Last weekend I was at the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival, and as always, I came away inspired and refreshed and on fire with ideas and ways forward for my book-in-progress.
Bloody Scotland opening ceremonies: torchlit parade.
I might do a whole post on writing and marketing tips from the festival. But for now, here are two of the most important takeaways:
1. Go to the book pitch sessions.
I like to attend the pitch sessions of festivals when I can. It’s useful for me as a professional writer to hear what the agents and editors have to say about trends—and of course I also do it to get tricks for you guys!
But if you are a new writer, it’s one of the best things you can do for your career:
Attend pitch sessions yourself to observe, and then participate when you have a book or most of it completed and are looking for representation.
When you participate in a pitch session, you:
Learn how to pitch—an indispensable career skill
Put yourself and your book in front of agents and editors who can represent or outright buy your book, whether or not you actually win the competition. (And some pitch sessions are not competitions, they’re just opportunities to get yourself and your book in front of reps and buyers).)
Get wider publicity when you’re short-listed or win—or if you’re smart about marketing your experience!
I go to a lot of cons and festivals in a lot of countries—and Bloody Scotland’s Pitch Perfect is one of the best pitch sessions out there.
The festival works incredibly hard to nurture and promote new writers, from coaching pitch applicants on how to create a dynamic, unforgettable 2 1/2-minute pitch, to bringing top agents and editors to judge the pitch session, to helping participants (not just the winners) access agents and editors, to inviting the many writers who go on to get publishing deals back to the festival as Spotlight readers and on panels.
This year I was blown away by the quality of the pitches, and once I catch up on my own work I’m going to ask the organizers for a copy of their guidelines to pass them on to you all.
And I want to emphasize that even if you don’t consider yourself a performer, you can learn how to be a great pitcher. Because a pitch is much more about the writing than the performance.
At this year’s Pitch Perfect, while every pitch was much better than the average that I’ve seen, one was a total standout. This writer could have pitched for a living, her performance was that good: confident, hilarious, a complete ride.
But that writer wasn’t the winner (though she was was singled out for special commendation. She’s going to do just fine, and I’m very much looking forward to reading her hilarious book!).
The winner of Pitch Perfect read out his pitch from several pages in hand. He’d obviously rehearsed it and was confident in it, but it wasn’t the way he told it—it was the story on the page that held everyone in the room spellbound.
2. It is the writing of a pitch that will sell it.
Whether you’re pitching in person or on the page, whether you’re looking for a traditional publishing deal, or self publishing, you MUST develop an ability to tell your story as a short but complete and emotionally gripping narrative that sucks your listener/reader in and leaves them breathless and dying to read your book. And it’s even more vital in film and TV, where your career will depend on you being able to deliver winning pitches, over and over and over again.
I go into much more detail about how to write a synopsis/pitch document here:
Writing a Synopsis — That Sells!
But actually watching other people pitch, and hearing the immediate feedback on those pitches from agents and editors, is an instant education in what works and what doesn’t.
So do some research on writing festivals and conferences in your genre and in your area that hold pitch sessions. Some organizations also do online pitch sessions. (I recommend asking around about whether or not a particular festival or online session is worth doing—I’m happy to answer questions like these when I can. Be very wary of pitch sessions or pitch classes that cost a lot of money—there are a lot of scammers out there.
And here’s the feedback the agents and editors at Pitch Perfect gave for every single pitch:
Know your comps!
Comps are comparables: the books and movies that are similar in genre, subgenre, tone, mood, style to your book or script. Comps are a shorthand to give the buyer an instant idea of what kind of book it is.
And obviously, you want your comps to be successful and well-known books and movies
This is another reason that I stress how important it is to develop a Master List for your book or script. You should be able to pull comparables for your pitch from your Master List.
If you haven’t done a Master List, what are you waiting for?
MOVING FORWARD - A POLL!
So we’re finishing up Act III just in time for Preptober: the month of brainstorming and plotting before the month-long writing frenzy that is Nanowrimo. (And if you’ve never heard of either, that’s next week’s post!)
Which means I can start the whole cycle of writing a book or script from the beginning:
Brainstorming that perfect and salable idea
Developing as much of a chart, outline or treatment as you personally need
Working through that first draft, using the Three-Act, Eight-Sequence Structure and movie examples that work for you
It’s almost as if I planned it or something!
BUT —
My plan might not be what you need.
So it’s time for another short poll.
Substack’s polls don’t allow multiple choices, but I encourage you to list multiple choices, make specific requests and expand on your choices by leaving a Comment or five.
If you don’t tell me, I don’t know!
Add on you own choices here!
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All material is from Screenwriting Tricks for Authors, © Alexandra Sokoloff
You can find Act by Act, Sequence by Sequence, scene by scene story breakdowns of Chinatown, Romancing the Stone, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, The Wizard of Oz and more in Stealing Hollywood -
And full breakdowns of Romancing the Stone, Notting Hill, Groundhog Day and more in Writing Love.
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Hey Alex - this is perfect timing as I've got a month sabbatical from work coming up end of October and I want to use it to complete my first draft and rewrite all the plot changes I've already come up with.
I'd love some more on rewriting but also back to basics of structure and key questions you need to answer, the index card method. I'd also love some pointers for using the time effectively. I'll have a decent chunk of daytime free - what should I prioritise? What should I do if the words aren't flowing? I really want to wring the very most out of this time so any practical advice would be great.
Thanks so much
Everything is interesting, even when I'm at a different ms phase to the one you might post about! I'd be curious about any online pitch sessions you have heard good things about, as living way down here in Aotearoa - and being averse to a lot of air travel for climate reasons - travelling to in-person events isn't feasible.