The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Caro:

45 Janni:

I do get the impression that pitch sessions are much more the norm in, say, RWA, where they're a regular part of larger conferences; it'd be interesting to see what RWA members' take on their usefulness is.

The reaction varies -- there's certainly a tremendous amount of chaff in the pitches, but I do know some people who've managed to get an editor interested in something that doesn't quite fit the current norm and have it requested. If they'd gone through the regular query/slush pile, they would have stood a much higher chance of getting rejected flat out.

The big advantage of getting a request is that it can now go in as "requested material." Also, if your pitch is good enough, editors and agents have been known to request a full manuscript, allowing you to bypass the partial stage altogether.

It's certainly a mixed bag -- but the way my particular RWA chapter looks at it, going into a pitch session is as much about getting a sense of what interests the editor or agent and what doesn't as trying to tell them your story. The meeting after National in July is dedicated to disseminating information gained at the conference, which is a big help.

No one that I know of has ever sold directly off a pitch, though a pitch has started the process by which some people have sold.

One of the best things my parents did for their aspiring writer child was buying an Selectric typewriter to replace our old Royal Manual. That thing saw me through many a school paper, fan fic, a few zines and let my mother do the newsletter for her sewing guild.

::beats head against the desk::

The stupid -- it burns...

Fortunately, we have a secret weapon that will blast through the noise and get you noticed by the people who can that stampeded, beating a path to the bookstores

My head felt like it was going explode when I read this...

Theresa, please finish that article on Kinkade -- I'd love to hear your take.

I just shared this with my husband who used to be an assistant manager for Waldenbooks. He made some rather interesting choking noises, but did manage to confess that if someone repurposes a dump with hot-glue decoupage and pictures of the author's cats, he wants to see photographic evidence.

And some of us have too many friends and relations in the area and can't help watching because we're scared what's going to happen and we're too far away to do anything.

Is it wrong for me to laugh at the fact that when I tried to click the link, my company's "Websense" program blocked it on the grounds it was "illegal or questionable"?

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