6 Ways to Improve Your Pitch
- March 15, 2022
- Susan Breen

Come this Thursday I’ll be leading a workshop at the New York Pitch Conference. This is where I sold my first book (The Fiction Class), met my agent, and met the editor who bought Maggie Dove in its first incarnation. So it’s a happy place for me. But it’s also a really intense place. People come from all over the world to pitch their novels to editors from the big traditional publishing houses. There’s a lot at stake. My job is to stay calm. (In the picture below, I’m the short one in the middle. 🙂 ) I’m also there to help the participants write their pitches, which usually involves me saying many times, “You can cut that.” Which brings me to some pitching advice. 1. Keep in short. I have read a 150-word pitch for War and Peace. It can be done. The idea is not to cram every last fact down the editor’s throat, but rather to entice her with your book so that she will ask to read it. Then you can start cramming down facts. 2. Make sure you include setting in your pitch. So many people buy books because of where they’re set. (Read Sharon’s […]
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