Pitching: It Is All About Word Choice

You have a great story. Your friends, family and critique partners have fallen in love with the project. And now you are out there pitching your story to editors and agents. But something is wrong. Now the excitement for this wonderful story may not be there at all. Editors and agents give you the "deer in the headlight" look and you are now concerned over the quality of the story. The reality is that it is probably all about the pitch and what you are including.

Pitching your story to editors, agents and booksellers is not easy for the simple fact that you have a limited amount of time and you have to convey a lot of information. However, it is really much more than the amount of information. It is how you are saying it. While editors and agents want to know the basic information about your book (plot, characters, conflict and so forth) what they really want to hear is something off the wall exciting. Something that makes them think, "Wow! This person is taking the normal and turning it into something special!"

Now, let me warn you, this is not something you can manufacture. Your story has to already have these elements. It is just up to you to convey this information. This is really the essence of that elusive HIGH CONCEPT.

I was talking about this to one of my clients just recently. She had the chance to meet with some editors while at the RWA Conference and in one situation, she felt that things were just heading in the wrong direction. She was saying everything she needed to say about the project, but the enthusiasm just wasn't there. Fortunately, she had two projects to present and, after realizing her error, she changed her wording. That was when the excitement came through.

Consider for example one of my other client's series. Bronwyn Scott's GENTLEMEN ESCORTS series can either be a flop when it comes to marketing, or something amazing. It is all about the wording!

She could simply say, "These are stories about men who are paid by women to be their companions at parties, only to find they have fallen in love."

or....

"These men are both despised and loved by the members of the Ton as they fulfill women's fantasies and bring out the inner beauty of those who they come in contact with. Their role is not simply sex, but to teach and guide women to find who they really are in the world. "

Now, while both are saying essentially the same thing, the first one is simply plot oriented. Sure, it gives us the information, but that is as far as it goes. The second, does so more eloquently and yet gives us a sense that this story is much more than escorts. It is about life lessons and learning about who we are in the world.

I should note that writing these descriptions is not a matter of just using your thesaurus and coming up with "pretty words." It is about drawing out the unique qualities of your story.

Consider also Harry Potter. We could simply say this is a coming-of-age story about a boy with magical powers who battles forces of evil...BORING!

Or we could say, this story shows how a boy who thought he was nothing becomes the ultimate savior of Hogwarts and all the good that it stands for as he battles what might be the greatest form of evil out there.

Again, while these might not be fully crafted and wordsmithed (I am thinking of this as I go), you can see how the second one has a bit more depth to it.

As you think about your story, what is the "take-away" you want your readers to leave with? What is the big message that makes this unique.

You Can't Write A High Concept If Your Story Doesn't Have One

Yesterday, I had on my "Oldies Station", you know the one that plays things from the 80's? (I really didn't need that yesterday)...and... they were playing Air Supply's "Making Love Out of Nothing All." Needless to say, that nice little "ancient" ditty, got me thinking about something I see a lot with many authors and their submissions or pitches. Authors trying to make something out of nothing.

One of the key elements we need to hear in a submission, pitch or marketing tool (for those of you in self-publishing" is the "High Concept" of your story. In one or two sentences, we need to know what is unique and marketable about your story. What is it that makes this story stand out from all of the other projects out there and makes the reader, editor, or agent want to buy the project? Taking the word itself, it is simply saying what makes your "Concept" "Higher" or better than all of the other projects out there?

Many seem to think that the high concept is nothing more than describing your plot by combining two different books or authors. "My story is really a mix of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who." Now, while using this can sometimes clear up a confusing story, it really doesn't show us what makes this story unique from all of the other projects out there.

So, getting back to Air Supply. For many authors, when it is time to write that query, craft that pitch or even answer the editor or agent when we ask what they would describe as the high concept, and all they come up with is silence, the answer should be glaring them in the face. The story simply doesn't have a high concept. There is nothing special to it.

I remember working with a group of authors over a weekend where we had one session on query letters. We outlined a basic query letter and I had them working on it independently for a few minutes. As I looked around the room, I saw pencils, pens and computer keyboards frozen in time. Their faces had those deer in the headlight look. The silence was deafening. Suddenly, one author called me over to her table and looked me in the eye and said this was impossible.

I asked here what the problem was and her answer was immediately agreed on by the other authors at the table. "My story isn't unique."

Now, this is where things get really difficult. A) If your query letter should contain a high concept; and B) Your story doesn't contain a high concept, what are your options?

First of all, (and this is that Air Supply link), you cannot make something out of nothing. In other words, writing something to tell the editor, agent or author that your story is special when it isn't cannot be made up. It becomes very obvious to all of us on this end that you are tying to sell us on something that isn't there. Think of those movie previews where the producers have filled that short clip with explosions, loud music and so forth, but in the end, there is nothing that makes the movie stand out. Why? There is no high concept.

Secondly, this might mean you will have to go back to the storyboard and see what you can do with the story. You may be looking at a serious re-write, or just a huge over-haul. I will tell you, just changing names or locations will not make the story unique.

Finally, you may need to focus your attention, not on this book, but the one newest project. Before you get too far into it, you might want to start thinking about that high concept. This is really where those plotters have it figured out. Make sure it is there from the ground up.

Now, for those of you getting ready to send out submissions today, or this weekend, take the time to look at that submission. What makes your story unique? Are you showing us? Or are you getting ready to send us something like everything else out there?