Posts Tagged ‘Pitching’

Kate McKean, agent with Howard Morhaim Literary Agency

Agent Kate McKean, with Howard Morhaim Literary Agency, Inc., has confirmed she will attend the 2011 DFW Writers’ Conference.

Bio

A native Southerner, Kate earned her Master’s degree in Fiction Writing from the University of Southern Mississippi before starting her career as a literary agent.

Her interests lie in literary fiction, contemporary women’s fiction, paranormal romance, urban fantasy, mystery, young adult and middle grade fiction, narrative non-fiction, sports related books, food writing, pop culture, and craft.

She is not accepting any epic fantasy, science fiction, or children’s picture books.

When we began planning the 2011 DFWcon back in the fall of 2009 (yes, it really does take that long when you grow as fast as we have, and you have to find a new venue), I wanted to replace agent/editor pitch sessions with consultations, no finished manuscript required.

But at the 2010 conference in April, we pulled the agents together as an impromptu advice panel, and they said in very clear and unanimous terms: No.

Their reasoning is abundantly clear if you think about writing as a business. Why do agents and editors come to writing conferences? As much fun as most of them seem to have hanging out with writers, they’re not doing it for laughs. They’re doing it to make money.

If you talk to them about a project they think they can sell, but you don’t have a finished manuscript to hand them, then they’ve got nothing to take to the bank. You’ve let them down. Were you an agent or acquisitions editor, would you like that? Not likely. (Note that nonfiction works a bit differently — you can get away with only a partial in that case. But with fiction, a finished manuscript is required by most agents and editors.)

Jason Myers, 2011 DFWcon co-director

The co-director for 2011 DFWcon, Jason Myers (who is in charge of acquiring agents and editors for the conference), wrote a good blog about this a few months ago. I recommend taking a look at it: Don’t Waste Their Time.

Meanwhile, we’re still putting together our list of agents and editors for 2011 DFWcon. We’ve got promises to attend from many, but we’re waiting for them to provide bio information and manuscript requirements before we post them to our site and announce them. As you can imagine, they’re busy and it takes a while to collect and verify all that updated information. Please bear with us.

By Jeff Posey, Director of the 2011 DFW Writers’ Conference

Agent Jessica Sinsheimer, with the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency, has confirmed that she will attend the 2011 DFW Writers’ Conference and will take book proposals and teach at least one class.

Bio

Jessica Sinsheimer has been reading and campaigning for her favorite queries since 2004. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she went east for Sarah Lawrence College and stayed for the opportunity to read soon-to-be books for a living.

Now an Associate Agent at the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency, she’s developed a reputation for fighting office members to see incoming manuscripts first—and for drinking far too much tea.

Always on the lookout for new writers, she is most excited about finding literary, women’s, and Young Adult fiction, and—on the nonfiction side—psychology, parenting, self-help, cookbooks, memoirs, and works that speak to life in the twenty-first century.

Send queries to her here: Jessica Sinsheimer

Class: “It’s a Matter of Taste: How to increase the odds of an agent falling in love with your project.”

It’s more likely you’ll get hit by lightning while starring in a Broadway play than get a book deal, some say, and the economy has only made it worse. But from my own experience, and from objective data I’ve assembled, I know that 33 percent of your competition disqualifies themselves immediately—and that another 32 percent make preventable mistakes.

I’ll use pie charts, line graphs, and months of data, to help you learn how to keep yourself out of the bottom 65 percent—and how to make yourself immediately likable to an agent; how to increase the odds of your work getting pushed to the top of the reading pile—and how to increase the chances of an agent falling in love with your work.

You’ll also learn strategies agents use when submitting work to editors, and how to apply those same strategies to your own submission process.

Publishing is a very subjective industry, based on timing, intuition, taste, impressions, synchronicity and luck—but when you use the objective data to your advantage, your odds can’t help but improve.

Pitching your novel, or nonfiction book proposal to a literary agent can be the most exciting — and nerve-wracking — time in any author’s life. The key to a successful pitch session is preparation. Here are a few tips that will help you make the best of your experience:   

• Pitch sessions are up to 10 minutes long. No more time is allowed. Make certain you can present your idea within that timeframe.  
  • Suggestion: It’s a good strategy to keep your pitch to no more than 5 minutes. Use the remaining time for questions and wrap-up.
     
• You will be in the same room at the same time with other writers who are presenting their book ideas to other agents. Don’t be nervous. Speak in a normal, conversational tone.
   
• Do not bring a copy of your completed manuscript. Agents do not accept paper. If the agent is interested in your book idea, he or she will provide instructions on their agency’s preferred submission process.   
   
• Do bring a notepad and something with which to write.  The agents are a wealth of information on the publishing industry.  
   
• Here are a few websites that discuss how to pitch; however, this is not an all-inclusive list.  Surf the Internet for more.
   
• Here are some articles that discuss how to pitch your work to a literary agent, but please search for more. The Internet is a wealth of helpful information.
  ·          The Perfect Pitch: Pitching to Agents at a Writing Conference  A good article to help you prepare. http://www.writing-world.com/publish/pitch.shtml
  ·         “How to Pitch Your Book at a Writing Conference”.  Another great article from the same source can be found at http://www.writing-world.com/publish/pitch2.shtml  
   
• Rehearse your pitch, but pick a listener who will offer you honest feedback, not someone who loves you enough to overlook your flaws. 
  • Suggestion:  Try not to memorize your pitch word-for-word. Instead, strive for a conversational approach. If you memorize your pitch and stumble on a word, or the agent interrupts you to ask a question, it might throw you off. Be prepared, but just talk to the agent as you would any other new acquaintance.
     
• FREE ON-LINE CLASS:  Unlike other conferences, which charge extra for such classes, the DFW Writers’ Conference brings you “Agent Pitches 101″ from author Candace Havens’ Writers Workshop free of charge. The class will focus on the basics of perfecting your agent pitch. After you register for the conference, you will be given the full details.Good luck!  We look forward to seeing you at the 2010 DFW Writers’ Conference.

We’re so glad you asked. We just posted a list of genres for the agents who’ve accepted our invitation so far. Check it out. Instructions for signing up for a chance at an agent interview are coming soon.