Below is my first shot at an elevator pitch. Does it make you interested in reading the book? If not, then either you're not the right audience or I still have some work to do. Below you can read the dialog that went into preparing this.
My book is titled The Fourth Age and its the first volume in a series of epic fantasy novels. The story revolves around a powerful wizard who believes it is his destiny to unite the world in peace, an event foretold in prophecy. His price for peace is freedom and heroes from across the land are gathered to oppose him. The unique qualities and abilities of many characters make this feel like dropping the X-Men into a Lord of the Rings type struggle.
The kingdoms of Verdan's free people have placed their faith in an exiled wizard of legend to lead these heroes, but it may be his seventeen year old daughter and the son of an innkeeper who offer them the greatest hope of victory. As the first book in a series, The Fourth Age briskly moves the adventure forward, while also serving as a type of origin story. All nine books in the series are written, although not all have been published. Does this sound like something that would interest you?
First, for anyone who doesn't know, an elevator pitch is just that...imagine yourself getting onto an elevator and finding yourself with a literary agent or publisher. You have until the elevator doors open to convince them that they should be interested in your book. That's it.
As I've said before, I didn't research the industry before beginning to write my book, so for me, all this is an after the fact attempt (based on encouragement from friends and coworkers) to put my books out their for the general public. If you really want to make a living at this, the best advice I can give is write, write, and write some more, but take time out periodically to study the industry and talk to others in it to help navigate the waters.
Ok, so how to get started. First I googled the internet for other blogs and articles on elevator pitches. I scanned a few sites, but finally settled on one that seemed to give the most detailed and relevant advice. The blogs are a few years old, but the advice seems as relevant today.
http://www.rachellegardner.com/tag/elevator-pitches/
There were other sites I scanned, but honestly, they do get repititious after a while. I like Rachelle's site because of the examples and critiques of each gave me a good roadmap for where to start. But in all honesty, there are a lot of good sites out there and you could spend days going through them all.
So what's next? Well, I decided to attend a seminar at Gen Con dedicated to elevator pitches. The panel included a variety of people from the industry (James Minz, Maxwell Alexander Drake, Christopher Morgan were the names listed in the program, but there were a couple of others). Below are the highlights of what I took away from my readings and seminar.
- Besides getting someone intrested in your work, the purpose of an elevator pitch is to help them form a picture of what audience might be interested in purchasing the book.
- Everyone is busy. Elevator pitches need to be short, but not too short.
- Use a conversational style, don't sound like you're reading from a manuscript
- It should include a "blurb" which contains a cross-reference to other popular cultural touchpoints
- Know it. Practice it. But be prepared to go "off script" if necessary.
- Don't be passive agressive. Have confidence.
- Know the literary style of your work (1st person, etc.)
- Make sure to include the genre.
- The elevator pitch just opens the door, at the end of the day it will be the strength of your writing that determines if you get published.
- Publishing is a business! You're trying to help the listener envision how they can market and make money off your book.
Most especially, don't forget #10, which is kind of another way to say #1, which is fair. It all starts with being able to market your book and find that audience you know would love it, if you can just get them to read it.
Next, I'm going to dwell on #4. It's the one I stress out the most about. Here, you need to give your audience a popular cultural reference to compare your work to. Wait! Wasn't the purpose of all this to write something original and unique? Well, in reality nothing is completely original. Face it, there are a finite number of story types. Name a popular book, movie or television show within the past 100 years and I can almost guarantee that it's a derivative of something that was created long ago. The only original stories may be those carved onto cave walls by our ancestors. Everything after that is just another variation. So, unless you're that one in a billion genius who has found something new, your book may be unique (because you wrote it), but it's hardly original.
So let's talk The Fourth Age. Genre is easy. It's an epic fantasy adventure. It's written in an all-knowing 3rd person style. There's a lot of real-time dialog, but the author can see what is happening and knows what the characters are thinking. I don't think you put the style in the elevator pitch, but you need to know it if asked.
Pop culture references. in the seminar, they said only George RR Martin can reference Game of Thrones and you will demonstrate more knowledge of your target audience if you can reference works that are currently popular, but maybe less widely known. The issue for me is that between my job and family I'm lucky I can find time to write and not much is left for reading. So there are some works that I may have heard about (I hear the Wheel of Time series is good), but I just haven't found time to read a lot lately. I used to be an avid reader.
So what is The Fourth Age like? The only logical reference I can come up with initially is Lord of the Rings. Face it, I have men, elves, dwarves and halflings coming together to battle a common enemy. Does that mean my story is just another version of Tolkien's work? I hope not and don't think so, but as a point of reference, I would think that readers who enjoyed The Lord of the Rings, will also enjoy my books. I honestly believe that.
