The writing group I'm a member of in the next town over did an interesting mini seminar a few weeks ago. It was done by a husband and wife writer/editing team. One of the many points I took away from that experience was about confidence as a writer. What does that have to do with elevator pitches you ask? Well... How often when we interact with each other does someone ask you.. "So, What's your book about?" Personally I normally think... Uuuhh... and then a noxious blurb of everything that someone SHOULDN'T say to describe their baby flows from my mouth. Granted I don't have the best confidence in the world about well.. everything so is it really that large a surprise that I botched the entire conversation when the editor half of the duo came to talk to me? To his credit the man was very kind, and with a grin he mentioned I needed to work on my elevator pitch. So I propose that for this thread we give a brief pitch of either our own work or something we've read. For all of us who need the confidence boost. Your pitch should be short, no more than a few sentences/minutes long. It needs to be catchy also.
Example: Heaven and Hell, my short story... Heaven and Hell is about social darwinism that plagues the soul of James Crux as he struggles to find his place in the afterlife.
This is a really good idea. Here's the best I can come up with off the top of my head: On her way to conquering the known world, Valessa Tarquin must deal with betrayals, assassins, and a doorway to a world that doesn't exist. Although, 'a world of existencelessness' might be more accurate, but it doesn't flow as well... Maybe annihilation?
^ As it was told to me the more bold and "movie voice like" the pitch the better it tends to go off. You need a fairly good amount of dramatics and still be able to get the full point of your piece of work through. My short story wasn't the best example. LOL
hmmm worth a shot I suppose! Won't know how much I need to work on it until I try it! The Uprising is a fantasy novel based on the idea that souls can and do become separate from the body. In this story, some of these souls return in the form of living tattoos to try and change their less than exceptional counterparts.
I'm not an expert on sales pitching my work that's why I thought it might be fun to have a thread to work on that... That said... If you read Agreen's pitch he was short, concise and gave vague hints of story plot. So for your pitch it might better suit you to say something more along the lines of... The uprising is a fantasy novel which explores the possible capabilities of the human soul to influence living beings. Phrasing this way leaves out the forms you talked about and limits your target so that they cannot infer about your story and fill in to many blanks before even reading the piece. Sometimes vague is good. Great pitch it makes me curious about your story
Thanks! I like that a lot better! I wonder if there is an expert on pitches around here somewhere? Would def like to here their tips on pitches as well.
^ No idea, I'm not sure anyone has tried the pitch thing before. If they did I haven't seen it. Most topics are query letters, but I thought it would be fun to have something that reflected actual conversations with people who can be intimidating like editors and such to us newbies.
