The day after I recorded my class video with Julie Kingsley for The Manuscript Academy, I realized (with horror!) (or just annoyance) that I’d forgotten to talk about pitching. I almost called Julie and told her to come back so we could record more, but then decided, hey, I’ll do it myself. It’ll be a bonus video.
Pitching! It’s super important, and also kind of scary. In this video, I talk about five reasons you need to write pitches:
1. A pitch is a mission statement for your story.
2. If you are having trouble writing a pitch for your story, it means there’s a problem with the story.
3. A pitch gives you an answer to the question, “What’s your story about?”
4. You’ll need a pitch for social media pitch events.
5. Your agent and editor can use your pitch in submission letters and promotional materials.
And then I talk about the formula (SECRET FORMULA!) (or not secret at all, actually) I use for writing pitches, and give you some examples.
I hope this helps any of you pitchophobes out there. And if you like this video, you’ll love the class I did for The Manuscript Academy, which is me sitting on this same couch talking in the same way, but for way longer, and with better lighting and done with a much better camera.
Great advice, thanks for sharing. I’ve been participating in twitter pitch parties and when I get a new idea for a picture book, I have started writing a twitter pitch first. It really helps me focus!
Yes! It definitely helped me focus when I started writing pitches early in the writing process.
I actually started writing and updating my pitch while I drafted my last two manuscripts. For the first one, the manuscript I’m getting ready to query, it was really frustrating for a long time because the story changed radically. I had to go back to the very essence of the main character and recraft, but that has really helped me with later revisions as I fine tune the through-lines of the story. So yay!
Thanks for the follow-up information! It was really helpful and you have an engaging way of explaining things:)