Pitching to a Literary Agent

Do you have a great book idea you'd like to pitch but don't know where to start? Does approaching an agent feel daunting? Consider practicing at a pitch slam. Kind of like speed dating for writers. This January 21-23 in NYC, the Writer’s Digest Writing Conference will make available more than 50 professional literary agents over a two-hour period. You can pitch to as many as you can in 3-minute sessions. According to the website:

The first 90 seconds of each meeting are for you to pitch your work, be it fiction or nonfiction. The remaining time is for the agent to give his or her immediate feedback on the pitch, along with invaluable suggestions for improving it. A list of the agents and the types of work they represent allow you to target the people who are right for your work. When time is called, you move to the next agent on your list.

For some really helpful hints on the do's and don'ts of approaching agents, check out Amy Burkhardt's blog post at Kimberley Cameron & Associates Literary Agency, where I happen to have an interview this week for an internship. About conferences she writes, "The opportunity to meet potential clients face-to-face and to talk about writing is downright refreshing. Unlike email, conferences are a great way to connect with writers and have a dialogue about their work."