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Making the Perfect Pitch: How To Catch a Literary Agent's Eye | 
 enlarge | Author: Katharine Sands
Publisher: Watson-Guptill
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $11.25
You Save: $8.70 (44%)
New (21) Used (8) Collectible (1) from $8.89
Avg. Customer Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 12552
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 7 x 2.8
ISBN: 0871162067
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.52
EAN: 9780871162069
ASIN: 0871162067
Publication Date: April 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: A new, clean copy of this wonderful book.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
Valuable insight into the minds of top literary agents! October 3, 2008
If you've ever wished for the opportunity to interview the top literary agents in America, read Making the Perfect Pitch. Katharine Sands compiled a book of essays by as well as interviews with agents. While some essays and interviews are better than others, each one will provide information about the agent helping you decide whether or not to approach the agent for possible representation. Sometimes as I was reading, I could sense that an agent wouldn't be the right one for me just from an attitude, a statement, or a point of view. This isn't a criticism of the agent, I just knew my personality wouldn't mesh with the person. That creates a time savings for a writer looking for an agent. On the other hand, there were many agents whose essay/interview made me take notice. With titles like How Much is a Black Dress?, How I Learned to Sell Sex, Dean and Rock `n' Roll, and In the Singles Bar of the Literary Persuasion, to name a few, these essays are certain to intrigue, inform, and , dare I say, entertain. Making the Perfect Pitch is a valuable read for anyone searching for a literary agent.
Time is Now July 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Katharine Sands is a New York literary agent. We heard her speak in a workshop some time back. She knows her business and has sage advice for the beginning writer as to how to attract and kept the attention of an agent. This title should sit on any reference shelf to be studied over and over.
Going outside the box seldom works in this vital aspect of an author's career. "Over the transom" submissions to a publishing house are fuel for recycling through a shredder. The last one that may have made it was COLD MOUNTAIN. Publishers state they only consider agent-ed works because they are aware the manuscript has already been through a tough elimination process. Keep this in mind and read MAKING THE PERFECT PITCH.
Writing as a Small BusinessSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelUnder the Liberty OakNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil WarGuns Across the Rio: A Texas Ranger in Old Mexico
The Best June 27, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The best book I've ever read about the business of writing. A top agent herself, Sands has gathered the wisdom and candor of other agents as well to share what writers need to know. PITCH is as valuable for what it says between the lines. Like with a panel discussion, what you glean and absorb is as helpful as the specific guidance the book provides. Sands accomplishes that with an engaging format and narrative voice that creates that rare, nonfiction page-turner.
It took me three years to find a publisher for my first novel; then I promoted it for several years, to the point of burnout. After my second novel was done, I let it sit for two years, unsure I was willing to work that hard again. I became willing but vowed to work smarter this time. Soon thereafter, I found PITCH, and it gave me what I needed. Even though I've worked in publishing for twenty years and have written seriously for seventeen, I found invaluable insight on nearly every page.
As others have reported, my fortune has greatly improved. I'm grateful to Sands for her important role in that happy result.
Cynthia Lamb,
author of the novel BRIGID'S CHARGE
PRACTICAL MAGIC June 19, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a freelance writer, author, and Internet marketing consultant, I am always looking for new insight into the difficult process of attracting an agent or publisher's eye, both for my own writing and for that of my author clients. When this book first came out, I was excited because I know Katharine Sands to be a fine, dedicated professional who cares about her work and about her own clients. She is well connected in the publishing world and I expected that her advice and that of the agents she had gathered together in this volume would be insightful and helpful. My expectations were met and exceeded as I worked my way through the chapters. I have often gone back and reviewed suggestions and important points and been able to apply them to benefit my own work and that of my clients.
I noted the negative comments of "avid reader" in these reviews and feel prompted to respond by saying it sounds like sour grapes to me--this person obviously thinks she/he is being excluded from an exclusive club. She/he is right--but not the club of MFA-holders--avid reader is excluded from the club of those who constantly work to refine and improve their writing skills, and of those able to absorb and put to use solid advice of experienced agents who know this tough industry well. Avid reader should try looking inward rather than pointing outward. There is not a person among us in this industry who can not learn more about how to be a better writer, how to approach the industry more effectively, how to get better results.
Personally, I found inspiration in "Making the Perfect Pitch"--not every single contributor's advice resonated with my own work, of course, but, as Terry Whalin emphasizes, different voices and ideas speak to each of us, you have to take the important kernels of information from those who can help us, heed the call to excellence, and keep on moving forward. This book helped me to do that, to inch forward on my own writing journey.
--Rosemary Carstens, writer, author, and editor of FEAST, the award-winning eZine
You need this book February 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you can't write a flawless pitch after reading this book, it's not because you didn't have all the information you could possibly need. Besides essays breaking things down into the proverbial "five easy steps," the book includes Katharine Sands' interviews with fellow literary agents, and the information she coaxes from them is a gold mine of invaluable advice on writing pitches and novels themselves. The subjects it covers include the importance of a twist, a colorful detail, in your query; letting hooks emerge rather than building a book on one; the benefits of underselling yourself rather than playing the salesman; and the importance of approaching an agent as a collaborator. It's impossible to overestimate the practical value of these insights. And it's safe to say that aspiring novelists can't afford not to hear what this book has to say.
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