Snappy, Sassy, Sometimes Salty…Your #Book Pitch Must Be!

Quick … when someone asks you what your book is about … do you stumble finding the words to describe it? You are not alone–most authors fail miserably in delivering the “hook” that is gets the listeners attention and buy-in. They don’t get that they have to be a little different, well, may a lot different, to get the attention of the book buyer. To say, “You Who … I've got something to say, worth sharing….”

Did you know that most movie scripts are pitched within a 15 second time frame? Sometimes in 15 words or less? Ruthless editing for words … your words, I know that are awesome, yet you may  be bubbling over with too, too many words. And you lose your audience. Too, too soon.

Think short, to the point, a little pithy, to catch the attention. Think like a one-line description that TV Guide might use to describe a show or movie of the week. You want your buyer to think/say “say what …” “tell me more…”  Than your dialogue can open up when he or she starts probing.

Pitches that connect have several elements:  they use 1 -Alliteration, 2 rhymes, 3-create a visual for the listener, 4-have something that is familiar or a familiar ring to it; 5-snappy and succinct; 6-a sense of fun or aha.Take the Harry Potter series. Loved by millions around the world. 

 If the author had pitched her boy wizard as A nerdy kid who was orphaned as an infant and was taken in by relatives who couldn't stand him. Eventually, he was finally rescued by a group of other misfits and found his true self.

Or … Harry Potter is a fantasy series about a young wizard and his two friends as they fight the forces of Evil and the corrupt Lord Voldemort while students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Which asks, “Tell me more”? Which gets your attention?

Snappy, Sassy, Sometimes Salty…Your Book Pitch Must Be!

Judith Briles is known as The Book Shepherd, the Author and Publishing 

expert and the Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Author U, a membership organization created for the author who wants to be seriously successful. She’s been writing about and conducting workshops on publishing since the 80s. She’s the author of 31 books including Author YOU: Creating Your Book and Author Platform that has won four multiple “best” in the writing/publishing categories in book award competitions in 2013. Her latest book is Snappy, Sassy, Salty … Wise Words for Authors and Publishers has just been released.

Join Judith live on Thursdays at 6 p.m. EST for Author U Your Guide to Book Publishing on the Toginet network at: http://togi.us/authoru (you can subscribe on the show’s Home page to get weekly updates of the latest show). Connect on Google+ and become a Peep on Twitter at @AuthorU and @MyBookShepherd.