Going Up? Then Boil it Down: The Elevator Pitch

There's nothing I hate more than when I tell someone I'm writing a book and they say, "Oh! What's it about?"

Siena, Italy, 2013, Photo by Erik Lundmark

Boiling your whole 90,000 word novel into one sentence can be overwhelming. I always get tongue-tied and say something that sounds completely ridiculous--as if anyone would ever buy a book about whatever stuttering spewage just came out of my mouth.

Siena, Italy, 2013, Photo by Erik Lundmark

Now imagine the person is not a passing stranger, but an agent you've just met at a conference or in an online Q&A forum. They ask for a pitch. What do you say?

Freak out time!

Siena, Italy, 2013, Photo by Erik Lundmark

So before you get into that situation, you should craft an elevator pitch. Think 35 words or less.

How the heck do you do that?

Siena, Italy, 2013, Photo by Erik Lundmark

This is where some great Twitter contests come into play. Two awesome contests that can help you hone your elevator pitch are PitchMas (held in December and hosted by Jessa Russo and Tamara Mataya) and Pitch Madness (held in March and hosted by Brenda Drake.) *Hint: Pitch Madness submission window this year is February 24.*

Siena, Italy, 2013, Photo by Erik Lundmark

Now--remember--you don't want to actually enter one of these contests unless your manuscript is polished, you have a smoking hot query letter, and you're all ready to put that manuscript out in the world. If your pitch is good enough that you are selected, agents will ask for your manuscript. And while this is normally a good thing, if your manuscript is not ready yet, you risk sending it out prematurely, looking like an amateur, and forfeiting another chance with said agent on this manuscript. So heed this warning!

However, the reason I bring this up is that a number of contests have "practice rounds" where you can get peer--and sometimes professional--feedback on your pitches. Follow their hashtags a week or so before a contest and you'll likely find other writers who are working on their pitches. There are many people out there who are happy to trade pitches. Last year there was a super helpful mini-workshop on the hashtag #prapit run by Michael Mammay. He gives tips on crafting your pitch on his blog.

Siena, Italy, 2013, Photo by Erik Lundmark

So, where to start? You've got to do some real soul-searching and boil your story down to the bare essentials. What are the bricks that make up your story? And what makes your story unique?

Think specifics. 

Questions to think about:

Who is your protagonist?
What does this person want?
What happens to change the course of this person's life?
What does the person have to overcome?
What is at stake if the person doesn't overcome?
What makes your story stand out from the rest?

Siena, Italy, 2013, Photo by Erik Lundmark

If you are magical (and I know that you are) you can answer all these questions in 35 words or less. Get creative. Make every word count. Use strong verbs and loaded adjectives.

Boom--you've got an elevator pitch!

And if you can do it in 140 characters or less, you've got a Twitter pitch!

Now that you know what to include in your pitch--here's a great list of all those cliché, amorphous, completely vague phrases that you should leave out of your pitch. Michele Keller has a great article here. Go on. Check. If you have any of these phrases, cross them off and try again.

Siena, Italy, 2013, Photo by Erik Lundmark

Write a couple of different pitches--looking at your work from different angles--and see which one people respond to. Before you know it, you'll be ready to tell anyone what your book is about without hesitation. And they'll get the big picture.

Siena, Italy, 2013, Photo by Erik Lundmark

*This post is one in a series: "So You Wrote a Book! Now What?" Click here to view more topics.*