I am currently reading “Making the Perfect Pitch” written by Katharine Sands. Each chapter is written by a different literary agent and provides a great overall feel about what agents are looking for in your query.
I will spend the next few weeks posting notes from things I learn in each chapter. Please subscribe to my blog if you would like to get an email when I post a new entry.
Enjoy.
Chapter 1: A Morning in the Life of a Literary Agent
Chapter 2: Five Questions to Ask Before Sending Your Query Letter
Chapter 3: Notes to the New Writer
Chapter 4: I Am Willing to Be Seduced, Amaze, Charmed, or Moved
Chapter 5: Practicing Pitchcraft
Chapter 6: Setting, Protagonist, Problem
Chapter 7: Talent Always Jumps off the Page
Chapter 8: The Providential Diamond
Chapter 9: Getting Ahead of the Curve
Chapter 10: Niche Your Pitch
Chapter 11: It’s the Quirks That Make It Interesting
Chapter 12: Making Your Book into a Movie
Chapter 13: Pitches That Worked
Chapter 14: In the Singles Bar of the Literary Persuasion
Chapter 15: The Secret is Reduction
Chapter 16: The Serendipity of Slush
Chapter 17: I Want to Hear a Diva Do Opera
Chapter 18: I Love to Tell a Publisher “Have I Got a Virgin for You!”
Chapter 19: 15 Minutes to Fame
Chapter 20: A Nation of Many Tribes
Chapter 21: How Much is a Black Dress?
Chapter 22: Adventures in Copywriting
Chapter 23: Don’t Be Buffeted by Whims
Chapter 24: Booking in L.A.
Chapter 25: The Art of the Poetry Pitch
Chapter 26: Pitching Your Children’s Book
Chapter 27: Confessions of an Acquisitions Editor
Chapter 28: Crafting the Nonfiction Proposal
Chapter 29: The Nearly Perfect Proposal
Chapter 30: The Telling Detail
Chapter 31: It Has to Be Cutting-Edge Work
Chapter 32: How I Learned to Sell Sex, Death, & Rock ‘n’ Roll
Chapter 33: Pitchcraft, the Zen of, and the Secrets of the Galaxy
Chapter 34: The Perfect Pitch: Low and Inside
Chapter 35: Intelligence and Imagination
Chapter 36: Publishing as a Circus
Chapter 37: This Pen for Hire
Chapter 38: Pitch Perfect
Chapter 39: Pitch and Catch
Chapter 40: Selected Resources
Katherine Sands is a literary agent with Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency.
Disclaimer: This book was published in 2004 so some agents may no longer be practicing, but the information provided is still pertinent to today’s market.
