Let’s all face the reality – agents and publishers make it harder than it needs to be for writers to submit their work. They all have their systems and submission guidelines for unsolicited book pitches. Yet no matter how closely a writer follows these guidelines the chances are that their book will end up on the slush pile. Unfortunately most books that are published don’t come from the slush pile. Agents and publishers prefer writers they know, writers with a proven track record.
This means that you as a new writer are up against it from the start.
So what’s the answer?
Fight dirty!
If you are a new writer, without an agent, you can forget about getting anywhere near the really big publishers. They are not interested in your work – so don’t even try. Instead you need to focus on agents and smaller publishers. The beauty with these people is that they are more approachable. They provide real postal addresses and more importantly, working EMAIL contacts.
So if you are going to get your work in front of the right people you need to start scrapping and the first place to start is with an email. Forget all the guff you have heard about not approaching publisher and agents directly. Just do it.
So here is an outline for your book pitch. The key is to keep it compact and to NOT include any attached documents. At first contact keep it simple.
Paragraph 1: This is your elevator pitch – you need just a few lines to sell your book. It is essential that these are concise and to the point. You just need to give the publisher/agent a feel for your narrative; this will give them an indication as to whether your title is something that will fit into their current list.
Paragraph 2: More details about your book. Remember to be concise and to the point you need to include the following:
- The book’s genre,
- The word count,
- An indication of the market with one or two representative titles,
- An Indication of if the book is written and if not when it will be finished,
Paragraph 3: This is about you as a writer. Include a brief biography, containing any relevant information such as previous published titles.
I absolutely want to know about you. I love pithy bios because it tells me a bit about the person behind the words. I don’t care if you’re the president of your dart club unless your book is about darts.
Paragraph 4: This is a loose outline of your book’s plot – just remember to keep it brief.
Good luck – do let me know if you have any success with this approach. It has worked for me on numerous occasions.
{ 15 comments }
Thank you for your conciseness. Many conferences and workshops make the “getting the foot in the door” process melodramatic. Your approach makes sense. I am a month into phasing out of 30 years of teaching high school English and into professional writing. I am paying closer attention to the publication process.
Good tips, but if you’re writing fiction, I’d caution against querying until the book is complete. So much revision will likely be needed that you may find you want to improve your book and change it quite a bit during the process. It’d be a shame to query too soon and lose an opportunity with that agent/editor.
Here’s the actual query letter I sent to my agent. And I didn’t know her at all, so new writers can do it. Good luck to all!
http://lauramanivong.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/the-query-that-got-me-an-agent/
Perfect pitch letter structure. The paragraphs are identical in content to mine. Only difference is I’ve kept all the book details togther (pitch para first, book outline next then the rest as per yours). You say tomayto, I say tomato etc…
Key is to be concise and ‘punchy’ and those four paras do that job nicely.
I prefer to put 3 and 4 in reverse order in my query letters. If I place my bio before the novel, it’s too much like trying to sell myself. But I’m trying to sell my book, so that should take priority. Also, I feel that the transition from information about the book — biography — more information about the book is more jarring than information about the book — short synopsis — about the author.
Then again, I’m collecting rejection slips, so take my position for what it’s worth.
I agree with Laura that you shouldn’t start querying fiction unless the novel is complete. Actually, all the agents’ guidelines say precisely that — unfinished novels do not get their attention or even interest.
14 book listed in your name on amazon, all out of print. Congats on your success.
Great guerrilla approach – what is really important as well is to change your inner belief to one where publishers are human too …
My aim is childrens books with an unusual character. Just a short story to read to them when they need that moment if you have any advise to point me in the right direction that would be great.
Will wait to hear
Thanks
Even more important — proofread the query letter within an inch of your own life. Because a friend of mine was an editor for a house and she said you would not believe the number of query letters sent to them that looked like someone dashed it off in a few minutes.
If you can’t tell its from it’s, or there from their and they’re, or too/to/two, a publisher/agent will probably automatically relegate you to the slush pile because they assume your manuscript is full of similar (or worse) errors.
Funny you should say that I was in the process of up dating our submission package this morning – adding an online/email step-by-step guide (but more at a later date). I am always amazed that writers spend years writing a novel and then almost no time on the query/synopsis.
Would you recommend the same process for submitting a non fiction book. I have a really good idea that I want to pitch. But ideally i would have some interest before I start the writing for real. Any tips?
Yeah – if anything pitching non-fiction is easier, since the market it more definable and the book is mostly unwritten at point of pitch.
Thanks Laura, great to hear another success story.
Jens – The order is not critical but a point I would make is that you are, in fact, selling yourself as much as the book. A publisher will be looking for a marketing hook and bio might just give you the edge. If you think back to the rise of Harry Potter the story of single mum Jk Rowling writing in her local cafe with baby in pram was sold as much as the book.
Not sure which amazon site you were looking at, but if you go http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=gary+smailes&x=0&y=0 you will see eight books on pre-order. These are due out this year. You will also see two books in the Brave Scot series that you can buy today. If you go here http://www.andrewlownie.co.uk/books/smailes.gary/index.shtml you can keep an eye on up coming books via my agent. If you would like to leave your email address I will happily email you when my books come up for sale. Thank you for the congrats.
Tom, too true. Publishers are just looking for the right book at the right time. Writers need to believe – oh and be persistent.
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