Monday, July 22, 2013

Pitches are great...What now? by Linda S. Glaz



Last Monday we worked on 25-30 word pitches, and you folks did an amazing job. Almost ready for conference now? Well…almost. So, what else do you need to walk into your appointment and wow them? Let’s see what you should take with you:
-have your pitch already to go, never know when an elevator will stand you next the agent/editor of your choice
-first few pages of your novel
-one-sheet, I’ll discuss this more later
-synopsis, a one page synopsis and a very detailed one, 5-6pages
-your bio and info on what you plan to do to market, in other words, have your platform fine-tuned to sell yourself. Don’t hold back, don’t wimp out. SELL YOURSELF!
-biz card or bookmark to remind them who they spoke to

A one-sheet (sell sheet) should include information about you, a teaser about your work, and any other info you deem absolutely necessary to sell yourself and your work. It isn’t called a sell sheet for nothin’!
Your platform. Don’t leave out a single thing that you have accomplished within the writing industry. Have you done reviews? Have you volunteered in any positions within the industry? Reviewer, editor, influencer, etc. Don’t leave out a thing. Have you written for local papers, magazines, online sources? Do you blog and tweet? Have a website?
I recently had a client tell me she was just waiting for a contract to set up her website.
Waiting!?!?!?!?!? Don’t wait, get it going right now. Build your followers so that you can show numbers to the publishers.
Platform is nearly as important as the good story in today’s tight race for a contract.

Endorsers. Have you a published author within your circle of friends who might be willing to read your novel and offer an endorsement?
Endorsements are GOLD!

Fine tune and get your presentation all ready to walk into your appointment and sell yourself. Don’t sell yourself short. Sell long! If you don’t believe in your work—who will?

5 comments:

Andrea Cox said...

Great post, Linda! You've sure got me thinking...

Blessings,
Andrea

Anne Love said...

Thanks Linda. The clock is ticking to ACFW! How exciting.

I'm wondering about including data. I've uploaded my blog info to Google Analytics. But honestly it's not that user friendly, or maybe I'm just a novice. Do we include statistics from GA, or our author pages on FB?

The Crazy Cat Lady said...

Great post, Linda! Thank you for the tips. One thing that I found rather helpful when preparing for a conference, I make a checklist for whatever manuscript(s) I'm hoping to sell. Then, when one of those steps is completed, printed, and put into my 3 ring binder, I check it off. That way, things don't seem quite so overwhelming and I can see at a glance what I still need to do.

:)

Lisa P said...

I would add: good friends/family to pray while you're pitching.
Because you KNOW you're stomach's going to be all slushy and you'll wish you didn't drink so much coffee because now you'll be shifting through the interview since you have to go.
Stuff like that.

Lisa P said...

*your* (Thank you, auto correct.)