Month: April 2013

Conflux, Elevator Pitches and Pitching Sessions

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With Conflux kicking off this Thursday, I thought a post about pitching to agents and editors was in order.

Conflux 9 LogoWhy?

Other than having a good time and catching up with friends at Conflux, I’ll be moderating a panel on pitching (with two agents and an editor), teaching the art of creating elevator pitches during a workshop on Friday morning, and later that day pitching to an editor myself in the hopes of selling my epic fantasy.

So what do I know about pitching? A few things.

The basics…

The best thing you can do is approach a pitching session from agent or editor’s perspective, which means keeping two things in mind:

  1. They want to know that you’re someone they can work with (that you’re not insane).
  2. You have something they can make money from (they’re running a business, not an art-house).

In regard to pleading ‘not insane’:

  • Princess LeiaDon’t turn up in your best Princess Leia slave outfit (I’ve heard of it happening – people trying to be memorable, which they were, but for all the wrong reasons). Go with neat and tidy instead. You want them to remember your story, not your outfit.
  • Be polite and enthusiastic, but not over the top. Think of it as an informal job interview if that helps; keep it casual but on-topic.

In regard to pitching your story:

Your pitch only has one purpose once you get over the insanity hurdle – to get them to request your story. Nothing else.

Therefore:

  • Have a good one-liner that neatly summarises your book and intrigues at the same time (ie, the bulk of what I’ll be teaching at my workshop).
  • Try to get them to care about/empathise with your characters and the situation they’re in (character is story).
  • Give them an overview of the ‘big idea’, particularly if they’re ‘ideas people’.
  • Practice in front of the mirror.

And that’s all you really need to do in five minutes. If you’re attending, I’d love to see you at my workshop. Otherwise, pull me aside for a coffee and a chat.

You can find more details about Conflux and my workshop on the Conflux website. If, however, you’re just looking for a laugh, check out The Top 10 ways to Successfully Pitch to an Agent or Editor – The Cretin’s Guide.

How do you review a friend’s book?

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Following on from last week’s post about self-publishing, another question arose – how do you review a book by a friend or acquaintance without facing some sort of ethical dilemma?

You want to help your friends by spreading the word with a good review, but you don’t want to appear biased, and on the flip side, what if you promote a friend’s book that’s clearly not as good as you say it is? People won’t trust you.

Last week, I commented on three books from authors I don’t know – but I’ve got books in my collection from authors I do know. Lots of them.

Do I review their babies and give an honest opinion? What if I don’t like what I read? What if I do?

Should I just comment on the aspects I like and pretend the stuff I don’t like isn’t there?

What if I only post about the ones I like? That’s an opinion too, and one even more likely to hurt people.

I suspect the best option might be to avoid reviewing books written by people I know, but that’s not helping either.

What’s your take on this problem? Do you review books by friends? Should you? How do you go about it?

If you missed it, you might like to check out last week’s post: Is self publishing a good thing?

Is self-publishing a good thing?

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I’ve come across a lot of free book giveaways by indie authors in the last few years, but I’ve been hesitant to download them for fear of disappointment.

That’s not to suggest that rejection by the major publishers is an indicator of quality, or that bypassing publishers isn’t.

But how does a writer make that call?

Curiosity piqued, I finally downloaded a bunch of indie books and tried three at random – authors I didn’t know.

Hero MetamorphosisThe first was H.E.R.O. –Metamorphosis, by Kevin Gerald Rau. He is clearly promoting the book in the hopes of selling the sequels. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even checking out the five sample chapters that followed.

Despite that, I’m fairly sure a major publisher would reject it, but not by much – Kevin has an easy style and his prose is polished. He drew me in, and that’s what really matters.

The next two books needed some industrial-strength red pens. On a scale of one to five, both would struggle to reach one.

The first was so wordy and bloated I barely made it through a full three chapters, and only succeeded by skipping chunks.

The second was a struggle in an entirely different way – it began with a prologue that did nothing but summarise the story’s world-building and history (classic newbie mistake), and it didn’t get any better after that. I gave up.

My question is, could self-publishing be doing more harm than good by exposing authors to readers before their skills are up to the job?

There are certainly pros and cons to both sides.

What do you think?

If you like this post, you might like to browse through The Craft of Writing.

Is it April already?

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Just a brief update to say I’m still hitting my goals, although the one with the most potential at the moment is that I’ve shipped a query to an agent. Fingers crossed yet again!

Otherwise, I’m about halfway through another proofread of my epic fantasy novel (no matter how many times I go through it I always pick up more mistakes/typos etc.

I’m also about a third of the way through the edit of my urban fantasy novel. Editing isn’t writing unfortunately, but it’s still getting stuff done.

The main news however is that Australia’s Nation, Conflux, is on this month. I’ve been doing lots of preparation for it. I’ve got:

  • a panel on the Thursday afternoon called Elevator Pitches with publisher Marc Gascoigne and agents Tara Wynne and Alex Adsett
  • a workshop on the Friday morning called Distilling Your Story, where I’ll teach people the art of creating elevator pitches/loglines/one-liners.
  • another panel on the Saturday evening called Star Wars, The Rebirth, where we’ll ‘create’ our ideal Star Wars 7. I’m thinking both the Rebellion and the remnants of the Empire should join forces and hunt down Jar Jar Binks. Please tell me you’re with me on that one!

While I’ll admit I’m a little nervous (all this convention participation is way outside my comfort zone), I’m also somewhat excited for the same reasons.

If you see me at Conflux before, after or between my panels please say ‘hello’, or perhaps join me at my workshop on the Friday Morning. If you can’t make it to Conflux, you can always find me Google Plus.

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