Wednesday, April 20, 2011

PITCHES ARE NOT JUST FOR CONFERENCES



Oh, by the way I will be hosting YALITCHAT twitter chat this Wed @ 9pm on twitter. Just follow the hashtags #yalitchat. We'll be sharing pitches.

If you want to move that novel you've written, got beta read, then edited to the point of perfection ------ YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO SELL IT!

That's where great tools like your Query Letter, Book Proposal, Synopsis and PITCH come in.

BUT let's think Bigger than just creating your 2 sentence pitch.

Here's some iconic Pitches used:

Title: BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY

When Robert Kincaid drives through the heat and dust of an Iowa summer and turns into Francesca Johnson’s farm lane looking for directions, the world-class photographer and the Iowa farm wife are joined in an experience that will haunt them forever.

Writer: Robert James Waller is a New York Times bestselling author. His books, 1992′s The Bridges of Madison County and his 1995 novel, Puerto Vallarta Squeeze, have both been made into motion pictures. Waller currently resides in Texas.

and


NON-FICTION

Title: OUTLIERS


Take an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers” – the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. What makes high-achievers different? What is their culture, their family and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing? Learn the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Writer: Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker staff writer since 1996, won a National Magazine Award for his 1999 profile of Ron Popeil. In 2005 he was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. He is the author of three books, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference (2000) , Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), and Outliers: The Story of Success (2008) all of which were No. 1 New York Times bestsellers.

SCREENPLAYS

Title: LIGHTHOUSE HILL

Logline: British comedy about a young London publisher who can’t repay his loan shark debt so he escapes to a magical village of eccentrics where he meets an unlikely guru and falls for the junkyard mistress. When his wealthy mother and her chosen future daughter-in-law track him down, he must decide his future. It’s a story about the importance of love, not possessions.

Writer: Sharon Y. Cobb is writer/director of the comedy web shows “Thurapy” and “Mayor of Panther County” which have attracted an international fan base. She is creator of the comedy video website FunnyFixx.com, a member of Writers Guild of America and has sold a dozen projects to Hollywood. Her film, Lighthouse Hill, was released on DVD in the U.S. March 2009 after premiering at film festivals and being broadcast by SkyTV worldwide. She won Best Screenplay in Jacksonville, Florida’s 2007 48 Hour Film Project.

PITCHES CAN BE USED FOR ANY POINT OF SALES

- Use your pitch when friends ask you what you are writing.
- Use your pitch when you go to a writer's conference.
- Use your pitch when you create your book trailer.
- Use your pitch on your book promotional materials.
- Put your pitch on your writer's blog or website.
- Tease your pitch on twitter and facebook.
- Practice your pitch whenever and wherever you can.

Even though we writers don't like to admit it....when we decide to get published, we have to learn how to sell our work - and the RIGHT PITCH will help us do it. Not only that but we can use it in every aspect of selling that book.

2 comments:

Kelly Hashway said...

You are very right. We really do need to have our pitches ready. People are always asking me what I'm working on and it's so much easy to respond if I have my pitch ready.

LM Preston said...

Yay! That's what got me to thinking - I have all that opportunity to practice my pitches before I go to a pitch session.