Writers in the Storm

By Laura Drake

You all know me (Ms. 413 Rejections) so I’ll spare you the story. Just know that I have pitched a LOT in my life, and I’m here, fresh from teaching a Pitching class, smack in the middle of conference season, to give you some tips for pitching that will make your pitch so shiny the agents will be digging in their purses for sunglasses.

LOGLINES:

Do you have to have one? No. But they’re a great way to capture a gatekeeper’s attention fast. Your goal is to make them say (or think) “Ohhhh.” How to do that in 25 words or less? It’s not as hard as you might think. Because you’re NOT giving them the steak (the plot,) you’re giving them the sizzle.

Note: In case you need a breakdown of Loglines, Taglines and the like, click here.

There are a couple of different ways to tackle this – choose whichever one resonates with you and your story:

1. Protagonist, genre, inner conflict, outer conflict, and climax.
2. Hero, the antagonist, the hero’s primal goal and irony.
3. Character with a goal and a conflict.

Regardless of which you choose, it must show:

• WHO the story is about
• WHAT he wants (Goal)
• WHY he can't have it (Conflict)

Lee Nordling suggests using a template:

“This is the story about a _____ who __________________, only for _____ to discover _________________.”

 Names:

You only have 25 words, so don’t waste one on the character’s name. It’s much more powerful to use a description; an adjective and a noun:

• A free-spirit debutante
• An Alzheimer’s afflicted politician
• A manic-depressive clown

See how much more compelling that is?

Examples:

• A comedic portrayal of a young and broke Shakespeare who falls in love with a woman, inspiring him to write "Romeo and Juliet.” Shakespeare in Love
• An archeologist is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis. Raiders of the Lost Ark

Other types:

It could be the intriguing premise, stated by combining two disparate references:

“Stephanie Plum meets the Underworld” ~ Darynda Jones, First Grave on the Right

There is a risk to this method, however. It depends on the gatekeeper having read/seen both. If they haven’t, you’re going to get a blank stare, which is NOT the reaction you want!

It could just be an intriguing line from your book – this is the line I used in my query for my debut novel, The Sweet Spot:

“The grief counselor told the group to be grateful for what they had left. After lots of considering, Charla Rae decided she was thankful for the bull semen.”

THE REST:

There are no rules for a pitch, except that it MUST be: Clear & Interesting

That sounds obvious, but the vast majority of pitches I’ve heard have problems with one or both of the above.

CLEAR

There are three parts to a short (also called a one page) pitch.

• The Logline. It’s the first hook. It’s critical. Place it front and center. It’s the first thing you say to the person you’re pitching to (after introductions.) If you’re doing a query, use italics. You may even want to center it. Your goal is to make them sit up and pay attention, or to read farther.
• The Setup. WHO are we dealing with? Tell us about the protagonist. What does he/she want? Who is the antagonist? What do they want? How does this thwart the protagonist?
• The Ending. This is where the paths of a pitch and a query diverge.

In a pitch, you have to tell the ending. This is not a time to be coy. The agent can’t tell if you have a good novel if you don’t tell them the end. Besides, your ending can hook them too!  Your query is different. A query is pure enticement. You’re trying to set them to read the synopsis (which does divulge the ending) and the chapters you’ve enclosed.

You have to convey:

1. Emotion
2. Stakes
3. Conflict

The above will ensure that your pitch is clear.

INTERESTING: 

• Match the tone to your book. If your book is funny, your pitch had better be. If it’s a drama, make it emotional. If it’s a thriller, it should convey high stakes, and tension.
• Don’t rely on plot. Think of your pitch as though you’re trying to catch a huge fish, using sewing thread. Sewing thread is not strong. If you try to reel them in using brute force; i.e. This happens, then that happens… they’re going to go away in their head. You’ve lost them. You want to pull them in, but very gently. You do this by instead, telling them why the story is interesting. Sell the sizzle, not the steak.
• Less is more. If this is a query, break up your sentences. Write short paragraphs. Give them small, interesting chunks – not one long, blah, blah paragraph. If this is an in person pitch, say, five minutes – your pitch should be no longer than three minutes. Leave them wanting more.

