Pitching

I learned a very long time ago in business school that “nothing happens until someone sells something.” [Henry Ford]

Selling is meant to create a chain reaction.

Pitching is the act of trying to sell something.

Selling (pitching) your book(s) is part of being a professional writer.

Pitching your book should put another spin on your book’s marketing flywheel to gain momentum for your book sales. The flywheel strategy creates a cyclical business pattern of success.

The idea is that a flywheel takes a lot of effort at the start, but once it gets spinning, it continues to quickly gain momentum and spin faster. This is similar to the snowball effect, where a snowball gets pushed down a hill as it progressively gets bigger and bigger until it is nearly impossible to stop before it reaches the bottom of the hill. The difference is that a flywheel never has to stop.

Amazon has a very intentional flywheel strategy. And, yes, it was written by Jeff Bezos on a paper napkin in 2001.

ATTRACT. ENGAGE. DELIGHT/ENTERTAIN

Elegantly simple.

The FLYWHEEL SUMMARY

• The flywheel effect occurs when small wins (acquiring readers one at a time) accumulate over time, creating momentum that keeps your business growing (increasing your readership).
• The concept is based on mechanical flywheels that power rowing machines and other devices.
• Achieving the flywheel effect requires removing friction and applying force. In business terms, that means creating a self-serve purchase flow and applying “forces” to make the wheel spin faster, e.g., SEO, Meta-Data, and nurture campaigns.
• A flywheel go-to-market model is well suited for selling books — easily replicated products such as books, e-pubs, audio-books, games, etc.

Flywheels attract and engage customers 24 hours a day – they’re literally working while you sleep. See SEO above.

Stay tuned for future posts on FLYWHEELS and how to create yours.

A Tiny Bit of Publishing History

We will circle back around to pitching. Please bear with me.

Amazon shifted the book-selling business by selling print books on July 16, 1995 and is now considered having the world’s largest collection of books. The first books were sold out of Jeff Bezos rented home’s garage. Remember that Bezos drew Amazon’s flywheel on a napkin in 2001. The rest is history.

E-books have been around since late 1990s, but it wasn’t until Amazon released the Kindle book reader in 2007 that e-books (digital books) caught the general public’s attention and dollars.

Selling books online – digital books requires a very different approach – one that sells directly to the reader and works to make the work discoverable by potential readers/purchasers.

The Pew Research Center states that as of April 4, 2012 that only one-fifth (21%) of Americans have read an e-book.

As of now, 30% of Americans have read an e-book. This number has remained consistent since 2019 according to PEW Research.

The typical American reads five books a year (median – symmetric distribution) while the average (mean – includes outliers) is about 14 books per year per person.

Most Americans only have eight hours of free time per week. This is the window when reading a book (e-book or print book) for pleasure/leisure would take place. People could watch TV, play video games, play pickleball, golf, swim, etc. instead of reading during these rare free hours. Hence, this is why audio-books sales are increasing! Busy people can listen to books while they commute, knit, wash laundry, load the dishwasher, or rake the autumn leaves.

The point is “what is in your bag to sell?” If you are self-published, are your works available on a wide variety of platforms to reach your readers?

Now to circle back to PITCHING!

Whether or not you are pitching your work to a literary agent, a publishing acquisitions editor, bookstore staff, or, most importantly, a potential reader, you will need to know how to pitch your works.

Your literary agent will need to know how to pitch your book to publishers. They do not get paid until your book is under contract (and purchased).

The publishing house (you or a traditional publishing house) will pitch your books  to “the trade” – booksellers, libraries, online selling platforms, and other brick & mortar outlets.

Most writers first exposure to pitching to agents is at writing conferences that offer “Pitch Blocks” or “Pitch Slams” where the conference host is paid (again, not the literary agent) a fee for hosting a session with a roster of agents who will listen to pitches. PNWA and Writer’s Digest offer these for a fee per block (WD $179 PNWA $100 per block). Pitch time is anywhere from five minutes to eight minutes per attendee and are on a strict time schedule with one pitch being delivered after another.  There are different schools of thought of whether pitch sessions are helpful or not in obtaining a literary agent, but that is another topic.

How to Pitch at Conference Pitch Sessions

While it is normal to feel nervous when you are pitching your works, it behooves you to remember that:

• You paid for this pitch session.
• The clock is ticking.
• There are many others pitching to the same agent.
• Agents only want pitches on completed manuscripts or polished non-fiction book proposals.
• Do your homework ahead of –make sure that you are pitching to an agent who is representing your genre. Visit their websites to see other books that they are representing.