So what else? You need to usually cross-reference two pop culture sources. This is one is tough and less obvious, but at the time I began writing I was immersed in reading Marvel Comics, thousands of them. And while my characters may not wear colorful costumes, I do look upon them as each possessing unique qualities or abilities. A major part of the story is that many of them need to learn how to best use their abiliities and then come together a team. I thought about a lot of super-hero groups and while the outcast element isn't there in the early books, I would go with the X-men. Beyond that, I do think that the twisting adventures, reveals and focus on personal lives does give my story a comic book feel. Let's go with that.
That's another thing. If you don't feel like you're getting anywhere with your elevator pitch, you can always change it. You're not likely to be any worse off than you are today, so what do you really have to lose.
For length, it sounds like elevator pitches should be 30-60 seconds in length, but you should also be prepared to give a longer synopsis of your book if the pitch generates some interest. Just don't freeze up and remember, "no one knows your book better than you." Read your elevator pitch outloud...several times... if possible to another person. Get their feedback. Modify and repeat.
That whole passive aggressive thing? Stay away from phrases like, "I know there are a lot of other good books out there, but..." or "It may not be the greatest book ever written, but..." No, you need to talk like other good books don't matter and yours is the greatest book ever written. For a lot of us, it's hard at times, but if you're trying to get them interest in your book, not anyone else's. If yours isn't the greatest book, then they'll just move on.
While you need to stay excited and upbeat, i still encourage people to keep realistic expectations. Almost anyone entering the publishing arena is lying is they don't dream about being the next George RR Martin or Stephen King. That's ok. It's good to dream. Keep it up. But at the end of the day realize that a lot of good authors may make a solid living, but never get to that level. That's ok too. I don't know if it's true, but read a statement the other day that the average author makes about $10K a year. Face it, you can't live on that kind of money. So for a lot of us this will never become a full time profession. I wish it were otherwise, but that's reality.
That brings me back to The Fourth Age. I'm going to publish my 'work in progress' elevator pitch at the top of the blog. If you have any comments, feel free to share them. I'm not certain if a publisher will ever be interested (there goes that passive agressive nature again), but this is still an excellent exercise I encourage every author to go through. I've had friends ask me "What's your book about?" and froze up at the answer. This will help. I hope to come up with elevator pitches for each of my books (I'm sure some pieces will stay the same between them) and share those online.
Before I leave you, let's run through the components of my pitch.
- Title of the book feels important to me - The Fourth Age
- I've let them know it is part of a series of novels. At the end I let them know how many and that all nine books in the series have been written.
- The genre "epic fantasy adventure" is right there at the top. They can stop you there if the genre does not interest them.
- I've tried to provide some flavor of the story. A powerful wizard tries to unite the world (or conquer it as is the case). I've set up the main theme "peace versus freedom", which is very relevant in today's world. I've mentioned a prophecy, which sets up another element of suspense. I've mentioned the main protagonists (an exiled wizard, which implies a backstory, a seventeen year old daughter which introduces some YA elements and family themes and an innkeeper's son which speaks of everyman qualities and that anyone can be a hero).
- The blurb. The story is a cross between The Lord of the Rings and The X-Men. Yes, I do believe if you're a fan of either you will like the story and if you're a fan of both you will love the story.
- I've mentioned that the book serves as an origin story but also a fast moving adventure. This covers tone.
- Length - It took me 49 seconds to read it. I may need to shorten it a touch, but its a good start. I also need to make it a little more conversational and may edit out a sentence or two based on how the listener is reacting to what I say.
- Finally, I ask if the listener is interested. This is important. If they say yes, that's an introduction to set up another meeting over coffee, lunch or a drink. If you get them to that next level, you can then provide a more detailed synopsis. If you're lucky, they will ask to see your manuscript and then it all comes down to the strength of your writing and how interesting the story is. If you don't have those two things, then you still won't get published.
So that's it. Good luck. As for the status of my series. The first 5 books are self-published and available through all major distribution channels. Volumes 6 and 7 are ready to go. Before doing any research on the industry I sent one manuscript to a well known Fantasy/Sci-Fi publisher. It was not a final draft (that was a mistake), but the only real feedback I got is that they can only consider outstanding manuscripts and weren't sure they could make money publishing my book. There it is again. Publishing is a business! Don't ever forget that. You may be searching for an audience, but the publisher is searching for a buying audience. Plus, I don't know if the outstanding manuscript part is a reference to my writing. It all sort of felt like a standard letter written by a lawyer.
Right now, I've submitted a synopsis and (poorly) formed elevator pitch to another publisher. I'm not going to mention names but would be thrilled if they were interested. They're fairly new in publishing, but I so believe in their overall brand that I would be excited to promote them, as much as my books. It's been 4 months without a word back and if I don't hear anything by the end of the month, I've decided to move on with self-publishing. There are other publishers out there and if opportunities arise I'll see what happens. But I've always said my main goal was to have these books published and on my shelf. If I don't move forward that may never happen.