The pitch is the promise of your story, the nuclear heart of your text. This is the most concentrated formula in your story. The editor must be able to understand your pitch immediately in order to trigger their desire to know more and read your first pages.
The pitch is the promise of your story, the nuclear heart of your text. This is the most concentrated formula in your story. The editor must be able to understand your pitch immediately in order to trigger their desire to know more and read your first pages.
You only have a few seconds to convince. Every word counts. And it is already at this level that the structure and strength of a story appear.
EMERGE IN A FEW WORDS, TRIGGER THE DESIRE TO READ
Publishing professionals will instantly detect a quality pitch, which sends a strong and engaging signal about the author.
The pitch must hook, arouse interest, arouse curiosity, and really correspond to the strength of what your manuscript offers.
A clear, effective and exciting pitch is easy to remember and communicate. When it is well designed, it is capable of triggering “word of mouth”.
A pitch must convince a publisher in the blink of an eye, as could then be the case with the entire book chain: representatives, booksellers and readers.
Faced with the thousands of pitches colliding in the minds of all the players in the book chain, only the most effective emerge. If it takes four pages of explanations to convince, the battle is off to a bad start.
Your pitch also serves the publisher to immediately convince, even before the publication of your book in France, foreign publishers via agents, as well as producers for audiovisual adaptations. This is how best-sellers are born, such as The Room of Wonders by Julien Sandrel, which has been translated into more than 30 languages and for which part of the transfer of rights abroad was signed even before the French publication. The TV adaptation followed immediately. This is the pitch that immediately convinced all the professionals, and which works relentlessly with readers.
THREE TIPS FOR PITCHING AND USING 400 CHARACTERS EFFECTIVELY ON ÉDITH & NOUS
400 characters are enough to convince and give good stories the best chance of being spotted. Here are three important rules to take full advantage of the 400 characters that can change a life and carry thousands of readers.
Use 400 characters: the more complete your pitch is, the more material the recommendation algorithm will have to send it to the right editor
Do not repeat in the presentation the title of your manuscript, the keywords or the categories you have chosen: the editors already have access to all this information. Focus on the fruit of your story, its promise.
Pay attention to spelling and typography: we can never say it enough, a presentation that has not been corrected jeopardizes your chances of being read by editors. A few words say a lot about the story to follow.
METHOD AND EXAMPLES TO CONSTRUCT YOUR PITCH IN 400 CHARACTERS
First of all, here is a formula for creating your dramatic pitch in one or two sentences ideally. Try using this formula to summarize your stories. This will force you to extract the quintessence of your story. It is from the vital organs of your text that your promise will emerge. This dramatic, minimalist pitch will be less than 400 characters. You will be able to expand it while being certain that you will not forget anything important by doing so.
DRAMA PITCH FORMULA
In such circumstances, following such a triggering incident, such character(s) fight(s) against such obstacles to achieve such objective.
For example, with The Bedroom of Wonders , here is how to transform a back cover into a 400-character pitch to present your manuscript on Édith & Nous .
FOURTH COVER
Louis is twelve years old. This morning, when he wants to confide to his mother, Thelma, that he is in love for the first time, he sees that she is thinking of something else, probably still about her work. So he leaves with his skateboard, angry and disappointed, and crosses the street at full speed. A truck hits him head-on. The prognosis is grim.
In four weeks, if there is no improvement, Louis' respirator will have to be disconnected. Coming home from the hospital, in despair, Thelma finds a notebook under her son's mattress. Inside, he listed all the experiences he would like to have one day: the list of his “wonders”. Thelma makes a decision: one by one, she will accomplish these wonders in his place. And tell them to him. If Louis hears about his adventures, he will see how beautiful life is. Maybe this will help him come back. But it's not so easy to live a teenager's dreams when you're almost forty.
SHORT PITCH IN 400 CHARACTERS
Louis, 12 years old, leaves his house on a skateboard. A truck hits him. The prognosis is grim. In four weeks, in the hospital, his respirator will be disconnected. Thelma, his mother, finds a notebook in Louis' belongings. Inside, he listed all the experiences he would like to have. Thelma will accomplish them for him, and tell them to him. If Louis hears, perhaps he will come out of his coma. »
Here's another pitch example: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
SHORT PITCH IN 400 CHARACTERS
On his 11th birthday, Harry Potter, an orphan raised by an uncle and aunt who hate him, sees his life turned upside down. A giant comes to pick him up and takes him to Hogwarts, the famous school of witchcraft where he has always been expected. Flying on broomsticks, casting spells, fighting Trolls: Harry Potter becomes a powerful wizard. Will he defeat the one who threatens the brotherhood? »
We often think that the success of this or that author is a question of luck. That signing with this or that big publisher happens mostly to others. All this actually happens to those who strive to create the right conditions to create the opportunity to succeed. The pitch is the first key and Édith & Nous is the right place to practice. Professionals spread the word and come to draw from the heart of providential sources. Your pitch may be the next discovery. Be good, you are already in the right place.