The Art of Pitching (And No, Not a Tent or a Baseball!) - A Guest Post by Dana Brown

This month, Fabulous Florida Writers is pleased to welcome guest blogger Dana Brown.Brown is the award-winning author of the AMI (Anna Maria Island) series. Her latest book, The Greysons, is scheduled for release in the spring.  Brown was our featured writer on September 1, 2018.
 

When I worked for First Merchants one of the benefits they offered was continuous training, but I never expected to actually use it once I left banking. But here I am, thankful for our trainer, Jeff Curts, and what he taught us about the art of pitching because I now have an opportunity to pitch my book series to producers and publishers, and boy will that training come in handy!

A couple of weeks ago I was cleaning out my office and came across Winners Dream, the last book Jeff trained on before I retired. I wasn’t really sure what to do with it, but it’s not in my DNA to get rid of a book, so I started looking through it and guess what I found? Not only good information from the book’s author, Bill McDermott, but lots of notes and material on an elevator pitch, the exact thing I needed for my upcoming Writers’s Cruise.

One line from Winners Dream that really stood out for me was “It’s all about execution”. All of the notes I made centered around making my dream a reality, and if the AMI Series never makes it to the big screen or TV, my dream came true the minute I held the first copy of Lottie Loser in my hands. But, that doesn’t mean I can’t enlarge my dream, it just means I need to look for other avenues of execution.

Which brings us to the elevator pitch. We had to write one for Jeff, using our own dream as the theme, so of course, mine was on writing. I had an idea in my head about an article titled “When Grandma is a CEO…Chief Everything Officer”, and I wanted to pitch it to O Magazine. I felt like there were other women in my age group who had a demanding career, but also kids and grandkids, vying for her time and attention.

Jeff was the “make believe” editor from O, whom I met on an elevator, and this was my pitch to him.

Mr. Curts, my name is Dana Brown, and my dream is to be a published author. I’m a banker, a wife, a mother and a grandmother who struggles to find time for myself while staying involved in the lives of my family. I’ve written an article titled “When Grandma is CEO” and I think it’s something your readers can relate to. If you will agree to reading this draft, and sharing your insight, you’ll help me be one step closer to realizing my dream. I appreciate your time.

Well, what do you think? I’d like to say that my pitches are stronger now, but I guess time will tell. I’m not sharing the pitch I have for the Writer’s Cruise, because I want it to be fresh when I present it, and you never know who might read this blog!

Is there a moral to this story? Of course there is! The first is to never discount what you’re being taught as something irrelevant, or not important to your life, and the second is to never get rid of a book! There is a wealth of information in each and everyone, and you never know when you’re going to need it.

For more information visit the author's website at danalbrownbooks.com.