Pitching at a writers' festival

[Nikky Lee]

Hi guys,

I'm thinking of getting involved in a pitching event at a local writers' festival. I've not much experience in this area, and most advice I've found online is to do with pitching your novel to an agent/editor via email, rather than face-to-face. Has anyone had any experience with this kind of event (good and bad), and what is the best way to prepare? (eg. Are the publishers likely to ask curly questions that I should prepare for?)

FYI this event requires you to submit:

• A synopsis of the work – no more than 1 page in length
• A brief bio, and justification as to why the publisher chosen is a good fit for your work – no more than 1 page in length
• A sample of the work – no more than 2 paragraphs in length.

Cheers,

Nikky

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Is that the National Writer's Forum pitching event you're looking at (oh, yes, I just followed your link...duh)? I'm heading to the forum, but don't plan to pitch. I pitched to one agent and one publisher at the Storylines festival last year. It was a good exercise, as it required me to make my book's pitch sound great when spoken aloud. I'm also good at selling things in person, so it got me a full MS request within the first 5 seconds of one of the pitches. There are some good guidelines out there on the web for how to do a face-to-face pitch (though, of course, none of them are at the tip of my fingers at the moment). The key is to be able to clearly articulate (with confidence) your pitch, your target market, how you think this book fits in the market, and why X agent or publisher is the best fit for it. It's also wise to be prepared with additional pitches if you've got additional finished MSs--I ended up pitching two books in both my pitch sessions--one said straight off they didn't think my story was their sort of thing, but did I have anything else; the other said they wanted the first and did I have anything else.

 

[Nikky Lee]

Is that the National Writer's Forum pitching event you're looking at (oh, yes, I just followed your link...duh)? I'm heading to the forum, but don't plan to pitch. I pitched to one agent and one publisher at the Storylines festival last year. It was a good exercise, as it required me to make my book's pitch sound great when spoken aloud. I'm also good at selling things in person, so it got me a full MS request within the first 5 seconds of one of the pitches. There are some good guidelines out there on the web for how to do a face-to-face pitch (though, of course, none of them are at the tip of my fingers at the moment). The key is to be able to clearly articulate (with confidence) your pitch, your target market, how you think this book fits in the market, and why X agent or publisher is the best fit for it. It's also wise to be prepared with additional pitches if you've got additional finished MSs--I ended up pitching two books in both my pitch sessions--one said straight off they didn't think my story was their sort of thing, but did I have anything else; the other said they wanted the first and did I have anything else.

Thanks Robinne! I've heard that having an additional pitch up your sleeve is a good idea, sadly I only have the one manuscript for now.