So I sent off my stuff to David! Stuff meaning my pitch and my manuscript. I imagine it will be several days before I hear back from him but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I just really hope that he sees the same potential in my book that he saw when we first talked during our consult. So when I first started learning about getting a book published, I had no idea what the steps were and I especially didn't know what the lingo was. So... I'm going to give a little lesson on getting your book published. I'd like to credit this information to Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry and their book, The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published.
Vocab you need to know:
Pitch: A pitch is essentially your promise of what your book is going to deliver. It is the answer you give when someone asks you what your book is about. It delivers the essentials of your book, leaving the person you are pitching to wanting more. A perfect pitch will leave a person saying something along the lines of "I can't wait to read that book" or "Wow, that sounds amazing". There are two types of pitches: The first is called an elevator pitch, and is essentially a pitch that can be given in a sentence or two (hence the name: It can easily be delivered on an elevator ride). The second, and probably more common, is the long-form pitch. Long form meaning a pitch that can be delivered in under a minute. No exception to the rule. Excellent examples of long form pitches are the back covers of books. These are long-form pitches.
Literary Agent: A literary agent is a person who manages the business affairs of an author. They DO not publish books. They have a variety of jobs that can include but are not limited to finding an editor for you, helping you to get a publisher, proofreading and editing your work, doign PR stuff, help build your career, etc.
Query Letter: A query letter is the letter you send out to literary agents to pitch your book and to try and get them to represent you. The query letter is one page and includes three paragraphs (the connection, the pitch, and your bio).
Steps of getting a literary agent for fiction books:
1. Read, read, read.
2. Write the book.
3. Make sure it's the best you can possibly make it.
4. Write your biography.
5. Write your pitch.
6. Write your query letter.
7. Research the literary agents who represent books within your fiction genre.
8. Send out query letters to the literary agents.
9. Keep your fingers crossed!!!
*The steps for getting a non-fiction book published are a bit (actually a lot) different, so I'm not going into that!
No comments:
Post a Comment