PRACTICE:

You’ve got to be able to say your pitch, without reading, without stumbling, and make it sound effortless, like normal conversation. Like a perfectly executed Gymnastics routine, that doesn’t come without LOTS of practice. Tell it to the mirror. Tell it to your toddler. Tell it to the mailman (and yes, I’ve done this.)

In my class, a brilliant student said she practiced by recording it on her phone. You can hear where it needs work.

Tomorrow, I'm going to share tips for what to do on your big day, but this is enough to digest for now.

Does anyone want to throw their pitch out there? Come on...be brave! We'll all offer unsolicited help and feedback.

Laura Drake is a city girl, who never grew out of her tomboy ways, or a serious cowboy crush. She writes both Women's Fiction and Romance. The Sweet Spot, the first novel in her, 'Sweet on a Cowboy' Series was released by Grand Central in May, and has earned a Top Pick from Romantic Times!

“From the cover and title you expect a sweet contemporary western, but this is a sensitive honest look at a family destroyed by loss, a family that must try to rise from the ashes of their old life and see what they are now – different certainly, but pieces or a unit? Drake’s characters are so real, and so like us, that you’ll take a look at your own life and count your treasures.”

http://LauraDrakeBooks.com  Twitter: @PBRWriter

FB:  https://www.facebook.com/LauraDrakeBooks

by Orly Konig-Lopez

After that headline a few of you are probably worried that my marble bag has a hole in it. You might not be wrong. But that's not the point of this post.

Rejections.

No one wants to get them, no one likes getting them. They sting. They make you triple guess your ability and quadruple guess your sanity. But rejections can actually be your friend (well, helpful acquaintances at least.)

I'm going to give you three reasons why rejections can actually be a good thing. Ready?

1) They serve as a badge of honor that you're putting yourself out there. Writing is hard work. But it's easy to sit at your computer, in your house, by yourself and write. Or plan to write. Or research agents. Or plan on researching agents. It's safe in the cave.

Actually hitting that send button on a query is excruciatingly hard. And then when your email starts pinging with rejections, yeah, that's worse than going to the dentist.

But if you don't send queries, no one will see your hard work. Sure, you won't develop a nasty case of queriers twitch and you won't rack up god knows how many rejections. But you also lose the opportunity for a request or better yet, an offer.

2) They are a gauge for the progress you're making. If the first batch of queries gets you mostly form rejects or no responses, chances are your query needs work. So you go back to the drawing board and rewrite your query. Now you're getting some requests and maybe a few personalized rejections. That's progress.

Perhaps you've moved on to another manuscript. You have a stronger query, a more enticing premise, those first pages are tighter than the previous manuscript. This time you're getting requests right out of the gate. And now you're also getting personalized responses, some with specific feedback on your manuscript. That's huge progress.

3) They are a valuable learning tool. Every rejection offers some little nugget of information. Form rejections could mean there's something wrong with your query letter or that the premise for your novel isn't unique enough. Your critique partners or trusted writing friends should be able to help you flush that out.

The moment you start getting personalized rejections, you've hit a gold mine. However (see the warning lights flashing?), don't get distracted by the fact that a real live agent sent feedback and dive into changes immediately. Even their suggestions are subjective. As with any critique, take time to absorb the feedback. If something resonates, bingo! If not, then you've gotten some valuable insight into what that particular agent is looking for (or not) for the next time you're ready to query.

If you're getting somewhat consistent comments, then you know that's an area to work on. And the next manuscript (or the revision) will be that much stronger and that much closer to a yes!

It's easy to get discouraged when the rejections are popping into your inbox but every no brings you one step closer to a yes. So take a deep breath and take another look at the rejections you've filed away. What can you learn from them? And what are you going to do about it?

About Orly

After years of pushing the creativity boundary in corporate communications, Orly decided it was time for a new challenge. Three women’s fiction manuscripts later (plus a handful of picture books), it’s safe to say she’s found her creative outlet.

When she’s not talking to her imaginary friends, she’s reading or at least trying to ignore everyone around her long enough to finish “just one more paragraph.” Orly has also joined forces with some amazing women’s fiction authors to launch the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.

