by Penny Sansevieri
Pitching a book is challenging. There are so many amazing authors writing about the same topic, and you need to make your book shine. You’ve labored over your precious manuscript for months or years, and you’ve likely grown attached. You know how great your work is. But now you need to convince everyone else how great it is.
Successfully pitching a book to readers and the media happens in steps. These steps differ for different kinds of books, but they all start with an elevator pitch.
Perfecting Your Elevator Pitch
Your elevator pitch is a one- to two-sentence introduction to your book as a product.
It needs to wow people. It has to have tension and intrigue, and it must pose a question or provide a solution.
Imagine you have literally one to two sentences to sell your book. If people get to say yes or no based on that short pitch alone, what would you say?
It’s supposed to sound difficult. You don’t just pick up any book, buy it, and read it without it first grabbing you somehow. That author knew how to draw their target audience.
So that’s why we’re always talking about how it’s nearly impossible to figure out how to pitch a book all on your own. This kind of magic rarely happens in a vacuum.
A truly great elevator pitch almost always requires objective feedback, market demographic research, and competitive research.
What does this mean for different kinds of books?
For fiction authors, it requires a keen understanding of your genre and your genre’s readers. And honestly, if you’re not a true super-fan of your genre, you’re always stay a couple of steps behind.
For nonfiction authors, it requires a realistic understanding of what’s going on within your topic in our current culture, how it ties into the news cycle, and how your industry is changing. You even need to understand how views on your topic, or needs for your kind of expertise, can change with the seasons.
For either genre, you’ll also need to keep an eye on what other authors within your genre or topic do for their book marketing. How they draw in readers? What they do well, and what they do poorly. Don’t copy them and their craft. Instead, draw inspiration and use it to hone your skills.
You’ve written an entire book, and that was hard work, but the work isn’t done yet. Don’t let a riveting masterpiece fall short in sales because you didn’t have a solid elevator pitch or understand your genre’s readers. Do your research, do some brainstorming, and take your pitch to the next level.
Penny Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. (AME) and an adjunct professor at NYU, is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns.
