All about Pitches

Last week I received an email telling me that my pitch had been selected for the Write On Con Pitch Fest which I had entered a few weeks back. The pitch fest stretches over five days: 18 to 22 March. From Monday I spent a lot of my time reading the pitches (initially only in my group) but later I read many other pitches too.

I read all the pitches in my group as well as the agent's comments on each of them. One can learn so much from reading the agent's comments. Her feedback was insightful and her comments gracious. She made it easy to understand why our query letters don’t get requests for either partials or fulls.

It’s because we either complicate our pitches by adding too many plot points and other details or we simplify it to the extent that we are underselling our story. Either we harp about the plot and ignore the character or we talk too much about the character and ignore the conflict.

When agents read our pitches, they want to know about the 5C’s (Character, Conflict, Choice, Consequence and Confrontation). Once we get these 5 points assembled, our pitches can work in our favour. Even if one point is lacking or ignored, the pitch can fall short and result in a rejection.

I think getting a pitch right is an art which atleast I have not perfected.  I am hoping to work hard on the pitches for the 3 books of my Zespirit chronicles.  A pitch is all about making our query stand out from the hundreds of queries agents receive.

What about you all? How are you at pitches? Does your pitch work in favour of your story? Did your pitch get you your dream agent? Any pitch secrets you want to share with us.

P.S. I completely forgot that today is my third Blog Anniversary. All the deadlines made my head woozy and it slipped out of my mind. How can I forget the day I dived headlong into the world of blogging and met all you wonderful people.

Picture Courtesy: Melissa Crytzer Fry