{"id":713,"date":"2016-09-27T16:12:33","date_gmt":"2016-09-27T16:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/?p=713"},"modified":"2022-05-30T15:41:23","modified_gmt":"2022-05-30T15:41:23","slug":"pitching-to-a-book-agent-at-a-conference","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/articles\/pitching-to-a-book-agent-at-a-conference","title":{"rendered":"Pitching to a Book Agent at a Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"
So you\u2019ve chosen the literary agent of your dreams, and he\u2019s coming to a writing conference near you. How do you pitch your novel and get him or her to represent you? Here are some tips.<\/p>\n
A pitch session is an event hosted at a writing conference. Authors pay to sit down and talk with the agent of their choice for a limited amount of time. Think of it as a face-to-face query letter. Pitch sessions have become a very popular way to bypass the slush pile, however, they are considered much more difficult and require special planning.<\/p>\n
Each convention is different, and you should thoroughly research the agents who have been invited. Some agents have written about their convention experiences and talk about their idea of what makes a good pitch session (see what\u00a0Janet Reid<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Miss Snark<\/a>\u00a0think). Read about authors who were successful in getting requests for material and take notes on what worked for them.<\/p>\n You will have three to five minutes at the most. Every word counts. A query letter opens with the main character and their problem. A pitch needs a little setup, including title, genre, word count, target audience, and logline (a one-sentence description of the plot, not to be confused with a tagline). Every conference has different rules for its pitch sessions, so it\u2019s a good idea to make a model pitch and tweak it as needed.<\/p>\nCrafting the Pitch<\/h2>\n