First, You Need a BIG Black Snake (Or How To Grab the Attention of Agents, Editors, and Readers)

The other day, the black snake returned to my deck. It is a seriously BIG black snake and so I posted the pic on social media and immediately, the comments started. There is something about a BIG black snake that really gets people’s attention and oddly, I thought about my latest pitch. And here’s what I thought: I need a BIG black snake.

Not literally, just metaphorically. In other words, would my pitch immediately convince an agent to read my first ten pages? And assuming my story delivered, would my agent’s pitch (which started with my pitch) be compelling enough to make an editor want to read it? And then the editor had to sell my story to an entire publishing company, who in turn had to sell the pitch to thousands of readers.

It’s pretty overwhelming, when you think about all that your pitch has to do. So it behooves us all to get the equivalent of a BIG black snake. But what makes a good pitch? I know you’re thinking it’s a good story, but it’s not that simple. Plenty of writers can produce wonderful stories. But there are plenty of wonderful stories gathering dust because the writer couldn’t pitch the story well enough to grab the right person’s attention. So a few ideas about good pitches:

First, know what your story is about. I know. It’s ridiculous. Who doesn’t know what their story is about? But if you only have thirty seconds to take everything you know about your story and then pitch your book to editors and agents, could you do it? Could you quickly get to the essence of it all, capturing the voice, the hook or premise, the tone, the characters?

Yeah. Not so easy to get all that in a few sentences. But if you know what your story is about, that’s a starting point, and there are lots of ways to begin. I like Gary Provost’s sentence about story structure which you can read about here; it’s a good checklist. But just about any book on the subject of writing can help you here. (Or conversely, help you find where or what is missing in your story!) And once you have conquered that one-page summary, you’re ready to move on to the pitch phase.

Read lots of pitches! Now, I realize you don’t have access to all the perfect pitches that have been written out there. Though sometimes, an author might share the pitch that got her the agent of her dreams. Or an editor might share a pitch that made her publishing house buy a book at auction. But that’s a painstaking search mission and there’s an easier way to find great pitches: go to the bookstore or your local library.

Head directly to that shelf where all the best-sellers are waiting and turn to the back cover. There you will find, in a short paragraph or two, exactly what’s inside that book. I don’t care if it’s a memoir or a thriller, a romance or a how-to, that back cover is golden. And often, the back cover is remarkably close to what the writer used as the first pitch. You can even do a little comparison and read the summary inside the book cover; that’s how you’ll see what was left off the back cover. And when you understand the difference, it’s time to move on to writing a pitch.

Practice writing pitches. You can concentrate on writing your own pitch, but sometimes, we’re so invested in what we’ve written that we find it difficult to cut. Practice distilling other people’s books into pitches and get used to the process. Or practice with movies. It doesn’t matter as long as you know the story well. And once you’ve honed your skills, then write your own pitch.

It’s just a few lines, but those few lines can make the difference between ho-hum and humdinger. So spend a little time on the whole pitch thing and when it’s good and ready—when you’ve got your BIG black snake--go grab someone’s attention!

~Cathy C. Hall