As a small press author and sometimes micro-press publisher, I find myself hand-selling my books at various conventions and book festivals. If you are an introvert like me, this can be hard. Add to the fact that I’ve been trained by my Midwestern grandparents to be humble in all things, no matter what I’ve accomplished, and it makes hand-selling my books a trial at best and terrifying at worst.
What I need are quick little pitches for each book that I can memorize and deliver on command. Beloved Spouse came up with a couple of good ones for The Horror at Cold Springs depending on exactly where I’m selling the book. I pitch it differently at Minnesota science fiction conventions–where I play up the Steampunk and Lovercraftian Horror aspects–than say in Oklahoma, where I focus more on the weird western aspect. The Horror at Cold Springs I can pitch to a potential reader reasonably well, though I need to write those pitches down, refine them, and practice them.
But for my other books, I tend to be a little lost. I can give the old elevator pitch for Last Car to Annwn Station (it’s a dark urban fantasy revenge and redemption supernatural horror novel with mythological and fairy tale overtones and lesbian protagonists, featuring the ghost of the defunct Twin Cities Streetcars), but it needs a more content driven follow up.
With Should We Down in Feathered Sleep and Shimmers and Shadows I focus on the Minnesota angle, but I haven’t developed a good pitch for either and I need a pitch that doesn’t focus on Minnesota for when I’m traveling. I find myself flailing with both The Curious Case of the Jeweled Alicorn (though I’m starting to form something coherent. Maybe.) and Old Blood’s Fate. I’ve got nothing right now for Whispers in Space.
I can pitch the two MinnSpec anthologies easy enough, mostly because I can pitch MinnSpec and I can shift the focus off of me and onto my writers.
So I guess what I am asking you dear readers, many of whom are writers, librarians, and booksellers: how do you go about hand-selling (if you need to do that at all) or talking up a book. What techniques do you use? Are there good resources to learn this skill? Keep in mind that I am a quiet, taciturn Midwestern male, so pitching my own work goes against my very nature. Also, for those of you who’ve read the books, I’d love to hear how you recommend them to your friends (if you do) and what you think are the focal points of the books. I’d even love to hear your short pitch of my books!