First, most agents are forgiving of nervousness. It happens a lot and all that anxiousness will not help  your pitch to stand out. Don’t spend your time apologizing for being nervous or explaining why you are not prepared. Doing so is wasting precious time. Rambling does not make a good impression. You want them to have your pitch echoing in their brains. 

Come prepared. Over prepare. Have a prepared, polished pitch. Write it on a note card. Carry the card with you. Memorize your pitch. Read off from it if you need to. Believe me, the agent will appreciate this more than you hearing you hemming and hawing and umming.

They also do NOT want to hear about your ‘dreams and passions’ about writing. Everyone that is pitching to them is passionate about their writing. Agents are about salability. They have mortgages to pay, food to by, and their own dreams of vacations and income from discovering that next break-out Hunger Games. See “nothing happens until someone sells something” above.

Keep your pitch short. Have questions to ask the agent-your conduit to the world of publishing-about if there was something that appealed to them. What did not appeal to them or what was missing. Try to let the agent guide the feedback. This is your chance to get professional feedback, to listen and learn.

Also, keep in mind that agents are also seeking to represent writers who are open to feedback and pleasant to work with along with understanding the process of the publishing industry (that it takes time and effort).

Remember to bring your business card with your website and contact information. Say hello. Introduce yourself. Give your pitch early on so that the agent will have time to give you feedback on it. Ask questions instead of “explaining” your manuscript to the agent so that she will give you feedback.

When your session is over (Some are as short as three minutes. Eight minutes is considered to be a long session.). Thank them for their time and leave. The next person to pitch is waiting to take your spot.

If the agent does have interest, be sure to have your synopsis ready (printed) with your contact information in case she asks for it.

Less than 1 percent of writers at a pitch session will gain representation. It is about the same as cold querying (another post is coming on that — stay tuned). So, keep on writing, editing, refining. The main objective is for the agent at the pitch sessions to think that you are open and understand the business and marketing side of being a writer.

Most agents also understand that it’s a busy world and will allow simultaneous submissions. If they don’t, they might not be a good general fit for most writers.

Chanticleer Authors Conferences do not offer “pitch sessions.” However, we do offer sessions on developing pitches. We do have opportunities to make excellent connections with film agents, directors, publishing house acquisitions, literary agencies, and other professional connections in the content industry such as Maggie Marr, Legal (Film and Book Representation) and Scott Steindorff, President of Stone Village Film Productions

What is a PITCH and/or LOGLINE?

Your story reduced to less than 33 descriptive words. EACH. WORD. COUNTS.

Brand your story with a compact package of words that will astonish and entertain. It’s a craft of its own! Continue to refine and refine your pitch to a concise sound bite.

A PITCH is NOT

• A meandering description about the story
• The opening scene
• Side stories
• Character names
• Flash forwards
• Psychological thinking
• Don’t confuse platitudes for story – avoid them!
• Get your ‘self’ (looking at you Writer) out of the way of your story
• Never give away the ending

A PITCH consists of the following:

• Identifying the main character (protagonist) using descriptive words — tonality – leverage your language/voice
• Describe the world that character lives in (Fantasy? Dystopian? Barbie Land? Future? Stone Age? Future in a galaxy far away?
• What sets the story in motion — the inciting event
• The goal of the protagonist — central conflict — choice — action
• What stands in the protagonist way – what is the conflict or who is antagonist?
• The best loglines have a sense of irony. (There’s the conflict again!)

Answer all of the above in 33 words or less. Perfect words. Use active and visual language. This is where you should show off your word craft abilities.

The equation is as follows:

Central Conflict + Inciting Incident + Protagonist Goal + Protagonist = PITCH

The order of the components can be mixed up.

How are loglines/pitches different than taglines? Pitches are descriptive. Taglines are provocative and are used for marketing. Don’t confuse the two.

Here is a classic example of a logline/pitch and tagline:

Back to the Future:

• Logline: “A young man is transported to the past, where he must reunite his parents before he and his future cease to exist.”
• Tagline: 17-year-old Marty McFly got home early last night—30 years early.  (Notice that this tagline gives the tonality and targets the market for the work/film.)

In closing: The whole idea of pitching is to entice an extremely busy person to making time to read your work! 

Next step:  write a 50 word summary of your story. Bring it on your stationary along with your pitch on a notecard to your pitch session. Just in case! I’d even work on a tagline to give a visual!

An effective, evocative, compelling logline/pitch can propel your writing career forward and open doors and lead to conversations with industry professionals.

Keep on Writing, Kiffer