Despite the season, this is not about baseball.
Pitching is also what writers do. Writers pitch to agents
and agents then pitch to editors. Editors pitch to acquisition committees. Once
acquired, publishers pitch to booksellers. Lots of pitching goes on in the world
of literature.
A pitch must be pithy and strong. Think of it as a strategic punch.
It’s a craft all its own, and many a good writer feels like a cow in a strange barn
leaning to do it. But as wordsmiths who must use evocative language, it isn’t
as far from our skillset as it feels.
Although I have a twitter account, I must confess I haven’t enjoyed
it much. But it occurred to me that the site has prepared much of tweeting
humanity for pitching. There are also pitching wars that go on regularly.
Check out #PitMad (next coming live 9/5/19, and also
12/5/19) for examples of energetic pitching. Read about it here https://pitchwars.org/pitmad/
[Disclosure: I’ve never done that^, but I have successfully pitched
to editors and later to agents.]
I now come up with a
pitch for every story I write. I do it for my own clarity and because I’ve
gotten to like it.
Have fun going to bat!
