Elevator Pitch by Heidi Taylor

In an effort to put the classes I attended at the 2016 ANWA conference down on the proverbial written page.

What is an elevator pitch? Basically it is - What is your book about? It is a promise that your book will deliver on. Short and concise. Born on Sixth Avenue back in the day before social media when writers watched and waited for an editor to go to lunch and then rode the elevator to their floor with them. It is not a synopsis, as a synopsis tells everything - back cover copy.

An Elevator pitch is very formulaic.

 1) Who is your hero?

2) What is his or her goal? What is he/she trying to accomplish?

3) What is keeping him/her from accomplishing that goal?

4) What is at stake?

Difference between an elevator pitch and a synopisis. Synopsis tells more. It is back cover copy. Tells the reader a little bit more. So for an example we will do Star Wars- back to the first one, I think it is referred to as Number 4.

1) Who is the hero? Luke Skywalker

2) What is his goal?What is he trying to accomplish? Get the droids back to the princess.

3) What is keeping him from accomplishing his goal? Darth Vader wants the driods.

4) What is at stake? The rebel army will fall.

That is it in a nutshell. Present it in two or three sentences and go.

Tell me more. Is what the editor says.

Don't get stuck in the minutia.

Synopsis is something you can use in your query letter.