How would you like one minute to summarize a novel you’ve
worked on for over a year? I attended the annual Pacific Northwest Writers
Conference, with the main purpose of pitching my manuscripts to agents. This
was down in SeaTac. (The unusual name came from this area being between the
major cities of Seattle and Tacoma. I’m not kidding.)
Besides the pitch sessions, they put on interesting
workshops. A helpful one described how writers should use social media, put on
by Joe Gillard and Nicole Persun.
I’ll let you guess who's who
The editors and agents introduced themselves during forums,
to give us a good idea of whom to pitch to. This was important for planning our
four-minute pitches, which I’ll describe in a moment. Below is part of the
agent forum, a little out of focus.
Third from the left is Sarah LaPolla, whom I was planning on
pitching to. Fourth from the left is Elizabeth Kracht. I had no intention of
pitching to her at the start, but I ended up doing so. Second from the right
(and badly out of focus due to my inadequate picture-taking) is J.D. DeWitt,
whom I also was planning on pitching to.
So on to the pitch sessions. In a large conference room, the
agents and editors would sit at long tables. When those of us who signed up for
a particular session were told to start, we rushed in. It wasn’t as bad as the
start of a rock concert—more like the opening of a Costco on a Saturday.
Whoever found his or her preferred agent first had to stand
on a blue line that was several feet in front of the tables. The rest of us
lined up behind. At the ring of a bell, the first person could walk forward and
have four minutes to pitch a manuscript to the editor or agent. We were advised
to sum up the manuscript in one minute, then let the editor or agent ask
questions for the rest of the time. At the sound of a bell, that person would
have to leave, and the next person could go up.
I didn’t get a picture of this year’s pitch session, but
this link will take you to last year’s.
No talking was allowed in line. If you think this felt like school,
you’re right.
I put in a lot of rehearsal for my pitches. If you think
aspiring actors spend time talking to walls, so do aspiring authors. I did all
right in my three pitches. Editors or agents who are pleased will ask the
author to send in sample pages. I won’t reveal the results of my pitches, since
that would be telling.
A major agent who attended was Andrea Hurst. She made
herself available for one-on-one sessions, first come, first served. She gave
me valuable advice on a manuscript pitch and a cover letter, which would normally
cost a good amount.
Latest word on trends: Andrea Hurst said that publishers a
couple years ago told her that dystopian stories are dead. Perhaps the most famous
examples of dystopian stories are The
Hunger Games series and the Divergent
series. Things are so bad, I had just recently found out the final Divergent movie will be made-for-TV.
Andrea Hurst didn’t blink when I said that.
Sarah LaPolla said that vampire novels are still unpopular. (The
Twilight series, both novels and
movies, set off years of submissions to editors and agents, which saturated the
market.) She said that only an accomplished author could get a vampire novel
looked at.
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