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Blue on Blue

6 posts, 5 voices | back to listing

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OK.

Look.

This is about words.

It's about words on paper (or a screen).

It's about persuading people that you (or I) can construct words on paper (or a screen) in a way which will be compelling and lively and interesting, which will drag the reader in, which will immerse the reader and hold her spellbound as the clock ticks inexorably into the wee sma' oors and the shrill alarm of the next working day creeps ever closer.

I may have a pretty face. I may not - you don't know, yet, because I haven't uploaded a video yet. I may be personable in person (or at least able to impersonate someone who is).

All of this doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter in the least.

In conversation, we can't go back, rub out, switch words around, move speeches from one character to another. Conversation is constructed in real time, on the fly. Great narratives are not constructed like that. Great narratives are worked over, torn appart, rewritten, obsessively polished. Every word is judged, and those found wanting, excised.

A facile facility with continuous speech, a self-confidence in self-presentation, is not the stuff of which good writers are made. This isn't to say that no good writer is also good at self-presentation. The two qualities are orthogonal to one another.

Yes, it may help a publisher market a book if the author has a pretty face, is able to come over clearly and articulately in interviews. But only if the book is in the first place a good book.

To pitch a book by talking about it is missing the point, walking past it. The point is this:

In the beginning was the word.

But in the end was the text, and it's the text that we're talking about.

I guess if you don't think video clips are the best way to appeal to agents, then you're better off applying to agents in the traditional way.
I think it might depend on the type of book you are pitching, certainly some genres are becoming more....how do you put it? more public? and sites like this are relevant.

Jo

PS - I'm still hoping to see your pitches

You have my utmost sympathy. Like you I would much prefer to pitch my work in writing allowing the work to speak for itself. And I don't subscribe to the theory that in order to 'prove' to an agent or publisher you are able to sell yourself, promote yourself & partake in the whole marketing thing it is neccesary to make a video of yourself. Personally, I'm quite confident I could do all of this; a chat on the telephone would suffice.
Is a flickering, homemade video clip really the best way to promote a manuscript & its author? I seriously doubt this.

Hi
I think the first chapter of my book is a lot more interesting than me too, but this site is different to your ordinary submissions process, it lets potential agents see the whole package...because if they were to represent you, it would be YOU as well as your writing that they were representing.
Someone who takes you on wants to know that you are marketable as well as your book. Sad but true? For instance they'd want to know if you were to be published and to be invited to take part in, say, an event at a literary festival, that you wouldn't just sit there like a damp squid!
I am shy, but I am very passionate about my writing. I'm sure you are equally passionate about yours, and that's what it needs isn't it? Because they're not going to be looking at how pretty you are (at least I hope not!), they're going to want someone engaging.
Also the 'pitching' process is something you might have to go to when proposing your ideas to a publisher or an agent, you need to be able to get your whole story across in the ammount of time they are willing to listen to you for, normally about a minute and a half. It is a very tough call.
I hope you take the plunge and make a pitch. Since I've had mine up I've been able to send agents to the site and I've had five requests for material, so if you are proactive it is worth doing.
I look forward to seeing your film
love
Jo

Be brave!

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