this is a sales pitch, make sure that you talk about your target audience, one or two comp titles, and the briefest of bios.
Some things to consider:
Make sure that you pinpoint the incident(s) that sets the story in motion. The inciting incident, that is.
Include the setting, as well as compelling information on your main character(s).
Be careful of the level of detail you provide. Authors often talk about—and name—too many characters. Or too many dates. Too many place names. Too many ______ fill in the blank. Don’t overpopulate your pitch—provide the names of the main characters and any telling details the reader should know about. Unless the second cousin is the one wielding the knife, keep her out of it.
What is your relationship to the subject? Of course, you can write about whatever you want, but if you have a special relationship to your subject, definitely mention it. For example: Anne Leary’s THE GOOD HOUSE is the story about a sixty-year-old woman struggling in her sobriety. The writer, by her own admission, is an alcoholic, a fact that not only informed the writing of the book, but the publisher’s promotion of it.
Make sure that your pitch has movement. That means starting in one place and ending up in another so that the audience has a sense of the set-up and resolution of the book. What you don’t want to convey a “this happened and then that happened and then that happened” approach.