The Secret Life Of The One-Sentence Pitch, or, Adventures in Hand-Selling

[dr_pretentious]

I knew I needed a good one-sentence pitch for any book I wanted to sell, and that any agent or editor I pitched to would be listening for an answer to the question, Will people pay to read that?

What I didn't know was that actual readers, face to face, would be asking for my one-sentence pitch in the moment of decision about whether to buy my book.

I'm really glad I went to the Totally Normal Event. I was there to sell books, and not a lot of books got sold, so mostly I learned stuff. The people who were there to have fun manifestly had a whole lot of it, so I'd say overall that it looked like a success for Jeff Mach and his event-planning crew.

The merchanting arrangements were unconventional. Instead of having one hucksters' room for all the merchants, there was a main merchanting area that had a stage off to the side, with live music and dancing, and then there were several smaller themed rooms on another floor that had various activities going on, with a couple of merchants whose wares were relevant to the themes. It was an interesting idea, and it might have worked, but for those of us who were selling books, it didn't pan out terribly well. On the other hand, trying to hand-sell books while competing for attention with heavily amplified Gothic/Industrial music might not have worked better.

So there David and I were, trying to sell e-books (which is already a hard sell because everyone prefers print), at our little table in merchanting Siberia. Our respective very patient spouses had come to help out and to tend our respective offspring, while the two of us spent nine (9) hours selling seven (7) e-books on CD. We didn't even come close to recouping our publisher's costs for the box of CD's (complete with glossy cover art labels!) that she'd sent us to sell, but considering that it was our first time out, and the weird conditions we had to work with, I'm glad we managed to sell any. That we did sell those seven was largely because we had our one-sentence pitches to fall back on when people asked us what our books were about.

Every year I went to the Writer's Weekend conference, I'd attend the panel on How To Pitch To Agents And Editors, just in case some new tidbit of information or advice slipped out that hadn't the year before. I'd spend the hours on the plane between Newark and Seattle, and then between Seattle and Newark, scribbling out variation after variation of the one-sentence pitch and the one-paragraph pitch. Between sessions during the conference, I'd pace around the hotel room, memorizing the pitches and playing around with the delivery. And each of those years, I'd have a few five-minute appointments in which to put those pitches to work with agents and editors.

I may not have persuaded any of those industry pros to take me on, but now I know I can get strangers to open their wallets and hand me cash on the basis of my pitch. That's got to be good for something.

Comments

[jasminewind.livejournal.com]

So what is a good 1 sentence pitch for Closing Arguments?

[onyxtwilight.livejournal.com]

Mine would go something like "I fucking loved every single second of it and if you don't buy it you're a gods-damned idiot."

I'm betting hers sounds a little different. >:-)

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Oh, but my one-liner is the same as yours - surely that must count for something? :)

[jasminewind.livejournal.com]

You think we be reviewers for the cover - all three of our names under that quote!

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

"Avery writes achingly fine fiction." - Respected Editor, Some Publisher

"Refreshingly witty!" - A Critic, 'Some Magazine'

"Buy this book or you're a fucking fool!" - All of Sarah's Friends, 'On Teh Intarwebz'

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, I think my review for Drollerie was not emphatic enough, and I need to change it to the above. =)

Lara

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I just read your review. Wow. And thank you. It may be the reason Closing Arguments is currently the press's third-bestselling book.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

The placeholder text on my under-construction website (www.sarahavery.com) actually reads sort of like that.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

My one-sentence pitch is:
A Wiccan personal injury attorney has to rescue his dead occultist parents when they get stuck in the wrong afterlife.

The idea of a Wiccan personal injury attorney is so odd for most people that they start blinking in surprise about halfway through the sentence, and they're already laughing by the time I get to the end.

[citabria]

That's definitely something!

In my experience at Murder Ink, one of the best ways to hand-sell a book is by comparing it to other books that the reader likes. In fact, it's what'll usually initiate a hand-sell -- seeing the person picking up or asking about a new book by X, and saying, "since you like X, have you ever tried reading anything by A?" and then going on about the similarities.

Your kind of hand-selling is more like a cold call -- and a much bigger challenge. You don't have the context of the reader's other likes and dislikes to pull from, though you could still say something like, "some people who've read it have said that it reminds them of X, specifically ____ book/period/whatever."

Hand-selling is also a challenge because, in large part, it's also about personality. If you're not clicking with the person, it'll be almost impossible to sell -- no matter what you say. I've run into people like that, and nothing I did -- even changing my approach entirely -- has ever worked. I think that's probably the most frustrating situation!

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, getting people to hand you cash on the basis of your pitch is definitely something. Maybe down the road you can turn your one line pitch to something like "I have hand-sold [x] copies of this at various conventions and have glowing written testimonials from all the buyers". =)

Lara

[transversecity.livejournal.com]

I think I made at least one very critical mistake: it's hard to create layouts which work independently of the number of attendees. I had figured we'd have, at minimum, a bit less than the lowest ratio we've ever had of presales to attendees - maybe a little less than 1 to 1. Instead, it was 2 to 1..completely unheard-of. So not enough traffic funneled upstairs properly, and unfortunately, a lot of the attractions on the third floor ended up pulling people in instead of pulling people towards the floor.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Stuff happens, and the layout might have worked with the crowd you were expecting.

I'd totally come back if you ran it again. We have a much better sense than we did of how to do this. Part of our difficulty was that, with both David and me wrangling our respective small children, we weren't free to keep the table going into the late hours that are prime time for your events. And part of the problem was that neither of our books will be available in print editions until 2009. The form factor of the e-book is a major stumbling block.

[transversecity.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. Is there anything I can do to help make that happen?

I am definitely not running TNE again next year, and probably not for several years - I just lost way too much money. But the Wicked Faire is, in contrast, definitely happening, Feb. 20-22, same hotel. You are more than welcome to join wickedfaire if you'd like, and certainly welcome to email me about how we might do things differently. :)

[skyefyr.livejournal.com]

Selling at an event like that is HARD!!!

I remember trying to sell Nicholas time travel book at a sci-fi con. You'd think that would be easy, right? Let's just say you sold more ebooks in a one day event than he did print books in a 4 day event.

You should be VERY proud of yourself and your success!

[skyefyr.livejournal.com]

Oh, also, when will we be seeing you again, I'd love a copy of the ebook. (Cool thing about ebooks is I can read them at work when I get slow and I still look like I'm working!)

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I'll have to remember to bring copies next time we get together. I've got at least a dozen of them left, plus a couple of disks that have both my book and David's.

[kistha.livejournal.com]

You are so fabulous!

I miss you tons. Someday, we may once again visit Jersey - and now it will be even better since we know you live there.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I miss you guys, too. Are you thinking of doing kjlj's Iron Springs retreat next year? We're hoping to make it west for that.

New Jersey has its charms. I know how to get to all the spots that still make it the Garden State. It would be great to host you. Come on over.

[violet-moon25.livejournal.com]

I can't say the "very patient spouses" were feeling that way by the end of the event--but I only speak for myself. I didn't convince anyone to buy an ebook when I was at the table (but it was late by the time I was sitting there). I still love Closing Arguements though. Anyone who is pagan or hangs out with pagans will certianly get many laughs (so will most people I think, but maybe not the same laughs).

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Well, you don't have to have been patient to be appreciated. I was glad to have the help, the company, and the commiseration. And if we try merchanting again, we'll do it very, very differently.