Thanks to Susan Novotny & all the great people from Book House & Market Block Books. The pitches were so good we had two winners!
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Want-to-be-a-famous-author-Start-talking-1379234.php
Category: Press
Time Out New York Critics Pick Pitchapalooza Greenlights Brooklyn
We’re all very excited over here to be a Critics Pick in Time Out New York for our Pitchapalooza at Greenlights Bookstore in Brooklyn, Wednesday, March 30, 7:30 PM.
Pitchapalooza Picks Youngest Winner Ever
BY Stacey Gill | Friday, Feb 11, 2011 12:00pm
People from all across Baristaville turned out last night for Montclair’s own David Henry Sterry and Arielle Eckstut’s Pitchapalooza. Over 100 writers from Bloomfield to Verona packed the Montclair Public Library for Sterry and Eckstut’s final book idea pitching event, after traveling cross-country from Huntington, Long Island to Chico, California and back on their own book tour.The Book Doctors, as they are known, just published The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published, and along with it they are personally trying to help other writers get their own books published — one Pitchapalooza at a time.
Last night they helped one lucky winner, the youngest in Pitchapalooza history, on her way to publishing her novel. Zoe Schiff (pictured right) at only 15 years old had the best pitch of the night. This incredibly creative Montclair High School student told of her idea of a historical novel with a twist. In her book about the Revolutionary War the Americans do not win. This AP history student goes on to tell the tale through two young sisters caught in the aftermath of the Americans’ defeat.With ideas ranging from a poetic memoir to a book told in pictures to reveal the autistic mind, Schiff had stiff competition. And she knew it. ”I’m shocked and grateful,” Schiff said after winning the contest.
Although there can only be one winner, for whom the Book Doctors vowed to “do everything in our power” to get published, Sterry and Eckstut’s desires were to help all aspiring authors achieve their dreams.
“Our goal is to get everyone here tonight to publish your book,” Sterry said. And to that end he noted with a smile, “This is the best panel we’ve ever had.”
Although I got the feeling he says to all the authors, the panel was impressive. It included Montclair’s Dominic Anfuso, VP & Editor-in-Chief of the Free Press/Simon & Schuster; the bestselling author/blogger and MEWS founder Pamela Redmond Satran, also of Montclair; and agent extraordinaire Liza Dawson of the Liza Dawson Associates Literary Agency.
For those in the audience, Eckstut and Sterry dispensed plenty of helpful advice including their own travails in writing the pitch for their current book. “It took us six months to write, edit, and come up with the moves for that, and it’s 20 seconds!” Sterry admitted.
Another bit of Sterry wisdom was that the pitch should allow the agent to get a feel for your book through the voice and style. Sterry put it this way, “It’s like those t-shirts that say ‘Sexy’ on them. Let me be the judge of that.”
The pitch, then, should be a little snapshot of your book. Sterry stressed his point. “Don’t tell me it’s suspenseful. I want to sit on the edge of my seat.”
Eckstut agreed. “When you nail it in a minute, I feel like I read the book.”
Satran’s advice for writers was to give specific details in the pitch. “Agents and editors are inundated. Give them a sales handle where they can see it on the book shelf and next to which authors.”
All the panelists agreed and suggested authors come up with comparable titles to their own work. “There is a mania for categorization in the bookstore,” Sterry added.
Ultimately, people in the book business really want to hear writers’ stories, according to Anfuso. “Most of us get into this business to honor writers and books.”
If you are cursing yourself because you missed it, fear not, The Book Doctors are hosting a workshop next weekend in Baristaville:
How to get Published Successfully Workshop
Who: Writers.
What: A step-by-step, information-packed workshop that removes the smoke and mirrors from the publishing process, covering everything from coming up with a blockbuster title to finding an agent to building a following through social media.
Where: Montclair, NJ.
When: Saturday, February 19 from 1 pm to 4 pm.
Cost: For details and location call 310.463.2068 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 310.463.2068 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or email sterryhead@gmail.com.Photos by Margot Sage-EL
The ‘Book Doctors’ Want to Know What You’re Working On
BY ELIZABETH OGUSSThe Montclair TimesOF THE MONTCLAIR TIMESOK, all you scribblers, it’s time to come out of your attics.
