When I used
to go to conventions and pitch agents and editors, it didn’t take me very long
to realize that you can make any book
sound good and any book sound
bad–even if it’s the same book. When pitching your book, not only do you have
to make it sound appealing in and of itself but you have to present it in such
a way that the person you’re pitching to can be receptive.
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One of the
worst pitch experiences I ever had was when I was speaking to an editor from
some well-know publishing house. My book had several subplots and I had played
with the reader a bit by starting out with no one knowing who the “real” bad
guys were in the book, then the reader discovering it (which now creates
suspense and tension because you know something the characters don’t), to the
protagonist discovering who it is WITHOUT the bad guys being aware, and finally
the real villains figure out they’ve been discovered.
By itself
this has nothing to do with the plot of the story, which became my first novel,
Turnabout. But these developments did
have a lot to do with how the characters reacted to each other. When the bad
guys finally figure out they’ve been exposed, they’re left with what they feel
is their only option to still get away with their original goals: they take it
the protagonist on a personal level. Now, not only does the main character need
to protect his own, he also would like to find a way to stop the bad guys once
and for all, especially since the two solutions are intertwined.
The problem
with pitching this is that when I told this editor that at some point the hero
get something back, she interrupted me and said flatly, “Then the book should
end right there.” What? No it shouldn’t. That’s only the next step in
ratcheting up the desperation of the real criminals, which directly leads to
the situation that builds the climax….
But it
didn’t matter. I’d lost her. She knew it, I knew it, and we spent the next
minute or two feeling awkward as I thanked her for her time and excused myself
from the appointment. Early.
It’s
galling to know that someone can reject your work without having read a word of
it. I’m not trying to dodge the “they just can’t understand the brilliance of
my work” argument, the point is I never even got that far. Her ideas of story
structure were so rigid that however I described the book took her to a place
where it had only one place to go. Was she right? Absolutely not (and you can
feel free to read the book and decide for yourself)–at least not about the
book. Perhaps she was correct based on my telling
of the book.
In any
case, from that point on, I decided to stop pitching books in person. I don’t
think I ever did again. Anyone with have a talent for storytelling can make
Little Red Riding Hood sound like The Greatest Story Ever, filled with Drama,
Danger and incredibly absorbing characters. Or you can make it sound sad and
silly and not suited for anyone with any sense.
What
matters is the reading, and it’s much easier to get someone to sit down at a
table with you at a conference than it is to get someone to invest the time in
actually reading pages of your work. Dozens of books are out there that can
help you with query letters and other strategies to get yourself noticed, but I
wanted to point out one more.
Every
writer’s path to discover is different. I’ve known writers who never miss a
major convention, cozying up to every writer and blogger they can find at the
bar. There are writers who like to give away free copies of their e-books, have
deep sales discounts, and more. Like Cory Doctorow said when talking about
piracy, your real problem is obscurity. How do you get noticed?
Since my
pitching days, I’ve decided that only one question matters to me for people who
have read my book: would you read another one by the same author? Hopefully the
answer is yes, but if you’re a new writer, there may not be another book out
there. Yet.
My
“strategy,” if you will, was to talk the publisher into publishing two books
under one set of covers the first time out. My book Turnabout is paired with Shallow
Secrets, another standalone crime novel. Now, when my third book comes out
later this year, hopefully readers will have discovered two of my books instead
of just one, and if I’m lucky at all, I’ll have made twice the impression and have
greater name recognition than I would have otherwise. If nothing else, that
first “double” book is a nice bargain….
Rick Ollerman made his first dollar from writing when a crossword magazine printed a question he’d sent. Later he went on to hold world records for various large skydives, appear in photo spreads in LIFE magazine and The National Enquirer, can be seen on an inspirational poster during the opening credits of a popular TV show, and has been interviewed on CNN. He also had a full-screen shot as an extra in the film Purple Rain. His writing has appeared in technical and sporting magazines and he has edited and proofread many books, and written introductions for a dozen more. Notably in 2014 he sold a short story and an essay to Noir Riot and his first two books, Turnabout and Shallow Secrets, were published by Stark House Press in September.
