How to Successfully Pitch Your Novel, with Stacy McAnulty

Every year, during NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza, Wrimos from around the world whittle their stories down to a short pitch for a chance to break into the industry with the help of pros Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, also known as the Book Doctors. (They’ll also be donating the proceeds of their upcoming Art of the Edit webinar to NaNoWriMo!)

This year, Stacy McAnulty took top honors; r ead on to find out how a dinosaur egg can turn into a winning idea! ( Click here to read Stacy’s original pitch, as well as the critique.)

Your winning pitch was about “a boy who hatches a dinosaur egg.” What inspired that idea?

In October, my son turned five. He told me he wanted “a real, live dinosaur” for his birthday. Well, they are very hard to come by. Not even available on eBay. So, what’s an author to do? Make it up. I wrote the book for him.

To be honest, my son has turned me into a dinosaur nut. In addition to my dinosaur-related picture book that will be published this October, I’m working on another middle-grade story about the discovery of the first dinosaur bones in the 1820s in England. Can you imagine what it must have been like to discover a giant jawbone, or a tooth the size of a banana? The word dinosaur wasn’t even used until the 1840s.

Dinosaurs are just fascinating, and I’m becoming obsessed. My family is even going on a dinosaur dig this summer in Wyoming!

How did you refine it down to an attention-grabbing pitch?

Cutting it down to a pitch was challenging. I tried a couple of times in February and gave up. My first completed attempt was 391 words. That needed to be whittled and reworked.

My final entry was 194 words (well under the 250 limit), and I entered it on the last day of the contest. Thank goodness for deadlines.

How did the Book Doctors add to your knowledge about pitching? Any tips for your fellow Wrimos?

I used the Book Doctors’ 10 Tips For Pitching as a starting point. My favorites are:

“Make us fall in love with your hero,” and
“Leave us with a cliffhanger.”

Once the 25 pitches were selected, I loved reading them and the feedback from the Book Doctors. I can’t believe how much I learned just from doing that!

Your children’s book Dear Santasaurus will be coming out this October from Boyds Mills Press. Congratulations! How did you pitch and publish that book?

Dear Santasaurus is my first picture book. I didn’t have to pitch that one because the editor read the entire story at a conference. Four rewrites later, she bought it. Like so much in publishing, that deal was all about luck and timing. Of course, the story had to be good, or at least have the potential to be good.

How does NaNoWriMo fit into your creative story?

I love NaNoWriMo, and I love the shirts. I think I have more shirts than wins. I’ve participated for six years and won three times.

NaNoWriMo gives me such a feeling of accomplishment. After meeting my daily goal, I experience a writer’s high, similar to a runner’s high but without the weight-loss benefit. November is the only time of year I’m truly disciplined in my writing.

Any final tips for your fellow writers?

Writers have more bad days than good days when it comes to publishing. Winning NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza was a good day. My last good day was in October when an agent requested a full manuscript. I won’t tell you how many “bad days” I’ve had in between. Celebrate the good days!

— Andrea

Photo by Flickr user epSos.de, and courtesy of Stacy McAnulty.