Time to let those manuscripts see the light of day.
Think about how you’d summarize your book to an agent if you only had the chance.
Distill that description down to a minute.
Rehearse it with a friend, or in front of the mirror.
Go to the Montclair Public Library tonight, and deliver that pitch to the Book Doctors and their panel of judges at Pitchapalooza, a sort of literary “American Idol” but without the cruelty.
The Book Doctors, in private life called Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, are the authors of “The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published.”
A revised edition of the book was released in November 2010 and since then Eckstut and Sterry have been touring the country with Pitchapalooza. They’re wrapping up the tour in their hometown and invite Montclair writers to pitch their books tonight, Feb. 10, at 7, at the library, 50 South Fullerton Ave.
Three judges will evaluate 25 pitches: Dominick Anfuso, vice president and editor in chief at Free Press; Liza Dawson, owner of Liza Dawson Associates Literary Agency; and Pamela Redmond Satran, bestselling author of “How Not to Act Old” and many baby name books, and the founder of the Montclair Editors and Writers Society, of which Eckstut and Sterry are members.
Eckstut has been a literary agent for 18 years and is the author of seven books. Sterry has written 12 books, in a wide variety of genres including memoir, sports, young adult fiction and reference.
With anywhere from 100 to 300 people at each Pitchapalooza event, the Book Doctors must see a wide range of pitches. Do they ever feel they’re wasting time?
“No one knows what’s going to be a successful book,” Sterry said. “If anyone knew they’d make a billion dollars.”
Citing Michael Jordan having been cut from his high school basketball team, Sterry said it’s not his job to nip anyone’s dream in the bud. But he won’t hesitate to tell a writer, “Look, this is not professional caliber. You need to do A, B, C and D.”
And as an agent, “trained to say no to everything,” Eckstut pointed out that there are no barriers to getting published anymore.
“One of the first questions we ask,” she said, “is ‘What is your goal?’ If they say ‘I want to be published by Random House and get a six-figure advance…’”
The sentence hardly needed finishing.
But what surprises publishers, editors, and agents, Eckstut says, is how many people don’t want that.
“They just want a printed book in their hands, and don’t care how they get it: self-publish, e-book, print on demand.”
Self-publishing doesn’t have the stigma it had a decade ago, when self-published meant ugly and riddled with typos.
“We tell everybody, if you’re going to self-publish, hire an editor, hire a proofreader, hire a cover designer and a book designer, so it looks like it deserves to be on the shelves,” Sterry said.
Many authors who’ve been published by reputable houses are choosing to publish on their own because they already have a following, he said. “If you’ve got 20,000 people champing at the bit and they can press a button [to get your book], why would you need a publisher?”
Before Pitchapalooza, Eckstut and Sterry conducted workshops based on the 2005 edition of their book — titled, like the book, “Putting Your Passion into Print”— and have had what Eckstut called “some major success stories.”
“A winner in San Francisco from seven years ago has seven books out,” she said, “and Tim Ferriss of ‘The 4-Hour Workweek’ took our workshops. Even from this tour, we’ve already hooked up a lot of our winners with agents, so they’re in the process right now.”
Everyone pitching a manuscript tonight will get one minute.
“This is what makes the event so dramatic,” said Sterry. “That clock starts ticking. When they get to 50 seconds, Arielle says, ’10 seconds.’ You can feel the room tightening up.”
For an unknown writer to get to pitch a book to established agents and publishers is a rare thing, so the Book Doctors want you to make the most of your minute tonight.
For writers who aren’t sure what a pitch is, Eckstut suggests reading the copy on the backs of books in your genre. Whether mystery, sci fi, children’s book, whatever you read (and write), “on the back of every book is a pitch.”
The Eckstut-Sterry family loves living in Montclair, to which they moved just after the birth of their daughter three and a half years ago. Eckstut recently completed a book project with her mother, an expert on color.
Sterry has just finished a novel, which he describes as “‘Catcher in the Rye’ meets Stephen King.”
That’s a very short pitch.