You can find her on Twitter at @OrlyKonigLopez or on her website, www.orlykoniglopez.com.

by Steena Holmes

In my last post, I talked about Street Teams and using my newsletter to connect with my readers. It raised a few questions about newsletters to which I replied “but that’s another blog.” The ladies at WITS took me up on that. So today we’re going to talk about …

Newsletters.

Some authors groan at the thought while others smile. But when used correctly, a newsletter can be your new best best friend.

Why? Because it’s your number one method of communication with readers.

What can you use your newsletter for?

• Announce the release of your latest book
• Promote when you have a special deal on your book
• Get word out about a special contest
• Boast about a great review or that sparkly new award you won
• Tease your readers about your latest project

However – and this is a biggie – your newsletter isn’t just a way to promote you and your latest release. Your first task with a newsletter is to get people involved with you and your brand.

Getting them to sign up is the easy part. Keeping them signed up can be tricky unless you remember this one golden rule:

It’s not about you. It’s about them.

Every newsletter you send must be filled with things for your readers. Yes, you want to be sure to inform them about your latest sales, all of your exciting news – but that’s not all.

This is where the fun part comes in. Your newsletter should be branded similar to your website – so that you stay consistent with your brand (which is YOU not your book). The inside of your newsletter needs to stay within your brand as well.

I’ll use myself as an example to show you what I mean. I’ve branded myself as a chocoholic, writer, mother, chocoholic (yes, that is strategic placement on my part…as I am a chocoholic and I use that as part of my branding).

Every newsletter contains the following:

• Information about my books – whether a new release, a sale or new series.
• A special recipe that is not found on my website – preferably with chocolate in it.
• My TBR List where I share what I’m reading and a contest for that month.
• Information about my street team.

See what I mean? My newsletter is consistent with my brand.

There are quite a few options for developing and delivering your newsletter. I chose Mailchimp so that’s what I’ll use as my example.

Newsletter options you can choose:

• Set it the newsletter template to use one of Mailchimp's templates but with the colors of your website.
• Or you can create a newsletter to look very similar to your site by having a designer develop a template for you.

Either way, you should include a banner or graphics and colors that are consistent with your website and/or Facebook page.

There are a few things to be careful of when sending out your newsletter:

• Do not spam your readers.
• Don’t send out multiple copies of your newsletter because you saw an error. Proofread before you send or if you do have errors, use those errors as a contest on your website.
• Do not send a newsletter for every little update. That’s a surefire way of ensuring your unsubscribe rate climbs high.

When do you send out a newsletter?

Myself, I like to send out quarterly newsletters. I’ve signed up for a lot of author newsletters and I find that when I receive one every few weeks or even every month, I tend to unsubscribe unless it’s a favorite author and I don’t want to miss out on any of their news.

There’s no set standard though – send out a newsletter when you need to.

If you’re thinking to yourself – How do I get a newsletter started? – just remember: Everyone started with zero followers. Whether you have one book or multiple books out, there’s no better time than now to get a newsletter started.

What you can do to start:

• Sign up with Mailchimp (or another newsletter provider).
• Use the code they give you to place on your website.
• Be sure to have your newsletter sign up at the top of your website where everyone can see.
• Place the link in the back of your books.
• Have it on your author page on Facebook (you can set it up as a tab).

How do you get people to sign up?

If you’re anything like me, when you first start you’ll question your sanity. That’s okay – just eat some chocolate and you’ll be fine. There are several different ways you can get people to sign up:

• Hold a contest and have joining your newsletter part of the requirements.
• Ask people (but don’t spam with repeated pleas).
• Offer something special to all those who sign up: a special discount, a free book, a sneak peak preview of your next book…the options are endless.

The sky’s the limits when you begin your newsletter. Have fun with it, be smart with it, and watch it grow one subscriber at a time!

Have fun and good luck!

Do you have any newsletter tips to share? Any questions for Steena?

About Steena

Chocoholic. Reader. Wife. Chocoholic. Mother. Author. Chocoholic. Living a life full of passion is the only way to live – especially if you have coffee on hand. Author of Bestselling Finding Emma, Steena snagged a 3-book deal with Amazon Publishing after thousands of readers fell in love with a little girl and grandfather from her story. Emma’s Secret was released on June 25th!

Visit www.steenaholmes.com to find out more.