Please give me your best pitching tips. I'm going to a Writing Workshop on the 17th, where I've signed up for 20 one on one minutes with any of the agents there. This will be my very first pitch ever and I'm so nervous but I'm also confident in my story. Funny how I say that and I have notitleand I don't know exactly what genre this would fall under except for contemporary fiction but I know that's not quite it. So what are your tips?
I've never pitched, but a while ago I posted a link I found interesting, talking about the author/agent relationship... https://www.writingforums.org/threads/article-on-author-agent-relationship.155605/#post-1619885 The key idea I took I away from that article was that there are three key elements to being a successful author - the writing, the business/communication, and the promo. My impression is that a lot of authors really focus on the writing part of that when they're pitching, and of course the writing is important - but it might help an author stand out if she also mentioned the other two elements?
@EdFromNY - I'm pretty sure Ed's been to writers' conferences and pitched to agents before, so maybe he'll have a few tips?
I've been to the Writer's Digest Pitch Slam twice. You get an hour to pitch as many agents as you can, with no more than a couple of minutes at each one (they ring a bell when it's time to change). The upside is that if you get a bad vibe from one agent, you can just shake it off and move on to another. I found it's almost impossible to do more than 6 or 7 in an hour, so the best thing to do is know who you most want to talk to, who your "okay" agents are, and who isn't worth your time. Make a plan, and go. I actually made a diagram of the floor plan the night before. I got a couple of requests for two or three chapters and a few for queries. I also found it helped if I'd had some contact with them at another time during the conference (e.g. if I was at a session in which they spoke, I mentioned how much I liked their presentation before I began my pitch). I've also been to the Algonkian NY Pitch Conference, which is more workshop than pitch session. It lasts four days and you get four chances to pitch agents or editors for 15 minutes. This is a great format if the agent or editor is looking for your kind of work, but a waste if (s)he is looking for something completely different. From your OP, it appears that you have something more like the latter. You can really make this work for you by doing your homework in advance. Make sure you know which agent you want to pitch (and, like I did at Pitch Slam, have some alternatives in case yours doesn't show or someone else gets in ahead of you). Check them out on the MSWL website (Manuscript Wish List) to see what they're looking for right now. If you see them at the conference before the pitch event, engage them in conversation. Let them know you plan to pitch them at the session, but don't do it there unless they invite you to do so (at Algonkian, I pitched an agent who was a group leader while helping her set up for the day's session; got me a request for a full, although she didn't ultimately bite). When you pitch, know your comps, your genre, and word length. Let them know it's complete (even if it isn't; if they want pages, they understand writers have to polish before they submit). Give them the same plot summary as your query letters. Have a solid logline. But most of all, remember this isn't life or death. The first Pitch Slam I attended, people lined up looking like they were awaiting major surgery. This is the most subjective of fields. And the industry is now branching out so that Twitter pitch events like #Pitchwars and #Pitmad can be as effective as traditional querying, if not more so. So, relax and enjoy.
Oh, and if you do get a request for pages or a query, make sure that you mention in the subject line of your e-mail that you met them at the conference. That will get you bumped to the top of the in-box.
Thank you very much Ed! I will read your advice over and over again to soak it in. I also just ordered business cards to pass out to peers and agents. I hope I'm going in the right direction!
You're very welcome. Best of luck in your efforts. If at first you don't succeed, write, write again.
