Tag Archives: book pitch

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7 Negative Responses To Your Book Pitch & How To Avoid Them: Part 7

A warm welcome back for Diane Holmes, with the last entry on her 7 part series about pitching…and for today we have…

#7 “Listening to you is like Herding Cats.”

Translation: “What?  Wait,  No, over there and there and there.  Yeah–   But–  I don’t under–  Un-huh.  I think–  Okay, start over from–  Wha–?”

Reality:  While books are complex and unfold over many pages, pitches are elegant and illuminate the unique aspect that makes you want to dive into those pages.  1,000 cats vs. 1 cat.

It’s good to be passionate about your book, but you still need to present your book’s hook with logical links from one idea to another.  And ultimately, you need to demonstrate that your book can be matched to an audience beyond you (aka interest the person you’re pitching to).

Solution:  Think of the editor or agent as your audience.  Bring your audience with you as you pitch by understanding what he or she already knows, thinks, and feels about your book’s subject and genre. Start there, then talk them through your book’s hook, building information logically.

If your novel is about a world in which magical beings named Linkers are tied to human souls, don’t start with, “Linker Mai-su just loves what she does and she loves all mankind and she’s their only hope.  Souls are really these vortexes and everyone has one except for a few.  And they’re really world-makers and really powerful, but that’s not Mai-su.  And….” Continue reading 7 Negative Responses To Your Book Pitch & How To Avoid Them: Part 7 →

advice, Business, client relationships, editorial, featured, Marketing yourself, Sales

7 Negative Responses To Your Book Pitch & How To Avoid Them: Part 6

It’s time for more on book pitching with Diane Holmes….her latest is titled–

#6 “There’s a term for this encounter:  Death by Meeting.”

Translation: “This is the longest 5 minutes of my life, and it’ll never end.  The details in monotone just keep coming, and eventually someone will find my cold, dead body, because I’ll have died of boredom.”

Reality: You’re so focused on sharing every fact, every bullet point, and every footnote, you haven’t been watching the response you’re getting.  If you were, you could adjust what you’re saying, know when to stop talking, or try saying something more interesting.

Not everyone succeeds in the first sentence.  Some start out rough, adjust, and then win ‘em over!

Solution:  We’re not always the best judge of what’s interesting to others.  If you can’t get a sense all by yourself about the “excitement” factor of your pitch, you need to use your critique group, writing friend, and others to help you out.

When you practice pitching to another person, have them hold their arm parallel to the ground (in front or to the side, doesn’t matter), and then raise and lower their arm as they become more and less interested.   It’s a really simple way to understand how your message is coming across.

And it can be very encouraging to try to raise your friend’s arm.  Try out different approaches.  Tweak what you’re saying.

Diane Holmes
Diane Holmes

Diane Holmes is the Founder and Chief Alchemist behind Pitch University, an online website where writers learn to pitch from the literary agents and editors (and maybe even sell their book in the process).  http://www.pitch-university.com/

And yes, she was born in Texas.

advice, Business, client relationships, editorial, featured, Marketing yourself, Sales

7 Negative Responses To Your Book Pitch & How To Avoid Them: Part 5

Diane Holmes is back today with more in her series about pitching your book…enjoy!

 

#5 “You’re All Hat and No Cattle”

Translation: “Your efforts to wow me by using the shiniest, hype-filled words Hollywood has to offer (big cowboy hat) are no substitute for real content (a ranch with actual cattle).  Everyone these days is calling him/herself an expert of this, a guru of that. Many writers claim to have the next bestseller, a book bigger than Harry Potter, or a story that’s going to excite, thrill, dazzle, and otherwise look good in a Stetson.  Just show me the cattle.” 

Reality:  Hype doesn’t work.  TV shows first had premiers, then they had US premiers, then world-wide premiers, and now?  Yes, Universal Premiers!  Hype doesn’t impress us.  We can see through it.  So can an editor or agent.

Solution:  Compelling premise, compelling character, compelling message.  Write books that are compelling by their very nature.  Then all you have to do is share this information.

Pitching isn’t a trick.  It’s communication.

Diane Holmes
Diane Holmes

 

Diane Holmes is the Founder and Chief Alchemist behind Pitch University, an online website where writers learn to pitch from the literary agents and editors (and maybe even sell their book in the process).  http://www.pitch-university.com/

And yes, she was born in Texas.

advice, Business, client relationships, editorial, featured, Marketing yourself, Sales

7 Negative Responses To Your Book Pitch & How To Avoid Them: Part 4

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Today we have part 4 of the series on pitching your book, by Diane Holmes….and by the way….you’ll be hearing more from her as she’s signing on to be a regular contributor at Freelance-Zone.com. We’re going to continue running the 7-part series, but you’ll also be hearing from Diane in posts about marketing and fiction over the coming weeks. We’re excited to have her as part of the roster!


