Personal Essays

Practiced, Pitched, Punched

Well, I pitched to five agents during the SavvyAuthors September Pitch Fest. All five shot me down. Between them, they must have received over a thousand pitches. Some writers pitched to all of the agents (there were publishing house editors too, but I didn’t pitch to them). Out of the ninety requests from those agents for full or partial manuscripts, I was not one of them. As Charlie Brown would say, “Rats.”

On the plus side, I did receive a response from another agent to my email query (and first ten pages) of a few weeks ago:

Dear Will,

Thank you very much for the opportunity to review your query. I don’t feel that your project sounds like quite the right fit for my list at this time, and so will respectfully pass.

I appreciate the chance to consider your work and wish you the best of luck in finding a home for your book.

Sincerely,
Caroline

I’m happy she responded. I’m unhappy that I submitted my prologue as the first six of the ten pages. I should have submitted only the first ten pages of chapters one and two. Of course, she may have rejected me based on the four pages of chapter one. The prologue sets up context for the entire story; reading only the first four pages of the novel hooks the reader but doesn’t tell them the story.
Of course, the agent wants a sample of my writing, but also wants to be hooked from the beginning. Maybe she didn’t care for my writing. Maybe I didn’t hook her right away. Maybe my voice turned her off. Maybe the story wasn’t the type she represents. I don’t know.

In any case, back to the pitcher’s mound.

25 thoughts on “Practiced, Pitched, Punched”

      1. I have one first draft, my first novel, that I’m doing a full rewrite on. And I have a second, I’d say I am 2/3 through the story. Will there be any excerpts to read in your blog? Allbest to you in your endeavors.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Yes. I’ve posted entire chapters of the novel.
        I’d love to read your first chapter. Best if luck with the rewrite. I did the same thing; I blogged about it in a post back in March or April.

        Like

    1. I may eventually go the indie route. First, however, I want to perfect my pitch to the point that I receive requests for full or partial manuscripts. If that doesn’t work, then I’ll need to consider whether my novel is worth publishing at all. I don’t want to publish a bad novel.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  5. I have been pitching for a while and all I keep thinking is a strikeout in baseball is a positive for the pitcher, in book proposals not so much. On to the next batter to hopefully give up a homerun – it’s better than staying in the dugout and warming the bench!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment