I Almost lost the Cool Girl, because of my Bad Book Pitch

It hit me last night at a book club. An effortlessly cool author who gave off could be your future best friend vibes, asked me what my book was about. Her eyes glazed over, as I stumbled to explain the magic, watching our future friendship downgrade into acquaintances, then strangers.

Until I got to one part. A part I didn’t even fully realize until this morning, when I was reading Wired for Story by Lisa Cron, and she said,

"If you can't summarize your book in a few sentences, rewrite the book until you can."

I’ve never been able to summarize my book in a few sentences. It’s the kind of thing I can’t get right, so I push it under the rug and keep going, you know? Like, maybe a two-sentence description is unattainable. Or maybe with another edit, it’ll come together.

As if Lisa could read my thoughts, she nailed it in further,

"Years of reading query letters, synopses, and countless manuscripts and screenplays have taught me that writers who cannot sum up the story they're telling in a clearly focused, intriguing sentence or two probably have not written a clearly focused, intriguing story."

It brought me right back to last night, trying not to sweat as I struggled to explain a messy book to a composed woman.

Until her eyes lit up. When I said that this woman, Emily, from Earth is being pursued by hot tall fae warriors and brooding wealthy villains, and Emily’s like ‘wtf’ at it all. Future friend laughed at this, then nodded, eyes lighting up, at all the tropes we see in all the Romantasy books, (‘he growled’, the one-bed trope, etc), and how Emily would think they’re ridiculous. And then I told her the ending, and she’s laughed and said she loves it, she loves the idea.

And we exchange contact info.

Her response isn’t unique. I’ve pitched my book to probably 100 people, and I’ve seen similar responses in most of them. They all glaze over and light at the same parts.

But Emily’s goals and wants don’t have anything to do with the theme that people resonate with. And that’s why it’s so hard for me to summarize my book effectively.

To fix this, I might have to rewrite the whole book. In which case, no way it’s going to be beta-reader ready by the 15th (laughs).

But, as we talked about before, discarding things is the mark of a professional writer. And if I have to start over again, then I’m two crappy books down, with only three more to go.

Here’s to making new friends, and cutting out what doesn’t work,

- Madi