STATUS: Ready for sleep.
What’s playing on the iPod right now? SHAPE OF MY HEART by Sting
It’s obvious to me that you guys have got this down. If you look in the comments section, everyone got the catalyst right off—Freud arriving on American soil at the same time as one rather gruesome murder and another attempted murder.
You also got that the Publisher was playing off of what they assume the general reading audience would already know about Freud.
Not to mention the “Sherlock Holmes” type set up in the language of the blurb sends some clear signals about what the reader can expect. Hence, the short and pithy pitch. In the Publisher’s mind, no extra details were needed to hook the reader (and some of you might disagree with that) but for the most part, it’s going to be effective.
By the way, the pitch used all plot details to build the paragraph. There are hints of character because of what we know in our heads about Freud but the reader is bringing that to the pitch. Character-building itself is not actually present; it’s all plot details.
My work is done here. Go forth and write awesome pitches for your novels.
I do have some more examples culled from that previous comment string but I’ll just intersperse them in here and there in future blog entries for the next couple of weeks. It just gets boring after awhile to do too many in a row.
Thank you for this series. It’s been excellent!
Thanks. I taught a pitch workshop at the Write on Vancouver conference and added in some of your ideas (giving you full credit of course and pointing them towards your blog.) You’ve got so many great examples that I think it is easier for people to see their way clear.
You’ve always got such great advice- thanks for your time and insight.
Thanks
Thanks for this series. It provided me with some much-needed clarification.
Thank you so much for doing this series of posts on pitch paragraphs – I found it extremely helpful and enlightening. :0D