The Elevator Pitch
Have you ever heard that you should have a minute-long elevator pitch ready in case you hop on an elevator and have an opportunity to introduce yourself to someone? That someone could be an agent or editor, other writers at a conference or perhaps a movie producer. At some time you will need to introduce yourself and talk about what you’re working on. Be prepared. Just because you’re in conversation with a friend or a small group doesn’t mean you should wing it, they’re potential readers. Your elevator pitch is an opportunity to market yourself for thirty seconds to a minute. It should be conversational and flexible. Get your point across in one sentence or elaborate with details should the opportunity present itself.
Practice On Friends
To start with practice discussing your latest work with acquaintances at a party. You can talk about the type of book you’re writing, the premise, and why you’re impassioned to write it. You might say something like this: “I’m working on a thriller about a terrorist who wants to fill the stadium with poisonous gas at a football game and his cheerleader girlfriend who must stop him.” You could explain that you’re a chemistry teacher and you’re alarmed at how easy it is to get poisons via the internet.
Use A Formula
Moreover, how do you reduce your whole story into one sentence? INKTIP asked agents who represent screenwriters what they want to hear in a pitch. They boiled it down to this formula: Nouns + verbs + irony = logline. Simple formulas like this one are powerful and easy to remember. You can play around with it until you find a logline or tagline that you’re comfortable with. Remember, the shorter the better. Sarah Jane Freymann, who has a literary agency of the same name says: “If you are able to sum up your entire book with a title or a one-line description, that’s gold.”
Go For It
Pitching your novel at a conference is just an expansion of this concept. After your initial blurb, pause and give the agent time to ask questions just like you would in a regular conversation. They will likely want to ask you more about the book. If you were at a party you wouldn’t start going into all the details of your subplots and your secondary characters. You would stick to the basic premise. Do the same with an agent or editor. A pitch to an agent isn’t the synopsis of your book, nor is it the back cover copy. It’s a short, conversational cross between the two. The last step is to throw out your hook and your premise, and show how it all works.
An editor or agent may make suggestions. Jot them down and move on. The next day you can ponder if they fit the concept you want to portray. Agent, Katherine Sands says “Red flags wave when a writer starts to huff for any reason.” So stay calm, smile, and make sure they can see your name tag. To sum up, keep your cool in any scenario and enjoy the opportunity to get people pumped about what excites you.
