Writing a pitch is often the first step to getting published. The purpose of a pitch is to tell a publisher why they should publish your work. You should write between a paragraph and one page, but be sure to include these four things:
1. The basic facts about your story — who are the characters, and where and when does it take place?
2. Who would be interested in reading it (audience)
3. Why they would be interested in reading it
4. Why you are a good person to write a book like the one you are suggesting
Authors often write many pitches that are rejected before a book is published.
EXAMPLE:
Perhaps a pitch for The Watsons Go To Birmingham would have looked something like this:
"The Watsons Go To Birmingham" is a book for all ages, but especially young adults. The narrator, Kenny, is 10 years old when his parents decide to take his older "juvenile delinquent" brother Byron to live with his grandmother. The story is set in 1963, a historic time in America and especially for Birmingham, Alabama, where Byron and Kenny's grandmother lives. But this isn't that important to Kenny — he's just looking forward to a road trip out of Flint, Michigan, where his family lives.
"The Watsons Go To Birmingham" will entertain readers with the adventures and mischief of Kenny and his older brother, but it will also teach them about what it was like to live through certain events in the Civil Rights Movement. The Watsons are in Birmingham during the well-known bombing of a Baptist Church that killed four young girls, girls who remind Kenny of his little sister, Joetta. Byron also learns a lesson — seeing the tension and danger in Alabama makes him shape up and realize that it's time to start taking life a little more seriously.
If your book has a surprise ending, it's okay to ruin it in your pitch. A publisher wants to know all of the reasons they should publish your book.
Writing your pitch
