The Most Important Part of Pitching Your Work

(Today, we're taking a little break from our discussion of blogging and discuss pitching your work to an agent or publisher.)

I pitched my work today at Sleuthfest, the Florida Mystery Writers of America conference. It's a great conference, including some big names, such as Jeremiah Healy; Kris Montee, half of the sister act known as PJ Parrish; Brad Meltzer; Julie Compton; and Heather Graham (the writer, not the actress).

I pitched my novel Stuck in a Moment to an agent and lost her within three words. A friend of mine, who has a high-concept book that'll make it big, not only pitched and won, but she also got Jeremiah Healy to agree to write a blurb on her book once it gets published.

The difference? It really comes down to confidence and her belief in and passion for her work. To be fair, the agent I spoke to agreed to take my synopsis and excerpt with her, but we just didn't connect. And most of that has to do with my crappy pitch. Once I started talking about her and her agency, it went a little better and I felt more at ease.

But view it from her point of view: part of her job is to develop the passion for her authors' work required to sell it to publishers, none of whom are hurting for material. If I can't come across as really sincerely believing in my book, why should she?

So, if you get to the point where you pitch, practice your pitch and work yourself up to a state where you believe in your book and its eventual success for you, your agent, and your publisher. Your success has to be, in your mind, a mere formality, separated from happening only by time. Then, you wind up in the right place at the right time, and ready to go.