I'd like to present to you a metaphor that I like to imagine when brainstorming the perfect pitch.
Let's say you're selling a product. It happens to be a novel. You have the manuscript all typed up and ready to go, but now you're asking yourself how to present it to the people with power behind the desks.
First and foremost: Your product is something you have faith in... and if you don't, then I would suggest you change what needs to be changed until you do. Once you have complete faith in your product, move on to the pitch.
Imagine this:
Your novel is a fruit. You've experimented over the months and/or years with different fertilizers, seeds, and presently, you have a ton of delicious, ripe fruit for the selling.
The publishers are the buyers. It's their job to decide whether purchasing your fruit is good for business. This is important. Remember this.
First step in the pitching process is learning about your buyers. What kind of fruit have they purchased before?
Strawberries (Romance)?
Oranges (Fantasy)?
Horror (Papaya)?
Apples (English Literature)?
Let's say you're an orange grower, and so you decide to send your oranges to the appropriate vendor. Remember, your product might be the perfect fruit, but if buyers who are interested in Apples and Strawberries receive an orange, they won't waste their time.
This is even true to the type of orange.
So taste other people's fruit, and find out who bought the ones you think taste great. In other words, read, read, read, and keep in mind the publishers on the spine. Once you do that, keep those buyers in mind.
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Now that you have the appropriate buyers in mind to sell your oranges, it's time to let them know!
Pick some of your juiciest oranges, perhaps three of them, which should suffice. Write a note letting them know what's in the box you've sent them.
REMEMBER: Let the product itself tell them the bulk of the information. All you want to do is explain what kind of product you're selling.
For example: "What you'll find in the box are blood-oranges." Great start. Now compare to other fruit you've tasted. "They're like a smaller batch of Sunkist oranges, only sweeter and without the seeds."
Done. You may add more (as long as it's at most under a minute), but that right there is enough for them to know what your product is, why it's unique, and now it's their turn to try the sample oranges you've given.
At this time, the buyers will decide... "Are we in the market for more blood-oranges? Yes. Are we curious to know if these oranges are somehow better, or significantly different than the ones we already sell? Yes. Alright, let's taste them."
You're not automatically going to see a contract because each of their answers are positive... remember, telling them is one thing, backing the words up with the actual product is a whole other ballgame.
There's more that goes into the above process (such as if you have an audience already or not, and if you've recently sold anything, and if you've shown some sort of dedication throughout the years, perhaps taken academic courses in the genre of your choice, etc.), but this is a basic model I'm giving you. So let's say they decide to check your work out based on the pitch you packaged so nicely under one minute. Now they'll taste the fruit provided (the three sample chapters).
In those three chapters, they should be able to tell if the fruit is ripe enough. Is the peel too difficult to unwrap? Does it have too many seeds? Is it sweet? Is it sour? Is the sweet tang pleasant, or unpleasant? Does the juice make them frown, or does it actually enliven them from a long, tiring day?
These are the questions the sample chapters should answer, not the pitch. The pitch should just be straight-to-the-point; it should be something the editor can explain to the marketing team with ease.
That doesn't mean your story needs to be simplistic or predictable... Remember, your work itself can be complex, but the synopsis should state whether or not the reader is interested in the topic itself and whether it's something new.
I hope this helped. Just remember what fruit you're selling, and let your fruit do most of the talking.
Have a wonderful life, and good luck to you, amazing aspiring author!
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