The Pitch: Get To The Point

The timing couldn't have been better.

One of the subjects of yesterday's Kansas Writer's Association meeting was perfecting your pitch. Because I'm sending out query letters, it was the perfect time to pitch my novel to the rest of the members and get their advice. What one person said: I was sharing too much and she couldn't follow everything I was saying.

That advice allowed me to refine my pitch and put it into the query letter. Although that means the first few agents I contacted won't get the refined pitch, any others will and perhaps that will result in a better attempt at selling my work.

Admittedly, some of my approach is trial and error, but that's like the writing process. You have an idea, you put it down on paper, you share it with somebody else and you learn what works and doesn't work.

While my first couple of queries might not draw more interest, I'm fine with that. Because another point brought up in our discussions at the KWA meeting was that you should not give up in the face of rejection. We've all been told, at one point or another, that somebody isn't interested in what you offer or that somebody else got the job you wanted. But you have to keep moving forward.

On another note, I did watch Batman vs. Superman yesterday. Long story short, our newspaper received free movie passes in exchange for running an ad, so I figured I'd see what it was about.

As with Man of Steel, I don't have a strong dislike for BvS, but it's not that good. They tried to do too much, they tried to squeeze in so many nods to graphic novels and comic book series (some which the mainstream audience may not be familiar with) and they dropped all these scenes that seemed to hint at events in future films but could leave people confused. A much simpler storyline would have made the film work better.

To an extent, what I observed about BvS goes hand in hand with what I learned about refining a pitch: Don't cover too much at once. The result should be a better product.

So I will sit down and put out a few more queries, only I'll be a little wiser now that I have a sharper pitch. And with any luck, I'll find somebody who wants to see more than just a query letter.