How to Pitch a Book to
a Literary Agent
By Mary Kole
Mary Kole is a former literary agent, freelance editor, writing teacher, author of Writing Irresistible Kidlit, and IP developer for major publishers, with over a decade in the publishing industry.
Wondering how to pitch a book to a literary agent? As a former literary agent myself, I have you covered. Whether you pitch via email or form or go to a writer’s conference, putting your work out there is a nerve-wracking experience: you do your best, then wait and see whether it was good enough. Learning how to pitch a book can be challenging, but if you approach it like any other business opportunity, you can learn what you need to do to present yourself professionally.
How to Pitch a Book in Person
Imagine you’re on the receiving end of a pitch or interviewing a job candidate. They do well and you put them in your maybe pile and let them know you’ll call them with a decision in a few days. Does this sound familiar? That's how it goes when writers approach agents with their elevator pitches.
When I was an agent, I would sit across from writers at writing conferences, listen to their pitch, then explain that I can’t really tell anything about the writing from verbal pitches, so I’d ask to see a writing sample. This is standard procedure. I would then give them submission guidelines for sending their materials over.
Avoid Inquiring About Your Success
Asking whether the agent likes the pitch is the “how to pitch a book” equivalent of a job applicant sitting there and asking, “Am I gonna get it?” Imagine that writer, who has not yet shown any writing samples, leaning in to ask, “Will it get published?” This put the agent in an awkward position. Agents aren’t a credit card application hotline, so don't expect a 30-second decision. Setting your expectations correctly to not expect a split-second reaction is critical if you want to know how to pitch a book professionally.
No matter how tempting it is to ask about your odds or performance, especially since you have a real, live agent or editor sitting right there, I would advise against it. I’d hope it’s awkward for you, and that you have that kind of self-awareness. Because it sure as heck is awkward for us on the other side of the desk.
How to Pitch a Book: Comparing Live Pitches to Written Queries
Attending writer's conferences might be a foot in the door with agents and editors that you meet in person, compared to submitting blind in the slush pile, but only by a slim margin (you’ll get a 1%-5% uptick in requests, depending who you ask). But this might not be about how to pitch a book in person vs. remotely. Writers who attend conferences tend to be further along in the writing process and usually are more seriously committed to becoming published. They often know how to pitch a book already, or are at least looking to really dig in and practice their elevator pitch or logline.
However, paying for the conference and getting in front of agents and editors is not a guarantee that you will succeed or that your pitch will land. There are many more factors to selling a novel. Some writers wonder how to pitch a book with less expense and from the privacy of their homes. That’s where a written query letter comes in. You can send these at any time, without waiting for a conference to roll around, and there’s no opportunity for instant writing feedback—which might seem like a blessing to certain introverted writers.
How to Pitch a Book: Do You Include Spoilers or Not?
Writers wondering how to pitch a book often wonder if it’s okay to include spoilers in query letters or live pitch sessions, especially if their book is in a category that has a juicy twist expected. (Think about some well-known thriller tropes.) To me, it’s perfectly fine and even desirable to reveal the ending in a query. You can save the revelations for a synopsis if one is requested or sent, but it's important to share your twists and turns with the agent or editor.
Including the shock reveal or resolution in your query or synopsis is an advantageous move, in my opinion. If you have come up with incredible twists that'll shock your audience, I would be delighted to discover them early. Help the agent become more excited about your manuscript by demonstrating that you have a great imagination for plot. You might not have to work so hard on how to pitch a book if you’re Including spoilers, twists, and surprises that make your premise sound fun and exciting.
Some authors feel their work has unparalleled creativity and feel tempted to withhold the climax in their queries. However, it's not just the concept of the twist that’s going to grab readers. No matter what the story is about, I need to see how it actually plays out. What you withhold or not from the query is just an issue of how to pitch a book—but the book itself is its own strongest pitch.
The query can only take you so far. So, whether you’re querying or pitching a live agent at a conference, the most important thing about how to pitch a book is that the agent should be enticed to read your pages. After that, it’s your manuscript’s job to get you across the finish line and secure an offer of representation. Try to keep these considerations of how to pitch a book in perspective. Even the most incredible agent pitch or query letter is just a means to an end.
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Click here to purchase Successful Query Letters, my book on query letters, including over forty examples with comprehensive notes on each one. There’s a ton of submission advice, best practices, and insider information in these pages, and you’ll really enjoy seeing what other writers are doing in the slush.