Is Your Book Pitch Blah?

As we all know, your query letter or your pitch needs to just rock! You have to, in a single page, or in that 7-10 minute pitch be so amazing that we want to buy your book right there. And yet, time and time again, people pitch stories that do nothing to amaze us as editors or agents. You need to

somehow stand out, and then you turn around and make yourself sound like a bologna sandwich on white bread. Boring!

Your job is to show us that your story is unique! You want to make your story stand out and show us that there is something special in your novel. Yes, we want a story that will fit in with the market, but even then, you have to bring in your special brand and style to it.

One of the biggest places where authors make this mistake is in that single sentence that describes your book. While your book might address one of the many universal themes in literature, you cannot just leave it at that. For example, if you tell me that your story is a "coming of age story that shows the value of true friendship" you did nothing. You just described millions of books out there. I would also add that if that is truly all your story is about, there is a reason why your book is not selling.

So, let's spin this a new way. "My story is about finding friendship in those that are your enemies who probably cannot be trusted." Now we have something that makes us stand up and take notice. We immediately start thinking of a ton of questions.

• Why would I want to be friends with someone I hate?
• If they can't be trusted, why would I now want to be with this person?
• Is this a situation where the enemies have a change in personality? Do they become nice?
• What situation would have to occur to put enemies together long enough to become friends. 

Another area that makes that pitch blah is when you start using cliche descriptions of the characters and plots. I really see this a lot in the synopsis writing. For me, here is one of my biggest pet peeve phrases - "Sparks ignite when..." I just want to hurl on that one!

The key here is to dump the cliches, and focus in on what makes that story stand out.

Your task today is to think about your story and think about how you can describe it in that single phrase. Make sure to get rid of the Vague, Boring and Over-used words and expressions. But let me also remind you of something. If your story really doesn't have something that makes it stand out and be unique, then you cannot just make something up. The problem here is not the pitch, but the entire story.