On Writing Romance_ How to Craft a Novel That Sells - Leigh Michaels [139]
person. Even if you meet with an editor in person, you will almost always submit your manuscript by mail. However, a personal meeting with an editor can speed the acceptance process.
One of the main draws of good writers' conferences is the editors who attend. You can get first-hand information about what an editor is seeking and in which direction a publisher is moving by attending an editor's workshops or panels.
Even when attending conferences, getting face time with an editor is not easy. Sometimes an editor will offer group appointments, in which several writers can ask more specific and in-depth questions than can be answered during a panel. You can get valuable information and guidance from a group session, even though you won't be able to discuss your individual work.
Pitching Your Idea in Person
At many conferences, editors also offer individual appointments, ten- or fifteen-minute segments where you can make a pitch, presenting your story in brief. If the editor is intrigued, she might ask you to send a synopsis or sample chapters to her after the conference.
Even if she's not interested in seeing more, she can often tell you exactly how you've missed the mark—valuable information that is difficult to get any other way.
Many authors are intimidated by meeting an editor during one of these fifteen-minute appointments. Partly because these appointments are so brief, and partly because they're so valuable, writers tend to treat them as once-in-a-life-time, do-or-die moments—like walking in to the arena with a man-eating tiger.
Contrary to popular opinion, however, editors are not man-eating tigers wearing power suits. They do not take pleasure in squashing wannabes. Their job is to find good, salable books, and they're pleased when they succeed. When you make a pitch to an editor, she's just as hopeful as you are that your book will be the one she can't wait to read.
Fifteen minutes can feel like a lifetime. It can also go by in a flash. The better prepared you are, the more useful your time will be. If you think of your pitch appointment in the same way you would think of a job interview, you won't go far wrong, but there are some specific ways to make the most of your appointment:
• Give the editor your business card.
• Don't waste time telling the editor how nervous you are.
• Have your materials ready so you don't have to fumble for your notes.
• Write down on a 3 x 5 card the main points you want to make. Even if you know your story by heart, the moment you walk into that room you'll he lucky if you can recall your heroine's name.
• Start with the heart of your pitch, one sentence that tells the editor what the story's hook is. What elements are going to make readers want to buy it? What's going to be on the back cover to attract the readers' attention? (An example of a great one-sentence pitch: Their perfect divorce was falling apart!)
• Follow up with specifics. What makes your book different from every other romance? What makes it right for this line and this editor?
• Listen carefully and take quick notes if you wish, but don't try to write down every word. A good way to make the comments stick in your mind is to paraphrase them back to the editor: "So you'd be more interested in my story if I ..." This technique also helps to ensure that you heard the editor's real message, not just your interpretation of it.
• Be prepared with a fallback proposal. If, after your first sentence, the editor says, "We aren't looking for that kind of story just now," what are you going to do with your remaining fourteen minutes?
• Have a finished manuscript ready to mail as soon as you get home. If the editor wants to see it (or a synopsis or samples), you don't want her to forget you or the story, or move on to another line or publisher, before you get the thing finished.
• Don't present a manuscript at a conference, even