#4 “Whoa, stop pitching!  It’s like drinking from a Firehose.”

Translation: “You’re gushing details and projects so fast it can only be measured in “gallons per minute,” and I am totally drenched.  Stop.  Please.  I need to dry off.”

Reality: More details aren’t better; they’re just more. And listing your works-in-progress without a breath doesn’t make you seem prolific, it only convinces an agent or editor that you’ve got a lot of work that hasn’t sold.

Solution:  Stop.  Focus.  You are here to talk about one amazing book project in a way that shines excitement and clarity on it.  If your conversation (not your rant or monologue) creates a positive impression about you, you might be invited to discuss other projects.   And again, stop and focus.

It’s not a race.

The agent or editor assumes that how you present your book is actually the best indicator of both how it’s written AND what type of client you’re likely to be.

Most writers will read this and think, “that is totally unfair!”  After all, we’re not presenters, we’re nervous, and it feels impossible to sum up our books (and deliver that summary in a verbal pitch).

It’s a pretty big burden to look and sound confident, present well, and give a summary that accurately encapsulates the project.  It is.

So, start by practicing being S-L-O-W.  Blurting information is caused either by nerves or desperation.  And it does no good lecturing yourself on not being nervous or desperate.  Emotions can be immune to logic!

So, for now.  Practice being slow.  Aim for clarity.  Remind yourself it’s a conversation.

Diane Holmes
Diane Holmes

Diane Holmes is the Founder and Chief Alchemist behind Pitch University, an online website where writers learn to pitch from the literary agents and editors (and maybe even sell their book in the process).  http://www.pitch-university.com/

And yes, she was born in Texas.

advice, editorial, featured, Marketing yourself, Sales

Avoiding Negative Responses To Your Book Pitch: Part 3

It’s time for the next edition of our seven-part series on pitching your book with Diane Holmes, where she helps talk you through some of the potential issues you may run across when trying to bring your work to print.

Today’s issue:

#3 “You’re putting lipstick on a bulldog.”

Translation: “You’ve gone to a lot of effort to pretty up a bad idea, make a blue-collar idea seem hoity-toity, or take a meat-and-potatoes idea and make it into caviar.   And I am not fooled.”

Reality: Your efforts to make your book’s hook, idea, or premise (the bulldog) exciting and BIG are transparent.  Agents and Editors are on to you, and it’s kinda insulting that you think they’d fall for that.

Solution:  What’s wrong with a plain ol’ bulldog?   By trying to take something and fool people into thinking it’s what it’s not, you miss out on both accounts.  At this point, the listener doesn’t want the plain bulldog or the fancy bulldog.

You must be passionate about what your book is really about.  And when you look for your book’s unique hook, look for something that is essential, captivating, and authentic.

Diane Holmes
Diane Holmes

Diane Holmes is the Founder and Chief Alchemist behind Pitch University, an online website where writers learn to pitch from the literary agents and editors (and maybe even sell their book in the process).  http://www.pitch-university.com/

And yes, she was born in Texas.

advice, editorial, featured, Marketing yourself, Sales

Avoiding Negative Responses To Your Book Pitch: Part 2

Today we continue our seven-part series on pitching your book with Diane Holmes, where she helps talk you through some of the potential pitfalls you may encounter when trying to bring your work to print.

Part 2 is:

#2 “Son, I think you brought a knife to a gun fight.”

Translation: “There’s a basic understanding about what we’re going to do today, but  you didn’t get the gunfighter’s memo.  Whew, kinda embarrassing.  Next time you need to bring the big (mental) guns and put away that butter knife.”

Reality: When agents and editors take pitches, they’re expecting to meet at a peer level.  They’re the industry pro; you’re the writing pro.  This means you’ve done your homework on book writing, pitching, and how this whole publishing industry-thing works.

When you haven’t become an expert on your part of the equation or don’t have a solid idea about what the other side does, it shows.

Of course, even when you’ve done this, you’re likely to feel nervous during a pitch.   That’s actually not a problem.  But not taking the time to thoroughly understand your genre, publishers’ needs, how agents work, what goes into a pitch….  That’s on you. Continue reading Avoiding Negative Responses To Your Book Pitch: Part 2 →