FWA Aventura Writers Group

Florida Writers Association – Aventura Writing Group
Saturday, December 8th Meeting, from 2 to 4 pm at North Miami Beach Library

Find the Perfect Pitch by Sara Williams

You’ve written a four-hundred-page manuscript and it’s ready to be shared with the world. What to do next? If you’re a savvy marketer, you’ll learn to describe it in one catchy sentence. The pitch (or the log line in the case of a movie script) is that vital phrase that sums up your work in one breath.

At the December 8 meeting we’ll do a hands-on pitch session where each writer will work with a partner, first to describe the work in a short statement or synopsis, and then to pitch it to the class.
The pitch is designed to pique the interest of an editor or a literary agent—or the reader you hope to interest at a booksigning. You have about thirty seconds to put out the magic words that will make the reader pick up your book, or motivate an agent or an editor to ask to see your proposal and your sample chapters.

At one famous literary conference authors are encouraged to spend an evening pitching their book to the bathroom mirror, and next day authors walk through the crowds pitching their books to each other. The most fearless or foolhardy are invited to pitch their book for the Jay Leno talk show.

Here are some exercises to help you think about a pitch. Some successful pitches answer the question what if: What if Jesus had a wife? (The DaVinci Code). Or, What if there was an English boarding school for magicians? (Harry Potter.)

Some books are pitched in terms of another work: It’s The Perfect Storm—in an RV. Or, It’s Moby Dick except with a shark (Jaws). Or, it’s the “South Pacific” of the Vietnam War (MASH).

Use the analogy of another writer’s work to put across what’s different about yours. For instance, Sara pitches her forthcoming novel One Big Itch as a Tony Hillerman style of novel but set in Hawaii. Or The Serenoa Scandal, it’s a book about Florida’s tropical wild west.

Some popular fiction picks up on current themes. What if an artist falls in love with his model? (The Girl with the Pearl Earring; Woman in Red).

See you there! And be ready to pitch.

Sara Williams is a former magazine and newspaper journalist and columnist, now the ArcheBooks bestselling author of two novels, The Don Juan Con and The Serenoa Scandal. See Sara’s website for details www.sarawilliamsnovelist.com

Please join us at the library for Sara's workshop.
Questions? Suggestions? Contact me at m_most@yahoo.com

Mary