Beth Jusino began her presentation with setting parameters for questions and stated that she will be happy to discuss individual projects in person following the two-hour session. With a slide presentation to highlight her talk, Beth presented “Pitch Your Book so That Publishers Pay Attention.” She showed us how to master the synopsis, the hook, and the verbal pitch to publishers and agents.

The first step is to be able to answer the daunting question in a succinct few sentences, “What is my book about?” An author must be able to describe the essence of their book in a few sentences that will draw in the listener/publisher/agent/reader and leave them wanting more.

Step two is to determine where to pitch your book: There are over 1200 publishers. Beth described what publishers offer; the BIG SIX publishers as contrasted with small, independent publishers. She noted that the big publishers almost always contract through agents; the smaller publishers deal with authors on a more personal basis. All are concerned with the bottom line—how many copies they can sell, and all move relatively slowly. Therefore, it is advisable to contact more than one agent/publisher simultaneously. Beth advises familiarizing yourself with what types of books are published by various houses, know your audience, and where you want to sell your books.

Further steps involve finding agents and publishers, how to network, and finding online reports about marketing trends. The last three steps for pitching your book covered making the pitch, the query letter, and the more formal proposal. The following building blocks are needed: 1) Know your genre, 2) the hook—what makes your book unique, 3) what is the inciting incident that starts the action, 4) who will read this book, and 5) something about you, your background, and qualifications.

Beth provided us with a sample of a successful query letter (one page maximum!). Her slide show is available at https://www.slideshare.net/BethJusino/pitch-your-book-so-that-publishers-pay-attention and also on her website at http://bethjusino.com/resources.