Contact Elizabeth Oguss at oguss@montclairtimes.com.
the essential guide tour Pitchapalooza #19: afternoon tea, a precious pair of sneakers and an Ethiopian history lesson
A family of four who traveled around the world together. A woman who overcame extreme pain by turning herself into an extreme athlete and did the Australian crawl from Alcatraz to San Francisco after learning to swim on the internet. A man with gray hair cascading down his back who dreamed up a young adult novel starring prairie dogs. What do these people have in common? They were among the 125 people who braved the Arctic cold snap, ice-slick roads, and chose to forego the most fascinating college football game this century to come to Tattered Cover in downtown Denver to pitch their books to us. And pitch they did. Wild West grief-triangle epics, elf-free fantasies, futuristic no-tech thrillers and high-tech romances. It was a very impressive collection of tales. And we were blessed with a great panelist, Tom Carney, who brought his decades of experience as a bookseller and publisher’s sales rep to bear on the proceedings. Tom told the crowd that as a rep, he would have to go into a bookstore and pitch 300 books in an hour. 300 books. 1 hour. You do the math.
It was a warm, generous crowd, happy to get shelter from the storm in the warm bosom of one of the great bookstores in America. When we remarked on how enthusiastic and friendly they were, someone shouted out, “It’s the thin air!” This to us exemplified the enthusiastic yet self-deprecating good humor found throughout Mile High City. Our winner spun a beautiful pitch that was equal parts Nancy Drew, The Help and A River Runs through It. Take a second and try to and imagine how all those things could possibly fit together. Not only did she do it, she did it with style, comedy, and presence so powerful she had us all wanting to run to the bookstore to buy her book.
Afterwards, we chatted and signed books. A man approached us carrying a pair of sneakers. The man explained that they were the shoes his son was wearing when he was killed at Columbine High School. A crushing, breathtaking sadness ran through us, heightened by the recent shooting in Tucson. This man is writing a book about how he helped change the gun laws in his state in the wake of his son’s death. An inspiring example of the incredible stories we hear at Pitchapaloozas, where Citizen Authors are trying to use books to help the world, and of the power of the word to heal.
Surprising side note: There is a large Ethiopian community in Denver. We had two lovely cab drivers from this now-prospering African country (we got a history lesson in the taxi and this is what we learned) who also told us about all the amazing Ethiopian restaurants there. It just so happens that Olive’s favorite food is “E-thee-o-pinin”, as she calls it. She explained why she loved it so much: because the bread has no crust. Olive is 3. So we are very much looking to returning with her and feasting on some of this delectable cuisine.
We did have a fantastic meal at Rioja, a restaurant close to the Tattered Cover.Despite some sub-par front-of-house service, we ate some explosively flavorful food. David had a crazy tasty crab and celery root salad and a super succulent duck risotto. Arielle dined on a juicy beet and raspberry salad and seared tuna with smoked mushrooms in a red curry. We also had the good fortune to return to the Brown Palace hotel, which has an old-school high tea (one of David’s favorite things in life) complete with harp player who does a kick-ass version of Stairway to Heaven.
Here's the lady who greeted us at the Denver Airport! SF Weekly Pitchapalooza Love for Book Doctors
Well Played, Sterry By Michael Leaverton
You’re a writer and you have one minute with Soft Skull Press executive editor Laura Mazer: How do you pitch your book? This isn’t a rhetorical question — you really do have one minute with Mazer. At Pitchapalooza, she’s sitting next to NaNoWriMo’s Chris Baty and self-described “book doctors” Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, the founders of the five-year-old event. To prepare, start speaking in public ASAP, because you’re pitching before a room of people. Try to compare your book to what’s already out there, but don’t say, “It’s like Foer got drunk with Godot at Twilight and started puking Seuss,” because we’re going to say that. There might be agents scattered around you in the audience, like at the Pitchapalooza in New York, so don’t mutter profanities and scribble on a matchbook when awaiting your turn — or, better yet, do exactly that. The winner gets “an introduction to an agent,” which is surely better than it sounds. The losers get the opportunity to buy Sterry and Eckstut’s book The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published: How to Write It, Sell It, and Market It…Successfully!, which comes with a “free consultation” worth $100. Of course, it should be clear that Pitchapoolza is, at its core, a drop-dead genius way for Sterry and Eckstut to market Essential Guide — they know their shit, to be sure. They’re the book doctors.
http://www.sfweekly.com/events/pitchapalooza-2325029/
