Power Pitching – How to Make a Great
Impression on a Publishing Professional
By Julie Rowe

Pitching a book to an editor or agent is a nerve wracking experience for most writers.  Here are some tips to make your face-to-face pitching appointment a success.

Before the pitch:

Research the available publishing professionals and choose the ones who buy or represent what you write.  Look for information at:

• RWA’s lists of recognized agents and publishers.
• Publisher’s Market Place - http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/ .
• Agent Query - http://www.agentquery.com/ .
• Google (for blog interviews & conference appearance bios).
• Individual publisher and agency websites – pay attention to book titles, what are they publishing/representing, can you see your book fitting in?
• Blogs – many editors and agents have blogs, if they have one, read it to get a feel for what they like and dislike, and how they might be to work with.

Write your book’s sales pitch:

Whether you’re selling a vacuum cleaner or your book, a sales pitch is a sales pitch. Every good salesman knows that in order to convince a person to buy something they have to make them care about it. Make the editor or agent care about your characters and NEED to read your book! 

How do you do that?  By answering three basic questions:
Who?
What?
Why? 

Who are the characters?
What do they want? (Motivation)
Why can’t they have it? (Conflict)

Be certain you're revealing the internal motivations and conflict.  ‘Saving the world’ or ‘solving the mystery’ are external. Answering the question "What do they want?" in your pitch needs to address not the chase or investigation or battle, but what do the characters want deep down in their soul that will make them complete as a person? Is it love? Trust? Belonging? Security? Justice? Repentance? Forgiveness? What do the characters need to be complete? And what stands in their way? Usually it's the competing needs of another character. So, if the hero needs Justice for being wronged, the heroine might need Forgiveness for wronging him or someone he identifies with. The two needs are incompatible. This is your internal conflict.

Your pitch should be one to two paragraphs long.  This leaves time for the publishing professional to ask questions about the characters, conflicts and plot.

Walking in to your pitch appointment:

• Shake hands, sit forward and look them in the eye.  If that's too uncomfortable, look at a point between their eyes and they won't know the difference.

• Tell them it’s a pleasure to meet them and you’d like to tell them about your <insert genre here> book, complete at <insert word count here> words.

• Give your pitch.

• If there is time after your pitch, and (hopefully) the editor or agent has requested your book, ask some good questions like:

• What have you published recently that's really selling well?  What's NOT selling well?

• Do you have an author who has done an exceptional job at marketing their book(s)?

• In your experience, what's the biggest obstacle to buying (or offering representation to) a new author?  Is there anything an author can do to reduce or remove this obstacle?

• I write <insert your genre here>, how full is your (client or book) list for this genre?  Are there any plot lines you’re tired of seeing in this genre?  Are there any plot lines you’d like to see, but haven’t?
  
  

Don’t forget to ask important submission questions like:

• How do you prefer to receive my manuscript?  By regular mail or email?

• When can I expect a response on my manuscript?  How is the best way to contact you for an update if this time has passed?

Good luck!