Writing Excuses 10.50: How to Hand-Sell Your Manuscript to Agents and Editors with Michael Underwood

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Writing Excuses 10.50: How to Hand-Sell Your Manuscript to Agents and Editors with Michael Underwood and Marco Palmieri

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2015/12/13/writing-excuses-10-50-how-to-hand-sell-your-manuscript-to-agents-and-editors-with-michael-underwood-and-marco-palmieri/

Key Points: Don't try to pitch unless you have read the instructions! Also, know the market. Don't compare your book to things it has nothing to do with. Don't interrupt a conversation to pitch your book, don't pitch your book while the editor is eating, and don't follow the editor into the bathroom. Do research the markets and the editors. Go to the bookstores, look at the acknowledgements and dedications, and then dig around the web to find out about the editors. Watch the online resources, and social media. Go to the convention publishers' presentations. Talk to the editor as a person first, then ask about giving a short pitch. The pitch? Brevity! What is the core, emotional or dramatic? What is the essence? Editors are often at a convention to meet writers -- don't be afraid, they are looking for you!
( Pitch some horseshoes... )

[Dan] Awesome. Well. I believe we are about out of time. So thanks, both of you, for being on the show. I think this has been incredibly helpful to our listeners. I believe we have a writing prompt?
[Michael] All right. So your character has to go undercover at a writing conference and get access to an editor so that you can steal a supersecret manuscript. Figure out how they are going to case the editor, their interests, and pitch them so that they can then get access to the secret USB with the manuscript of awesomeness.
[Laughter]
[Dan] Excellent. The manuscript of awesomeness.
[Marco] They have to do it without following the guy into the bathroom.
[Laughter]
[Howard] Okay. So the bathroom and the elevator are off-limits.
[Dan] Okay. Very good. Well. All right. Thank you very much. For our listeners, you are out of excuses. Now go write.