Pitching

I remember when I used to associate ‘pitching’ with the game. You know, baseball or softball. Ah, those were simpler times, weren’t they?

No, they weren’t. We were just young and oblivious and erroneously thought the world was ours for the taking when we were lied to just as much then as we are now.

But I’m already off tract. What was I talking about? Oh, yeah, pitches (not politics).

It wasn’t until I became a writer, and had stars in my eyes thinking I could be traditionally published, that I came across the word used in relation to books. All of a sudden, that humble five-letter word was brandished about like a new fangled mantra: Book Pitch.

Pitch me your best line. Pitch me your story. Pitch me your best novel idea. Pitch it to me, baby!

Whoa whoa whoa. What the heck do they mean by ‘pitch it to me’?

When I first encountered the idea and tried to apply it to my story or writing, it felt like a contest I was woefully unprepared for. You know, it still kind of feels that way…

But let’s tackle it together. To parse its meaning, we’ll divide the term into its nascent, implied parts.

Well, if we were talking baseball, the connotation is clear. Pitch it to me implies: throw the ball directly to me so I can easily catch it.

So, there’s two parts there, and both hinge on communication.

The first part starts with you, by throwing the ball. For a book pitch, that means you’re going to throw the best ball you have. That ball has to fly through the air, unencumbered by twisty plot lines and heavy adverbs. It’s gotta be sleek and streamlined–straight to the point.

The second part ends with them, whoever is catching the ball. That could be an agent, a publisher, or a reader. You can’t control ‘them,’ whoever they may be. But you can anticipate who they might be and what they might be interested in–just as a baseball pitcher will take into consideration the skills of his catcher and/or the hitter.

Clear as mud?

Yeah, I don’t get book pitches either. It’s like trying to come up with a golden ticket. Or catch that winged snitch thing from Harry Potter.

Well, believe it or not, there are some folks in the world who love devising book pitches and are great at it. Who knew?

And a few of them held a Book Pitch session during Seattle Worldcon.

Pitch Perfect: Developing a Solid Book Pitch (Sunday, August 17th, 2025, 12:00pm) with K.C. Aegis, Amanda Cherry, Deanna Sjolander, E. C. Ambrose, and Robin Jeffrey

Each of the presenters are well respected editors and authors (both traditional and self-published) with years of experience. Here’s what I came away with:

You should be able to say your one-sentence book pitch within a single breath. (Yikes!)Forget setting. That’s for the book description (or back cover blurb).Focus on who the character is (what do they do?), what they want, and what’s at stake if they don’t get want they want.Don’t bother with names in your one-sentence pitch. Again, save that for the book description.Practice, practice, practice. And then practice some more in front of a mirror.Practice writing a book pitch for well-known books.Prepare more than a one-sentence pitch! Once you have your one-sentence pitch, expand it to a couple of sentences. Once you have that down, expand it further to a paragraph or two.Tailor your pitches (and pitch length) to your audience.When pitching to agents and publishers, the use of genre terms is acceptable and, maybe, encouraged.Steer away from genre terms when pitching directly to readers, instead focus on some sort of goal or movement towards a goal.Be careful using obscure terms, but try to “bake in” your worldbuilding into the pitch (whatever the length).Consider developing your book pitch *before* you write your novel. It can serve as an overarching guide.

Wow. That’s a lot to take in. And notice, we still don’t know exactly what a book pitch is for. That’s because, in the end, it’s about what you aim to do with your book pitch. Do you want an agent to ask for the full manuscript? Are you after someone asking, “Oh, tell me more?” Or do you want a reader to buy your book? While all very similar because ultimately, hopefully, they’ll all read your book, but exactly how to entice each will be a bit different.

Okay, enough with all that. Let’s actually try this. After applying their tips to my debut trilogy, Mapmaker, here’s what I came up with: