Caren Johnson Literary Agency

By Caren Johnson

As promised this post is devoted to all things pitching:  how to pitch at a conference, how to pitch by email, how to pitch in an elevator and how to pitch in general. I can only speak for myself about the details of the pitch and what I prefer, but there are general rules that work for all agents.

Be professional. I stress this the most because it’s the hardest to do. I realize that everyone is nervous when they pitch. I still get nervous when I’m pitching an editor I haven’t worked with. It’s not a bad thing. The trick is to remember that if you fall back on manners, you’ll impress the agent (or editor) by being so calm, cool and collected. This doesn’t mean you can’t allow your personality to shine through. It just means that you need to understand that this is a business meeting and always treat it as such. Personally I like to make a little small talk to put the other person at ease, but you can launch straight into your pitch on the offset.

Remember to identify the conference or place that you met me at in your query letter. So many people forget to do this and I end up with twenty emails that say, “So nice to have met you. Here’s the book, as requested.” Make it easy for me. Make sure that you tell me where we met (personal connections do make me read faster), what the book is and include a little something about yourself. It doesn’t have to be a full query, but give me something so it can jog my memory and let me know why I wanted to read this book.

Don’t read directly from your notes. It makes me think you’re not as familiar with your material as you should be and I know this isn’t the case nine times out of ten. You know your material. Just talk about your book and make me see how special it is. Chances are I’ll want to take a look.

Do your research. This is important because while some agents like being pitched by snail mail, others only want to be pitched by email (this is the category I fall into; don’t pitch me or send me anything by snail mail, please). Make sure you have the latest information about the preferences. And don’t send me an email asking me to outline my preferences either. There are too many reliable information sources for you to check before you send me an introductory email to the introductory email about your book. It becomes redundant.

Be concise. Leave white space. Don’t list accomplishments that have nothing to do with your writing unless they help your career in some way.

Be polite. I inevitably get the person who comes to introduce themselves only to let me know that I rejected them. It’s not personal. I only want to represent things that I feel I can sell. What good is it to have an agent who can’t sell your book? And just because I say no to one book doesn’t mean I’m going to say no to everything. I definitely leave the door open to future queries. Most of you aren’t going to only write one book so while the first book may not catch my eye, another might. Don’t abuse this open door policy and send me a note every three weeks saying you’ve written a new book. That’s going to frustrate both you and me because I’m going to keep saying no and you’re going to keep getting turned down.

Make sure every book you send out is your best work. Don’t email me a week after you send me your book to let me know that you revised it and want to send me the newest version. It makes me crazy. I have a limited amount of time and if I think you’re wasting it, I get cranky.

I’m really looking forward to meeting lots of great writers and hearing lots of great stories. See you soon…