Literary Agent Pitch Session
How do you catch an agent's attention during a pitch session? Here are some tips and tricks for crafting a successful pitch and making a good impression.
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Transcript for Literary Agent Pitch Session Video
All right. Hello, and welcome to the Good Story Company, YouTube channel. This is Mary Kole.
And today, I want to talk about a literary agent's pitch session. This is something that I have a little experience with. I was a literary agent for five years at Andrea Brown and Movable Type Management, and I sat through a lot of pitch sessions. Now, writer's conferences are in a bit of a weird space right now because of COVID and the restriction on in-person events but I'm hearing from a lot of clients that they are doing online pitch sessions or Twitter pitch sessions. The mechanism doesn't matter as much. It's what you say to catch the literary agent's attention during your pitch session that could potentially make or break your chances to get them excited about your project. So how we pitch and what we say and any other, kind of, best practices, that's what I want to talk about today.
Now, there's a big difference in pitch sessions and that is the time allowed for your pitch. And this, sort of, determines the approach that I would take if I were you. If you have a very short pitch session, a lot of conferences do these, kind of, pitch plans where you have two minutes, you sit down, you're nervous, you have the blalalalala, and then that's it. You are a little bit more limited in terms of time and what you're able to say to the agent to try and get their attention. Sometimes, you will have a longer pitch session to work with. I would put Twitter pitches in, kind of, the short pitch category as well. So sometimes, you have a little bit longer to work with and you can engage in some dialogue with the agent potentially if they have questions for you. You can do a little bit more during that time.
So with a short pitch session, I would focus on the hook of the project, and ideally, this term is not new to you. You have thought about what your project is about. You have identified maybe some sales potential for the project. And your pitch would be focused on hooking the attention of the agent. For example, when two sisters go home after the death of their parents, they uncover a family secret that should have stayed buried. I would probably choose to pitch to when they go home to bury their parents, they uncover a family secret that should have probably stayed buried. You know, something you can have a little fun with the language, you can play up, some wordplay, you can really, sort of, do any cleverness that you may wanna do with your pitch. Be prepared to add a little bit more meat, like hinting at what the secret might be because this might determine what category your book fits into. So sometimes, if it's a magical secret that would slot you more into fantasy paranormal. If it is a murdery secret that would slot you more into thriller. And a...we're gonna take this off. So, Steve, I'm gonna take that again.
You do want to add a little bit more meat to your pitch at this point to slot it in a certain category that will tell the agent a lot about what you're actually writing. So if it's a magical secret, that would probably slot you into fantasy paranormal. If it is a murdery secret, that will probably slot you into thriller, mystery, suspense, that category, so you do want to add a little bit more specificity, but I would say about two or three sentences worth of pitching. This is what you can fit into a Tweet. This is what you can fit into a two-minute pitch. But make sure to hit all of the main logistical elements as well. That would be category. If you don't hint at it in the content of your pitch, so this is a paranormal thriller. That would be the length of the manuscript. The intended audience. It could be a YA paranormal thriller. It could be just a regular paranormal thriller for adult readers. If you're not pitching to a children's agent, you don't necessarily need to specify, but if it's somebody who maybe represents YA and adult fiction, you may wanna, sort of, delineate if it's unclear how old the sisters are. You could also fit that into your pitch as well. So you want the logistical elements of the manuscript and something that hooks the literary agent.
Now, my advice, usually, in a query letter is to reveal what the secret is, to give a clear sense of, kind of, what the big event in your plot is, because I think that communicates a lot about how you plot and the agent will be curious about that as well. But when you have a two-minute pitch, or a logline, or a hook-based pitch, I would play up the mystery. I would play up the suspense. I would cut right through the heart of your premise. If you have a little bit more time, I would focus on character. So if you have 10 minutes to sit down with an agent, I would talk about who the character is and what drives them, layer in maybe 2, or 3, or even 5 sentences about the plot, sort of, how their lives turn upside down, what plot they get into, and, sort of, how the plot affects them. Touch upon the climax of the plot. Maybe reveal what the big murdery secret is that they find when they go home. And then give the manuscript logistics. You can talk a little bit about yourself if you have time but only relevant details. For example, any writing experience that you may have. You don't need to go into the names and ages of your pets, for example.
And finally, this is really tough for people, but you zip the lip and you see if they have any questions. Because in a longer pitch, I would not personally expect to speak for the entire time that you are allowed. I would present, pull back, and see if the agent has any questions for you. They may be unclear on category. They may have a question about character. They may have a question about your writing experience. Just leave yourself open. You don't have to have the perfect answers but allowing some space for Q & A between you and the agent is really, really meaningful. That way, you also don't feel tempted to fill all of the empty space.
Some people, when they hear silence, they can't bear it. It makes them uncomfortable and so they're just blalalala. They keep going. Relax a little bit. I know it's a tall order when you are sitting there with, sort of, your foot in the door. Relax a little bit. See how the conversation goes and take the pressure off of yourself to have the perfect answer because this unstructured part of the conversation will, obviously, not be something you can predict ahead of time.
You can be prepared to hear their submission instructions. Be prepared to take a business card. Be prepared to thank them for their time. But other than that, just try and control what you can control, which is the pitch itself. And then lean back and just see where the conversation goes. And the more calm and collected that you can be, the less pressure on yourself you can put, the better your pitch will go. Because the literary agent, to be honest with you, they're looking for talented writers. They are looking for something that they can get excited about. They are here to hear some good stuff. Hopefully, you have good stuff to present and it's a mutually beneficial conversation that you're having. It's not just you doing the song and dance, and then like, hwooooooo haaaa, hwooooooo haaaa at the end of it.
So, I know it's a tall order, again. But no matter how you pitch, no matter how much time you have, just try and practice what you can control and then see what happens. And that is the literary agent pitch.
This has been Mary Kole with Good Story Company, and here is to a good story.
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