Mastering the One Sentence Pitch

Part III

In Part I of Mastering the One Sentence Pitch, I discussed the mental and emotional reframing required for me to get comfortable with writing a One Sentence (aka Book Blurb) for myself. An exercise which involved two things:

1) Accepting that championing my work—talking about it in third-person, “glowing” terms was not hubris, but a necessary part of birthing my novel into the world and,

2) Ridding myself of the romanticized view I had previously held of publishing and seeing it as a business no different from any other. (And I know how to do business.)

In Part II, I provided examples of the three different approaches I’ve seen used in One Sentence Book Blurbs, demonstrating that while copywriting is an art in itself (and likely very different from your regular writing voice), once you familiarize yourself with the basic structure, you will be able to create a compelling product on your own.

Which brings us to Part III—The Big Reveal where I share my One Sentence Pitch.

As I prepared to write this post, I dug up some early versions of my One Sentence. My discomfort in talking about my book in even a slightly complementary way is so painfully evident, it’s nearly embarrassing. For all intents and purposes, I might as well have said: “I’m seeking representation for My Book—it’s a book about suff.”

Each version of my One Sentence improved with time, but it was clear that until recently, I was still holding back. What finally cured my residual One Sentence block, was when I started looking at the exercise as a math problem I needed to solve.

In practical terms, there is a code you need to crack to ensure your One Sentence sparks the interest of the agents you are targeting. That code involves including the phrases and words that connect with the kinds of projects your target agents are hoping to add to their portfolio. That information can be accessed in a variety of ways—on the agency website, via Publisher’s Marketplace or through the agent’s Manuscript Wishlist.  

The best way to demonstrate this “code” is to dissect my One Sentence phrase-by-phrase, and explain why I made the choices I did. So here goes:

“I am seeking representation for my debut novel” (which we will call Diana’s Book for now). The use of debut here is both informative and intentional as there are agents who have good track records with first time authors, and who are on the hunt for “new voices.”

“a powerful, multigenerational tale of love, war, and betrayal” It took me a while land on the word powerful. (And it took a village to get there.) Prior to powerful, I had played with a number of other words—including “moving”, which while fine, sounded potentially a little too “romantic” and not as strong as I wanted it to be. The use of multigenerational is also very deliberate. In researching agents, I learned that many express a specific interest in multigenerational tales and family sagas. Love, war and betrayal helps tells a story. Whenever those words are strung together, you know that the novel will probably not be a walk in the park.

“which follows two stories separated by time—1940s France and modern day” A couple of agents on my list—one in particular—expressed a very strong interest in dual timeline stories. 1940s France along with love war, and betrayal specifies that this will take place in Nazi-occupied France, without having to spell that out.

“that converge and collide through the auction of a one-of-a-kind painting” Converge and collide reflect action and also signal that this auction unleashes something.  Interestingly, a number of agents are also attracted to the idea of “found objects” connecting stories and histories. I used art (and art auctions) because of my own interest and passions.

“ultimately asking whether one woman has the power—or heart—to break her family’s cycle of trauma, grief, and shame” This is my version of a “cliffhanger” (as discussed in Installment II of Mastering the One Sentence Pitch.) It creates tension and uncertainty, and also introduces the thrust of what makes this a multigenerational tale—i.e the themes of trauma, grief and shame that the reader can surmise have likely arisen from the initial story of love, war and betrayal.

And finally, here it is all together….Until next time, Diana