THE ELEVATOR PITCH

One of those things every author needs to learn to do at some point or other is give what’s called an “elevator pitch.” This pitch is so named, because should you be in an elevator with someone you’d like to read your book, there wouldn’t be any time for a ten-minute synopsis. You would need to pitch your idea to them in a matter of seconds, catching their interest while you still had them trapped in a small space, forced to hear you out.

Most elevator pitches aren’t actually given in elevators. They’re given at networking events, in bookstores, to friends and family, during Twitter contests, and basically whenever anybody asks “so what is your book about?” Usually the person you’re speaking to won’t be waiting for the doors to open so they can escape, but the ability to quickly spark someone’s interest in your story is invaluable.

Your “elevator pitch” should easily answer the explicit question: “so what is your book about?” and the implicit question: “and why should I want to read it?”

A good elevator pitch has two elements: the one-sentence description and a few comparable titles. These should work together to tell interested parties exactly what they need to know in as little time as possible.

THE ONE-SENTENCE DESCRIPTION

The goal of the one-sentence description is to lay out a clear premise that’s able to pique a perspective reader’s interest. Which is actually two goals. You need a clear, simple premise that more or less describes your entire book. And you need to make that simple premise engaging.

Some advice on crafting your sentence:

Limit it to 25 words+
Identify your protagonist(s)**
Focus on the story’s central conflict
Include an inherent question
Show what is specific / original to your premise

*Of course this isn’t a rule you absolutely have to follow or else your pitch is worthless, but it’s good to have a concrete goal for length and 25 words is achievable for any book.

**If you don’t have a single protagonist, you might say a “team of x” or “group of y”

This sentence probably isn’t going to describe your book perfectly. It shouldn’t describe your book perfectly. However, your book should have some central idea that you can distill all of the intricacies of the plot down to. That said, one major mistake I’ve seen over and over again is people focusing on those first three bullet points and forgetting about the last two.

Let’s look at an example to see why these don’t work.

An 11-year-old boy must try to save the world.

While this may describe a story, it describes it far too generally.* The sentence above can be any of hundreds of books. How does the boy try to save the world? Which world is he trying to save? Who or what is he trying to save it from? Why is he the one who needs to try and save the world?

*The same goes for descriptions like “battle between good and evil” or “discovering whether true love really can conquer all” or “about the power of friendship and bravery in the face of adversity.” Without more specific details to back those claims up, the claims themselves are pretty meaningless.

An 11-year-old boy must try to save the world from his brother’s evil goldfish.

By answering one of those questions and adding four extra words, I’ve given myself a much better chance of making a reader interested in my story. It draws out what is probably the most interesting, original element of this hypothetical book’s premise to draw a potential reader in.

As for the inherent question, this will come from properly identifying your central conflict. Usually the question is: ‘does this person succeed?’ Sometimes it’s: ‘do they get together?’ It may be: ‘but is he really the murderer?’ or ‘does he stop the evil goldfish?’

Examples:

An 11-year-old boy starts wizardry school, where he sets out to stop the dark wizard who killed his parents from returning to power.

A young WWII nurse’s heart is torn between her English husband and a Scottish highlander after she accidentally time-travels from 1946 to 1743.

A young moisture farmer from a desert planet is pulled into a galaxy-wide rebellion after discovering a distress signal from one of the rebellion’s leaders.

MULTIPLE ONE SENTENCE DESCRIPTIONS

Sometimes you don’t have to pitch THE high concept idea of your novel. Sometimes you’ll want to tailor your pitch to a particular reader.

War and Peace is a slow-burn love story between Natasha and Pierre, two star-crossed Russian aristocrats caught in the middle of the Napoleonic Wars.
War and Peace is about the effect of the Napoleonic Wars on Russian high society, following the experiences of several young aristocrats.
War and Peace is about several young Russian aristocrats’ search for a life of meaning and purpose during the Napoleonic Wars.

A war historian may not enjoy War and Peace for the same reasons as a romance reader, and a romance reader may not enjoy War and Peace for the same reasons as a philosopher, but that doesn’t mean they all won’t like the book. You just need to sell it to them differently.

When pitching, it’s important to pitch your story to a specific audience. Draw out certain elements of a story according to certain reader’s tastes (if you know them). Have a few one-sentence descriptions that emphasize different elements of your story for every type of reader you come across.

When pitching your book in only 25 words, you’ll need to aim the arrow straight at the heart.

THE COMPARISONS

The dreaded “X Meets Y” pitch. Once you’ve neatly summarized your story, it’s time to compare it to something. You don’t necessarily need to follow the “X meets Y” format to a T, but you do need to mention a few comparable titles.

Your comparisons can be a short-hand for style, tone, and all the sorts of things that can’t possibly be described in a sentence, no matter how long. They also serve to show your book’s potential place in the market, suggesting the sort of readers who might be interested in your book. This means you’ll typically want to use comps that are in the same age range and genre. Try to pick books that aren’t the most popular books in their genre, but that the person you’re pitching to should be familiar with. Best sellers, but not all time best sellers.

Some formats you can use instead of “X Meets Y”:

In the vein of X and Y
Would appeal to fans of X and Y
Like X but [concept]

THE COMBINATION

Combining your one sentence description and your comp titles will give you your completed elevator pitch.

The elevator pitch for my WIP is:

A 12-year-old girl inherits a book of spells and tries to fix the problems of her small town with its magic. [TITLE] is for fans of Studio Ghibli’s Kiki’s Delivery Service and Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book.

If I keep these two sentences in my back pocket, I have everything I need to grab a likely reader’s attention.

Even if they’re only going from Floor 1 to Floor 2.