Pitch Your Book in Two Sentences

When an agent asks, “What’s your book about?” will your brief description (your logline) capture their interest? Will they ask for more? Will they see you as a skilled professional or an eager newbie who isn’t quite sure what they are doing?

Even the most skilled authors find distilling their book down to a compelling pitch difficult to do, not because they don’t know what their book is about, but because they do. In fact, they know it so well they don’t want to leave anything out. This results in more of a summary than juicy marketing copy designed to hook and interest an agent or a publisher.

In this class, you’ll learn how to get to very heart of your project, and make certain that the story you’re working on is compelling and clear. Even the most complicated or quiet of tales can be pitched in such a way that people will sit up and take notice. You’ll learn how to choose the words that best describe your story, how to arrange them in a persuasive way, and garner the interest of an agent and editor. We will examine the most common mistakes writers make talking about their work, how to avoid them, and look at several examples that work well, along with some that don’t. 

By the end of this session, you will have the tools to diagnose your story, write your logline and feel confident that you’ve done all you can do to make the sale.

Difficulty level: all_levels

Speaker(s)

• Ann Garvin

Copyright © 2023 Writer's Digest, a division of Active Interest Media