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    Gotta Read It! - Five Simple Steps to a Fiction Pitch That Sells
    Gotta Read It! - Five Simple Steps to a Fiction Pitch That Sells
    Gotta Read It! - Five Simple Steps to a Fiction Pitch That Sells
    Ebook58 pages46 minutes

    Gotta Read It! - Five Simple Steps to a Fiction Pitch That Sells

    By Libbie Hawker

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Blurbs, product descriptions, query letters... no matter what you call them, they're a chore to write. And yet the success of a novel can depend on its pitch. What's an author to do?

    In this short, instructive ebook, Libbie Hawker takes the pain out of pitch-writing and shares the secrets of a perfect pitch. Whether you're an indie writer seeking to improve sales of your self-published novels or an author hoping to hook your dream agent with a can't-resist query letter, GOTTA READ IT! is the ebook for you.

    Learn what features signify great story to the subconscious mind, how to sort through the details of your plot to find the core of your novel, and how to write pitches for books with one, two, or many primary characters... all in five simple steps!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRunning Rabbit Press
    Release dateOct 14, 2014
    ISBN9781502206879
    Gotta Read It! - Five Simple Steps to a Fiction Pitch That Sells
    Author

    Libbie Hawker

    Self-described as a “bona fide history nerd,” Libbie Hawker writes historical and literary fiction featuring deeply human characters, with rich details of time and place. She is the author of eleven novels, and she lives in the beautiful San Juan Islands of Washington State with her husband. Learn more about her at www.LibbieHawker.com.

    Read more from Libbie Hawker

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      Book preview

      Gotta Read It! - Five Simple Steps to a Fiction Pitch That Sells - Libbie Hawker

      Gotta Read It!

      Five Simple Steps

      to a Fiction Pitch That Sells

      Libbie Hawker

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Adrift on the Sea

      Understand Two Things

      It Really Works, But Only If You Do it Right

      The Five Steps

      Character

      Desire

      Antagonist

      Struggle

      Stakes

      Build a Skeleton

      What Not to Do

      Perfecting the Pitch

      Now You Know it All

      Romancing the Pitch

      Multiplicity

      Go Forth and Sail

      About the Author, and More Books

      Copyright Information

      ADRIFT ON THE SEA

      You, intrepid writer, have spent months, maybe years, writing and revising your novel. Finished at last, it’s now time to send your book out into the world – to turn it loose in a vast wilderness full of thousands upon thousands of other novels.

      You hope it finds its audience. Maybe you say a frantic prayer to the book gods and pour out a pot of coffee in sacrifice, pleading with them to be merciful and to bless your book with the good luck it needs.

      There’s nothing more you can do to ensure your book’s success.

      Or is there?

      Today there are more books being written than ever before, and with the advent of ebooks and the rise of self-publishing, there are more choices available to a reader than at any point in history.

      This is incredibly exciting if you’re a reader. If you’re a new author, or even an experienced author who’s not selling as well as you’d like to be, the ever-growing ocean of books can seem a little daunting, to say the least.

      But don’t be afraid! Successful indie authors know that it’s not only possible to stand out among a sea of competition – it can actually be relatively simple, once you know the trick.

      It all starts with a great book, of course. But once you have a great book, how do you attract a reader’s attention? How do you make that book seem like the one and only book a reader ought to buy? How do you make a reader think, "I’ve gotta read this... now!"

      Selling a book – whether directly to readers as an independent author, or to agents and publishers – will require you to abandon your soft authorial heart and think about your book like a publisher. A publisher’s job is to sell books. To use wording that’s even more cold and alien, and also more accurate, a publisher’s job is to maximize the profitability of a product.

      Yes, I just called your book – your awesome, amazing, unique and eminently lovable book, the one you poured your soul into for years – a product.

      Ouch.

      Sorry. I know that’s kind of harsh. But business is business, and if you want to stand out in a sea of books, you need to think like a publisher – you need to understand how to maximize the profitability of your product.

      Marketing is the key to standing out – to making your product turn a profit.

      When you hear the word marketing, what comes to mind? If you’re like most Westerners, you probably think of advertisements – TV commercials, billboards, magazine ads, sponsored listings in Google search results, and those obnoxious blinking banner ads that always seem to sneak past your ad-blocker software.

      It’s true that advertisements are part of marketing. But professional-level marketing goes much deeper – and much more subtly into the human mind – than you might think.

      Did you know that packaging is a crucial component of marketing? It’s true! A product’s package – its presentation to the consumer – is a key feature of marketing. Successful packaging is attention-grabbing, appealing to the demographic most likely to buy that product, and facilitates brand recognition. And brand recognition breeds the trust and loyalty

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