the 90 second pitch

[cheekychook]

Hi Nathan,

I've read all I can find about what should or shouldn't be done in a 90 second pitch (literally, every post/blog/link I could find) but the idea of one is still freaking me out. Okay, that's an understatement. I'm having visions of myself requiring a valium drip in order to make it through this sort of speed-dating-esque pitch marathon session, but I"m afraid the IV pole would slow me down. I know you weren't a big fan of these sessions, but I'm hoping you can offer some agently perspective. My questions for you are:

a) as an agent, in a 2-hour bell-rings-every-3-minutes pitchapalooza what was the most important thing a writer could offer you?
b) is it all about the hook? or did you want equal parts hook/market/writer info?
c) how chatty/conversational should the pitch sound (as opposed to sounding like a memorized query letter you're repeating like an animatronic version of an author)?
d) IV valium---frowned upon or would other conference goers be sinking their teeth into it like thirsty vampires?

Thanks in advance. :)

[Nathan Bransford]

Hi Nathan,

I've read all I can find about what should or shouldn't be done in a 90 second pitch (literally, every post/blog/link I could find) but the idea of one is still freaking me out. Okay, that's an understatement. I'm having visions of myself requiring a valium drip in order to make it through this sort of speed-dating-esque pitch marathon session, but I"m afraid the IV pole would slow me down. I know you weren't a big fan of these sessions, but I'm hoping you can offer some agently perspective. My questions for you are:

a) as an agent, in a 2-hour bell-rings-every-3-minutes pitchapalooza what was the most important thing a writer could offer you?
b) is it all about the hook? or did you want equal parts hook/market/writer info?
c) how chatty/conversational should the pitch sound (as opposed to sounding like a memorized query letter you're repeating like an animatronic version of an author)?
d) IV valium---frowned upon or would other conference goers be sinking their teeth into it like thirsty vampires?

Thanks in advance. :)

I think the most important thing is to just not overthink it. This 90 second pitch is not going to make or break you, and there's really not that much an agent is going to be able to tell from it. I personally always preferred that people came in receptive to feedback and had questions at the ready, because those pitch sessions are really much better for targeted advice than for an agent to be able to divine whether the project is or isn't going to work based on a short pitch.

So my advice is to just try not to think too much about it, just tell the story, and then use that time to make a personal connection with the agent.