Meeting of February 20, 2008

Our weekly Wednesday meeting was a full house, with plenty of new members and conference attenders coming to see Rosemary Clement-Moore's talk on How to Pitch an Agent at a Conference.

The stats:

Rejections: 2

Acceptances: Kyle White had an article appear this week in Reader's Digest; Harry Hall's book summary was accepted by his agent; A Lee Martinez' new book, already slated for publication in the United States, will be published by Piper in German as well; Sonja Cassella has had a story accepted by an e-zine; David Straiton had 3 articles accepted this week, and Rosemary Clement-Moore had 13 kids show up at her writing class last week, including 5 boys.

Submissions: Kyle White submitted three articles, Paul Lamar submitted a story, and Iris Acuff submitted a play to a theater producer in LA.

Rosemary's talk was short and to the point -- just like a successful agent pitch! She suggested developing two separate pitches -- a short one and a long -- though even the "long" would only be 2-3 minutes. The "short" is a single paragraph, something you would be able to say in an elevator between getting in and getting off.

The Short Pitch

Distill the essence of your book into a long sentence or short paragraph. What makes it different?

The essentials:
Title and genre
Character name and a 'hook'
Goal
Conflict
Motivation

Handy template:

Hero wants ....
But finds himself ...
At first he ...
And he has to ...
But in the end he learns ....

Long Pitch

1. Short paragraph on the set-up. Motivation/internal conflict.
2. Short paragraph on the external conflict.
3. Inciting incident.
4. Complicating element
5. Climactic turning point.
6. Conclusion (title, word count, genre, market.)

When you have these two pitches ready, practice telling them to the mirror. At the conference, be professional -- treat the agent or editor how you would like to be treated if you were in their shoes.

See you tomorrow!