(Just a note, this post is from our archives. Some references and links may be from past years.)
My fabulous webinar on how to craft the perfect pitch paragraph for your query letter is tonight, Sept. 18, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. Mountain time. There is still time to register if you want to come join the fun.
As part of the webinar registration, I had attendees submit their one sentence tag line and then I read through them all. What was immediately clear is that a lot of folks who are attending used the tag as a mini-summary of the story.
That’s not the purpose! A tag line should be one sentence about the inciting incident (or plot catalyst) that starts your novel moving forward–and without it, you wouldn’t have a story to tell.
So that is just one thing I’m going to be teaching folks how to do tonight. Nail that one sentence tag line about your manuscript!
Even short posts on craft and technical aspects are so welcome. Thanks, Kristin!
(I keep saving these, and using them when I’m working on manuscript, query, etc.)
I love your blog! I have been reading a lot ofyour articles as I get closer to submitting my manuscript. Yesterday I had SWEET CAROLINE stuck in my head from your “Listening To” section. That is so fun! Thanks again!
Arielle Hadfield
Kristin,
I really enjoyed the webinar last night and learned so much. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Katie
Personally, I found writing a tagline more difficult than writing a book! As Mark Twain famously said, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter so I wrote a long one instead”!.
Kristin, i want you to know that I enjoyed your “Goodbye Slushpile” webinar! I found it immensely helpful and i could have listened to you go on for another hour – although another hour would have been 11pm EST for me, so i don’t know how coherent i would have been, haha 🙂 My pitch paragraph will be better for it, and i’m looking forward to your next webinar at the end of October 🙂
Cheers!
Tiffany
I’m so happy to find your blog. I just looked up the difference and realize I’ve had the log line and tag line confused. Going to work on a TAG line now. Thanks for this head’s up. I love this blog!