Pitch Clinic

Are you ready to perfect your pitch for your book? A pitch is an important marketing description of your book, and a great pitch will help sell your book.  This is your opportunity to sit down face-to-face with an agent or editor to try out that pitch and do some fine-tuning!

What is a pitch?

1. A pitch needs to be brief.  Typically 1-2 sentences for picture books, one short paragraph for novels.
2. A pitch should include the title of your book, its genre, the setting, your main character(s) including their central goal and conflict.  A pitch can also include important secondary characters (like antagonist or best friend or love interest) as well as an inciting incident.
3. A pitch differentiates your book from other books like it.  To quote Agent Jennifer March Soloway, “What makes your squirrel story different from all the other squirrel stories?”

If you need more help getting started on your pitch, check out this link for some guidance: https://kidlit.com/book-pitch/

What is the Pitch Clinic and how does it work?

Register with one of our six in-person faculty members for a 5-minute pitch session. Here, you will read your book’s pitch and your chosen faculty member will give you feedback on what works and what needs improvement. This is an add-on of $15 to your registration fee. 

What can I expect during the Pitch Clinic at the Golden Gate Day Conference? 

The Pitch Clinic will be held from 3-4pm at our Golden Gate Day Conference on September 28th. 

Your time slot will be assigned and given to you at the conference check-in. Please make sure you double-check your times.

During the Pitch Clinic time, a team of volunteers will be onsite to move things along so that pitches start and end on time. They will also be checking in with registered attendees to make sure everyone ends up in the right line.

What should I bring and how should I prepare? 

Please bring two copies of your pitch to the event: one copy to hand to your scheduled faculty member and one copy on which you can read from and take notes. Please plan to use a minute to read your pitch aloud and the remaining 4 minutes to receive first impression feedback. Practice your pitch several times in advance to practice getting it down to less than 1 minute.

Faculty:

Agents: Jennifer March Soloway, Sally Kim, Ian Lendler 

Editors: Connie Hsu, Kristie Choi, Ian Tseng

*If you have ANY questions or need any help, please ask one of the RT members or swing by the registration desk.