Pitching an Agent at a Writer's Conference

I attended last year's Florida Writer's Workshop where I, along with several other agents, listened to 10-minute pitches from both aspiring and veteran authors.

Here are a few takeaways that I hope will benefit attendees of similar workshops.  

Pitching to the Agent:

• Most conferences give you 10 minutes to make your pitch, and they are pretty militant about keeping time, which goes by really, really fast.   It feels more like 3 minutes than 10.  Authors are also nervous and tend to talk quickly, trying to cram every detail from their novels and memoirs into their short slot. Some people purchased two blocks, giving them 20 minutes, which actually seemed longer than they needed, though.
• First, don't be nervous!!  We are all just people.  No one is forcing us to be there and we are genuinely interested in hearing your story.  Every agent I spoke to had anecdotes about discovering major talent at a conference!  That's why they attend.
• Remember to breathe.  Some people nearly passed out from lack of oxygen.    
• I suppose my one major critique would be that too many people get bogged down in minutia: “Here’s the backstory, then the character does this because of that,  then he or she goes hither and yon, then something or another happens to them…  and, oh, years ago they nearly drowned in a boating accident, so they are afraid of the water….” Often barely hitting on the main points. which could have been described in a few sentences. I would tell most stories in broader strokes.

• Also, many pitchers describe every character’s name like it’s the gold that will sell their novel. For an example (not a real name someone used) “The main character’s name is… Luke Hunter,” spoken in a dramatic tone, eyebrows rising… (Btw, there are an inordinate number of Lukes and Hunters in the queries I get, and don’t get me started on the names Fiona and Deirdre!) The point is, a name is almost irrelevant unless it has something to do with the story or is symbolic (though that is usually not a great idea).

• A few authors began with the dreaded rhetorical question.   "Have you ever wondered…?" I would steer clear of that.  As mentioned in other posts, those rhetorical questions are like fingernails scraping a blackboard inside my head! I think most agents will agree.
• I would personally focus more on the protagonist’s story arc, what they need to achieve,  the major conflicts that he or she will face, who the antagonist is and why they are trying to keep the main character from achieving their goal.   This can be done, as I mentioned, in broader strokes, taking a much shorter time than trying to describe every detail of the story.  
• I think many authors had fallen in love with a particular plot point, but took too much time describing the backstory to get there -- a  bit like a comedian who takes too long setting up the punch line for a joke – only to see that they barely had time to finish up. 
• First, tell me the category and word length of the manuscript. "I have a 100 thousand word thriller entitled The Fugitive." Make sure your word length is appropriate for your category. Also mention what category of thriller you have. Is it a "courtroom thriller" like John Grisham or a military thriller like Tom Clancy? Or is it more a combination -- "Imagine 'The Firm' meets 'The DaVinci Code.'"
• Let's say you had written The Fugitive. Rather than a play by play recitation, I would go with a bigger picture. "A respected doctor is wrongly convicted of murdering his wife, but escapes authorities when his prison bus crashes. Vowing to track down the elusive 'one-armed man,'who he saw at the crime scene, and clear his name, the doctor must evade the most dogged, but wryly humorous, U.S. Marshal in existence who vows to catch the fugitive at any cost. To avoid being captured, the doctor ends up stressing himself to human extremes, culminating in a cinematic dive off a dam. Several plot twists later, he uncovers a plan by a former colleague who hired the killer to get rid of the doctor so that he would not discover the deadly side-effects of a drug that will make the colleague a rich man."

• Practice making it sound conversational, like you're telling a friend about a great book or movie, instead of reading a blurb.

• Importantly, make sure to leave time for the agent to ask you follow-up questions! They may want to hear more about the characters, or a plot point, how you get from point A to B, or your writing credentials.   Or all of the above.   That’s good.  You’ve piqued their interest!

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Some Recent Titles...

Here is a link to a recent interview I did with Chuck Sambuchino for Writers Digest. http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/greg-aunapu

(Folks, they only give you five posts here for your blog, so please scroll down below where I have a window to my main website with blog entries.)

Some Direct Links to Posts (updated Jan 1, 2017!):

20 Fatal Query Mistakes

http://gregaunapu.com/blog-page/

And in case you don’t feel like clicking, here’s a sample:

5 MORE QUERY FAILS I HAVE SEEN THIS WEEK (I see these on a continual basis, btw.)

1. Don’t describe what your cover artwork should be or send cover artwork with your query. While authors have some input into this, and are usually allowed to see and comment on a couple of different versions of the artwork, the publisher has ultimate say.
2. Self-published works: Agents receive lots of queries where authors say “I have published [pick a number] books.” But they are all self-published ebooks that only have a handful of reader reviews. There is nothing wrong with self-publishing — and I know some writers doing astoundingly well in this field now — but if you do self-publish, you need to do your utmost to market the works. Editors will interpret a book with a handful of reviews and low sales ranks as the author’s lack of platform. They need authors who can sell books no matter what the challenge is.
3. Please include all the information an agent needs to make a decision to see more of your manuscript. If they ask for a sample on their submission guidelines, don’t forget it. Don’t make me click through to your website for more info. A lot of websites contain drive-by malware, so I just don’t click on anything. Everything needs to be in the query. If I absolutely love what I see, I will do my own online search.
4. A bit about the Pushcart Prize. I get all sorts of queries from writers who had a story “nominated for a Pushcart Prize,” often years ago. Please understand that every magazine gets to nominate 6 stories per year. That’s hundreds of magazines per year, I would suppose, nominating 6 stories each. Unless the story was shortlisted for the prize, I am very sorry, it just isn’t going to impress that many agents. I’m not saying not to mention it, or if it was nominated from a major magazine that it wouldn’t be important, but if it’s a small magazine, and you base your entire bio around it…. well, just sayin’….
5. Social media: Sometimes I request a sample or a proposal, and then get bombarded by all these invites to follow the writer on FB, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google +, Instagram, etc. Don’t do this until you have developed a professional relationship with the agent.

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Agent bio:

As an author who was represented at one time or another by some of the finest NYC literary agencies, I learned what great representation is like from the client's point of view, and try to give a superlative level of service as an agent. 

The Salkind Agency has placed over 4,500 books, is well known amongst editors and can get your project read by the same editors at the top publishers as any other major agency.   

As a veteran author and now as an agent, I can help non-fiction authors craft attention-grabbing proposals, and have had more than a few editors tell me a proposal was "one of the best" they'd ever read.  

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Fiction: I love a good thriller or mystery, and prefer material with original thought and straight-forward prose about intriguing characters in remarkable situations.

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