It would probably be unwise of me to skip over my take on BEA, even though I'm already kind of tired of talking about. Alas...you are curious folk.

Indeed, I did feel that the overall mood was a bit more somber. Way fewer galleys to grab. (Though it was obvious which publishers had better means to provide them.) Many other agents echoing my feeling that it's slow out there. I myself was rather caught up with the Egmont launch, since we're proud to have several authors on Egmont's first two lists. I actually started to worry that the Egmont team was getting tired of me. I'll post a picture or two of author Pam Bachorz's wild ride through BEA when I have time to upload things.

Otherwise, I suppose the more interesting event of BEA was the Writer's Digest Writers Conference held last Wednesday.  Caren and I participated in the pitch slam in the afternoon, wherein 65 agents sat in rooms and had people line up to pitch us projects. This leads me to want to talk about how to pitch a project, because there were a lot of nervous souls who had only 3 minutes to sum up something they've worked much longer than that on. And truthfully, most of the pitches were dreadfully ineffective. (Sorry to be harsh.)

I know talking to agents is scary. We're very mean and judgmental, live to make your lives miserable, and eat kittens for breakfast.

Except we're not. So, if you have a 10 minute consultation with an agent, or 3 minutes at a pitch session, what should you do?

The biggest piece of advice is: know what you're selling. Be able to sum it up in a sentence. What I constantly notice is that writers want to pitch me by telling me their entire plot. Writers are very close to their work. They know all their characters inside and out. They can't separate wheat from chaff. But when you start givng me the whole run-down, I can't follow it. My eyes glaze over. Names blend into each other.

So instead, figure out what the core of the book is and describe that. All the subplots and twists are things I'd want to read and enjoy once you have me interested in the general idea. But first you just want to get me interested. You want to have log-lines for your book. Like the one-liner description of a tv show you'll see in TV Guide. Better yet, go look at the New York Times Book Review's Bestseller lists--there are usually 5-10 word descriptions in each listing. You can see just how boiled down you can get. DO THAT FOR YOUR BOOK. And then when you are pitching an agent tell them that first.

So, let me give some examples. 

In casual conversation with editors, friends, whoever, here's how I might describe CANDOR:

• Very short: It's a brainwashing book. (Instant hook.)
• Short: A planned community where everyone is brainwashed to be perfect, and one boy knows the truth. (More detail, same hook.)
• Longer: Everyone is perfect in Candor because of the Messages that keep them that way. Oscar Banks knows the truth and is happy to have secret power, helping new kids get out of town for a price--that is until the new girl moves to town and he thinks she's already perfect the way she is, and will do anything to keep her that way. (Short, but now here's a plot.)

I usually start with that first one and most people go, "Ooooh, that sounds awesome." Then I might elaborate with one of the other two.

If you know your book well, you should be able to do this. You can do it for anything, even if it's not the most high-concept of books. Other books on my list? A dystopian future where all the men are dead. A madcap adventure across Europe to a pickle competition. Demonic fairy ballerinas. A historical Sixth Sense. See what I mean? And not all of these books are high-concept.

Just to nail it home, the only book I've ever signed from a conference (and a speed-pitch session at that) was from a writer who sat down in front of me and said, "It's a middle-grade Freaky Friday meets It's a Wonderful Life." I could visualize it and I was immediately interested. Granted we've still been going through the process of edits and revisions since then, but you can see how she grabbed my attention.

So, know what you're selling. Boil it down. Sum it up. Because if you don't know what you've got, how am I supposed to? And if you ramble, well, then...that's not going to give me high hopes about the book. Know when to be concise, and how to choose words carefully. That is afterall what most of us agents are looking for: people who have a way with words.

Otherwise, just treat it as a normal human interaction where you smile, you're polite and you have a nice little chat. Most of us are really pretty nice and will not ask for your kitten for our afternoon snack.