Barbara Fillon, VP Director of Media at Author Development, has coached countless authors on the art of the book pitch. In this special guest article, she takes over to give us her guidance on how to evolve your book pitch into an impactful, lasting connection with the power of storytelling.
When I’m media-coaching authors, I get asked a lot of questions on how to talk about a book. Unfortunately, from the publishing industry to Hollywood, the concept of conveying the viability of a project is typically reduced to one word: pitch. And so it goes: What is your elevator pitch? Did you use a pitch deck? Is your pitch too long, too short, too generic, too dramatic?
What I wish we asked more often is: Does it contain a story? I believe that stories are what make us human. (If I were to have a bit of fun, I’d even venture to say that not telling stories would make us less human!) For now, let’s replace pitch with connection. As authors know, storytelling is one of the most powerful art forms available to all of us.
Let me start by sharing my own story. I will always remember that sinking feeling of being in a greenroom listening to one of my brilliant authors talk about their book in an interview. As the minutes ticked by, no stories emerged. It is beyond perplexing to hear an excellent book, filled with unique stories, being discussed in a conversation devoid of storytelling! In the end, I think most people don’t want to hear a pitch as much as they want to be told a good story.
For those of you who know me, I could discuss this topic for hundreds of pages—but for the newsletter genre, let’s narrow it down to four tips!
1.Consider Deleting Your Adjectives
Authors often hide behind adjectives when they aren’t sure what to say about their book. What does your pitch sound like without them? It’s easy to refer to your work as definitive, informative, propulsive, heartwarming, or immersive—but a one-of-a-kind book should have its own language, and that language can be found in a story. This exercise encourages us to get closer to the core of a book’s meaning.
We all agree that the best adjectives apply to your book; that’s our baseline! Now, what would you want to share? If your book is informative, what is the quick story that gives me facts I don’t already know? If your book is propulsive, drop me into a scene. If your book is heartwarming, what does a character do or say that I won’t ever forget? If your story is immersive, share a few deep, unexpected details.
My absolute favorite illustration of killing your adjectives is this short film by George Saunders, whose character Frank is neither compassionate, mean, sad, nor or angry. Frank is only what he can be. Frank is uniquely Frank. This video has guided my thoughts around pitching for years, and I hope you love it as much as I do.
2.The Party Test
Imagine you’re at a party. What would you say about your book to hold someone’s attention? What will cut through the noise and the endless distractions of a crowded party? To do the party test, create a quick story about your book and share it with someone new to see if it connects or if it falls flat. You’ll soon realize that a long plot description—like what’s on the cover of your book—won’t pass the party test. Your ideal party story will reveal a lesson, a mood, or an emotion without having to explicitly name it.
If you need a pre-party test, record your story as a voice memo. Listen back without judgment. Get rid of the words or concepts that don’t work for you. Don’t be afraid of sounding too casual. Don’t be afraid to sound like yourself. Don’t be afraid to care. And remember: The goal is not perfection. The goal is to get someone to pay attention.
Author Samara Bay urges us to see the ultimate goal of public speaking as human connection. “Public speaking is just caring about things together,” she argues. In her new TEDx talk, she makes the best case I’ve seen for having the courage to just be yourself when you speak, and in doing so kick fear to the curb. As Saunders says, a story is “love in progress” and that will always break through the noise.
3.Visual Storytelling
Can a visual do a lot of heavy lifting to help share an important idea? Describing a visual is a great way to provide structure to abstract ideas and theories, making them more memorable and tangible for a listener. Maybe there’s a setting in your novel that is necessary for understanding your story, or a moment from your memoir that could be described, like a painting, to give someone a microcosm of the larger story. Tell us everything we need to know by illustrating a vivid picture.
My favorite recent example of visual storytelling is from a Mel Robbins interview with the spectacular Kier Gains. They are discussing the meaning of resilience. Words like this often mean different things to different people, and when we speak about them in the abstract, we can lose our grip on how these concepts relate to our lives. Robbins calls the word cushy. To illustrate this, we do not need cliches or jargon—we need a visual! Gains doesn’t waste a second theorizing on what resilience is—he shows us.
4.Practice Specificity
Moving from big to small is the key to every great interview. Specificity can hook a reader and help you avoid overwhelming them too early with a lot of big ideas or abstract thought. Embrace the unique details. This doesn’t mean you need to spoil everything about your book. We want to save our favorite parts to be discovered by readers, of course, but unique details serve as hooks. They give a sense of the kind of information readers are going to get. Remember, for a new reader, your book contains countless details. Don’t worry about giving away a dozen of them!
Specificity is the best way to convince a reader there is something new to consider here. Details are the building blocks of stories. Without them, the story falls apart.
This four-minute interview on the Today show with the fantastic Arthur Brooks covers a couple of very detailed stories—one about unhappy Harvard kids, another about Brooks’s great-grandfather—before bringing the topic back to how to live a fulfilling life. Now imagine this interview without the stories. When we lose specificity, we lose the soul of our conversation.
When it comes to pitching your book, once you discover the story, you’ll discover the power. This process will evolve over time and often takes on a life of its own, allowing you to connect with people in extraordinary and often surprising ways.
For more on how to hone your pitch and grow your confidence, check out this Author U session with Barbara Fillon in conversation with authors Samara Bay and Maria Reva!