{"id":7265,"date":"2012-10-17T20:58:40","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T01:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisatener.local\/?p=7265"},"modified":"2024-09-30T09:00:27","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T13:00:27","slug":"how-to-pitch-agents-at-a-writers-conference-reflections-from-a-writing-conference-virgin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/2012\/10\/how-to-pitch-agents-at-a-writers-conference-reflections-from-a-writing-conference-virgin\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Pitch Agents at a Writers Conference: Reflections from a Writing Conference Virgin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"maria
Maria Palmer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Guest Post by Maria C. Palmer<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

About a month ago, I quit my day job to devote 100% of my energy to finishing my book and book proposal. \u00a0For someone accustomed to working away from home a minimum of 60 hours a week with little free time, this meant quite a change of lifestyle. \u00a0 I still remember the first day I woke up and didn’t have to go to work.\u00a0 I realized my life was transforming–I’d stopped doing what I knew how to do and starting doing what I’ve always wanted to do: WRITE–a BIG leap of faith.<\/p>\n

However, I am not navigating alone. \u00a0I am truly blessed to work with my amazing writing coach Lisa Tener. \u00a0Lisa had suggested that I go to the Meet the Agents<\/strong><\/em> session at the International Women’s Writing Guild in NYC and pitch my memoir to literary agents.\u00a0 When she first mentioned it, I felt considerable doubts and my anxiety almost got the best of me. \u00a0Was I ready? \u00a0What would I say? \u00a0What if I choked? What if…(insert outlandish thought here)?<\/em><\/p>\n

After some discernment, I decided to give it a try and I am glad I did. \u00a0Not only did I meet amazing people at the conference, but I also\u00a0 generated\u00a0 substantial interest.\u00a0 All three agents I spoke to were interested in seeing my proposal and\/or sample chapters. And two of them had specific ideas for additional books they’d like to see me write.<\/p>\n

Lisa helped me prepare for the conference, answering my questions, making suggestions, even having me role play and giving me feedback on my pitch. All of this preparation helped me get such positive results in pitching my book to literary agents.<\/p>\n

Here are my tips for making the most of a writing conference and, in particular, how to pitch agents at a writers’ conference:<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0Do your homework.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong> Find out as much as possible about the literary agents who will be attending. \u00a0What are they looking for? \u00a0What have they sold? If your book doesn’t fit into these categories, don’t waste your time or theirs.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0Less is more.<\/span><\/strong> Focus on your top three agents. \u00a0I observed two approaches: authors who signed up to see every agent at the conference and authors who targeted their searches. \u00a0You can guess which group had more success.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0Prepare, prepare and prepare more<\/span><\/strong>. Work on your book pitch and practice on others. \u00a0The literary agents will be hearing many pitches this day so you have to find a way to be different. Lisa had me start with a dramatic part of the story and book hook and then follow with why I should be writing this.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0Arrive early<\/span><\/strong>. Lisa advised me to arrive early and I was so glad I did:\u00a0 At IWWG, sign ups are well before the start time and the folks that arrived early got to meet with their top choices.<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0Maximize your time.<\/span><\/strong> If you can help it, try not to sign up for back-to-back appointments. \u00a0If your appointment runs late, you will miss your next appointment.<\/p>\n

6. \u00a0Smile and relax<\/span><\/strong>. You’ve done your homework. \u00a0The pitch should be conversational. \u00a0Even if you don’t get a yes, the agents will give you some helpful tips on what they would like to see. \u00a0This is a great time to get feedback.<\/p>\n

7. \u00a0Don’t leave your luggage<\/span><\/strong>. Lisa warned me ahead of time not to bring my book proposal–imagine agents lugging around 60 proposals at the end of the conference! Print up business cards with your information, your book name and a short log line. \u00a0This is all the agents will want to take from you.<\/p>\n

8. \u00a0Have fun<\/span><\/strong>. In addition to meeting with potential agents, you will meet other amazing authors while you are sitting around waiting to pitch. \u00a0I found this to be an incredibly inspiring experience.<\/p>\n

Share your own tips or questions below. (Lisa is happy to answer questions on this post).<\/p>\n

\n
Maria Costanzo Palmer is a well-regarded voice on topics relating to children with incarcerated parents.\u00a0Through a life-altering experience of watching her own father come under a criminal investigation and eventually go to prison, this sparked her passion for working with at-risk youth, mainly children with incarcerated parents.\u00a0She is currently working on her first book<\/span><\/em> On The Rocks<\/span>, a true story of corruption, prison and family as told through the eyes of a loving daughter. She blogs at TheRaceThatFoundMe<\/a> and Soupedoup<\/a>.
\n<\/span><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest Post by Maria C. Palmer About a month ago, I quit my day job to devote 100% of my energy to finishing my book and book proposal. \u00a0For someone accustomed to working away from home a minimum of 60 hours a week with little free time, this meant quite a change of lifestyle. \u00a0…  Read more<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9,10],"tags":[159,1188,1191,58,1077,1190,1189],"class_list":{"0":"post-7265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-book-proposals","8":"category-finding-an-agent","9":"category-getting-published","10":"tag-how-to-get-a-literary-agent","11":"tag-how-to-pitch-a-literary-agent","12":"tag-international-womens-writing-guild","13":"tag-iwwg","14":"tag-maria-palmer","15":"tag-pitching-a-book","16":"tag-writing-conference-secrets","17":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279237,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7265\/revisions\/279237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}