Pitch Clinic Roundtables

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 is a short (1-3 sentences) summary of your book aimed to pique the interest of an agent/editor.
2. A pitch should introduce your main character, their goal with stakes, the obstacles they face, and a sense of the story's theme without giving away the ending. It should match the voice of your manuscript and can include comp titles.
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 Roundtable and how does it work?

Register with one of our four faculty members for an hour-long roundtable. You will be seated with up to 9 other writers. You will read your book's pitch and the agent or editor will give feedback on what works and what needs improvement. All roundtable attendees will get the chance to share and receive personalized feedback from an industry professional. This is an excellent opportunity to not only refine your own pitch, but also learn by listening to the faculty speak about others' pitches. This is an add-on of $30 to your registration fee.

Roundtable Etiquette

ONLY the faculty may give their thoughts and suggestions. ONLY the person whose turn it is may ask questions. Please understand that your peers have paid for professional opinion, not yours, so please refrain from offering additional commentary on others’ work. Everyone will benefit from hearing the professional feedback on their fellow attendees’ work. Also, submission guidelines for all faculty will be distributed after the conference. Please do not ask the faculty if you can submit to them during the roundtable.

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:

Agent Sarah Stephens of Red Fox Literary will critique picture books, chapter books, nonfiction, and graphic novels.

Literary Assistant Sophie Sheumaker of BookEnds LIterary Agency will critique picture books, middle grade, and young adult.

Editor Esther Hernandez (formerly Cajahuaringa) will critique picture books, chapter books, and graphic novels.

Associate Editor Danielle Collins of Beach Lane Books, Simon & Schuster will critique fiction and nonfiction picture books.