Making the Perfect Pitch: How To Catch a Literary Agent's Eye

Katharine Sands is a New York literary agent. We heard her speak in a workshop some time back. She knows her business and has sage advice for the beginning writer as to how to attract and kept the attention of an agent. This title should sit on any reference shelf to be studied over and over.
Going outside the box seldom works in this vital aspect of an author's career. "Over the transom" submissions to a publishing house are fuel for recycling through a shredder. The last one that may have made it was COLD MOUNTAIN. Publishers state they only consider agent-ed works because they are aware the manuscript has already been through a tough elimination process. Keep this in mind and read MAKING THE PERFECT PITCH.
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The best book I've ever read about the business of writing. A top agent herself, Sands has gathered the wisdom and candor of other agents as well to share what writers need to know. PITCH is as valuable for what it says between the lines. Like with a panel discussion, what you glean and absorb is as helpful as the specific guidance the book provides. Sands accomplishes that with an engaging format and narrative voice that creates that rare, nonfiction page-turner.

It took me three years to find a publisher for my first novel; then I promoted it for several years, to the point of burnout. After my second novel was done, I let it sit for two years, unsure I was willing to work that hard again. I became willing but vowed to work smarter this time. Soon thereafter, I found PITCH, and it gave me what I needed. Even though I've worked in publishing for twenty years and have written seriously for seventeen, I found invaluable insight on nearly every page.

As others have reported, my fortune has greatly improved. I'm grateful to Sands for her important role in that happy result.

Cynthia Lamb,
author of the novel BRIGID'S CHARGE

As a freelance writer, author, and Internet marketing consultant, I am always looking for new insight into the difficult process of attracting an agent or publisher's eye, both for my own writing and for that of my author clients. When this book first came out, I was excited because I know Katharine Sands to be a fine, dedicated professional who cares about her work and about her own clients. She is well connected in the publishing world and I expected that her advice and that of the agents she had gathered together in this volume would be insightful and helpful. My expectations were met and exceeded as I worked my way through the chapters. I have often gone back and reviewed suggestions and important points and been able to apply them to benefit my own work and that of my clients.

I noted the negative comments of "avid reader" in these reviews and feel prompted to respond by saying it sounds like sour grapes to me--this person obviously thinks she/he is being excluded from an exclusive club. She/he is right--but not the club of MFA-holders--avid reader is excluded from the club of those who constantly work to refine and improve their writing skills, and of those able to absorb and put to use solid advice of experienced agents who know this tough industry well. Avid reader should try looking inward rather than pointing outward. There is not a person among us in this industry who can not learn more about how to be a better writer, how to approach the industry more effectively, how to get better results.

Personally, I found inspiration in "Making the Perfect Pitch"--not every single contributor's advice resonated with my own work, of course, but, as Terry Whalin emphasizes, different voices and ideas speak to each of us, you have to take the important kernels of information from those who can help us, heed the call to excellence, and keep on moving forward. This book helped me to do that, to inch forward on my own writing journey.
--Rosemary Carstens, writer, author, and editor of FEAST, the award-winning eZine

If you can't write a flawless pitch after reading this book, it's not because you didn't have all the information you could possibly need. Besides essays breaking things down into the proverbial "five easy steps," the book includes Katharine Sands' interviews with fellow literary agents, and the information she coaxes from them is a gold mine of invaluable advice on writing pitches and novels themselves. The subjects it covers include the importance of a twist, a colorful detail, in your query; letting hooks emerge rather than building a book on one; the benefits of underselling yourself rather than playing the salesman; and the importance of approaching an agent as a collaborator. It's impossible to overestimate the practical value of these insights. And it's safe to say that aspiring novelists can't afford not to hear what this book has to say.

I was very surprised at the glowing reviews of this book, but have to agree with the reviewer named badkitty wholeheartedly. First of all, if you're writing non-fiction, you will get more info on cover letters and proposals from the internet. What's in here is very esoteric and has been said before many times. There are only a few chapters that cover that anyway. That being said, the rest of this review is for those fiction writers.

There are 40 chapters in this book and most of them are done in an interview format. Ms. Sands asks a question, and often inane questions I could care less about, and then has the agent's response. Way too many personal anecdotes and publishing stories, as well as blurbs to try to get you to buy that person's book. Also, as the other reviewer badkitty stated, most of the agents in this book require you to have an MFA or be a published author before they'll even consider you, so if you have no credentials in that third paragraph, your query is in the trash. Another complaint is that many of these agents have silly requirements--they ignore email queries, ignore handwritten envelopes, ignore queries on regular bond paper, etc. I guess at this point, perhaps you may want to read the book just to know which agents NOT to query.

There are four chapters in this book worth reading if you can get a copy at the library. Otherwise, don't bother because it's been said before and better. Those four chapters are: Chapter 6 by Donald Maass (in interview format, but good), Chapter 15 by Andrew Stuart (NOT in interview format), Chapter 18 by Harvey Klinger (interview format, but I love his "housewife authors welcome" attitude), and Chapter 22 by Debbie Babitt (a copyeditor that demonstrates how to make those one-liners or sound-bites for back copy).

Since the author badmouthed the reviewer badkitty claiming that the agents in this book DIDN'T mention that they were looking for only MFA's and published authors, here's a list of those who do: Ch. 2 (Kristen Auclair), Ch. 3 (Anna Ghosh), Ch. 8 (Joseph Regal), Ch. 9 (Robert Gottlieb), Ch. 12 (Laurie Horowitz--she only works with agents), Ch. 16 (Jane Dystel), Ch. 17 (Sheree Bykofsky), Ch. 19 (Jason Cangialosi and Andrew Whelchel), Ch. 20 (Jim Fitzgerald), Ch. 21 (Meredith Bernstein--she says it in other ways), Ch. 23 (David Vigliano--referrals only), Ch. 34 (Andrew Zack), and Ch. 35 (Ellen Levine). Most of the other chapters I haven't already referred to are more anecdotal than helpful or very specific to one particular type of writing.

Overall, not a book worth buying. Only four chapters were worth reading and I've read most of it before. You will get more useful info by using AgentQuery (which is free) and then clicking the links to individual agents' websites. There are plenty of examples of queries/pitches on agent blogs these days.