So you think you can write
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So you think you can write? Ten wannabe authors got the chance to pitch their book ideas to publishers at the Sydney Writer’s Festival.
A room full of aspiring authors, three international publishing experts on a stage and a bicycle bell – the scene was set for a pitch-fest, reality television style.
Kyle Sandilands or George Calombaris were nowhere in sight but yesterday’s So You Think You Can Write event was just as nerve wracking as any MasterChef or Australia’s Got Talent episode.
But here it was plot, characters and genre that carried more weight than singing prowess or cooking skills.
The panel … (from L to R) Lynne Missen, Alexis Washam and Barbara Rozycki.
Part of the Sydney Writer’s Festival, the event gave 10 randomly chosen audience members the chance to pitch their book idea to UK literary scout Barbara Rozycki, Lynne Missen from Penguin, Canada and senior editor Alexis Washam from Crown Trade Paperbacks in the US.
Arms were straining to grab the attention of the facilitator with all in the audience aware that this kind of exposure was a rare opportunity in the highly competitive world of book publishing.
The lucky few who were chosen had two and a half minutes to wow the crowd until the bicycle bell sounded. The pressure was on for them to deliver a succinct and catchy pitch, in the hope that one of the experts would offer that decisive ‘yes’ and offer a foot in the door for the next step in the publishing process.
Harrison Thomas with his mum Gail.
Needless to say there were a few shaky voices booming out through the microphone.
Sydney student Harrison Thomas missed two exams to pitch his book idea, and gave up much of his summer holidays to write it, but it’s a sacrifice that has paid off.
The 15-year-old walked away from the event with the business card of an agent, some great feedback from a panel of experts and the confidence to start editing his 67,000 word fantasy novel.
Pick me … Audience members vie for the chance to pitch their idea.
There’ll be plenty of time for music and science exams later in the week.
The fantasy genre was a popular one with those chosen to pitch, particularly for the young adult market. But in amongst the dragons, fairies and knights were a few thrillers, memoirs and a children’s picture book series.
As well as a few who didn’t quite know quite what they were pitching.
Katrina McKelvey and Kirrili Lonergan at the Sydney Writer’s Festival.
Teacher Katrina McKelvey and retired paediatric nurse Kirrili Lonergan were the first to present and came prepared with some large illustrations and text to recite.
McKelvey said she had felt “absolutely sick” all morning at the prospect of sharing their children’s book idea with a wider audience.
They started work on it four months ago and this was their first opportunity for industry feedback.
One of the biggest messages they received from the experts was to ditch the rhyming couplets. Missen, who specialises in children’s literature, said this would make it hard to translate the work for other markets.
“We agreed with some of the things they said, like the rhyming,” McKelvey says.
Another pitcher, Chris, was praised for his use of comparisons, describing his fantasy fiction for young adults as “Camelot meets Avatar with a touch of Back to the Future“.
“This crossed with that is good [in a pitch],” says Missen.
But by far the most positive feedback of the event was given to former Sydney Morning Herald journalist Greg Lenthen for his crime thriller, described as “a who dunnit or maybe a why dunnit”.
Co-authored by fellow journalist Jenny Tabakoff, it received an audible gasp from many in the room when Rozycki remarked “it seems like it could work” and offered to pass on a list of agents.
“It is very, very hard, no matter what work you do, to get any one to look at it, to listen to it or even to read an email,” he says.
“The chance to come before three publishers of international standard and say ‘this is what I’ve done, what do you think’, it is really unique and special.”
That’s the reality of the industry, according to Rozycki.
“I think we have all got a book in us, but some times not all of us can be published,” she says.
Her advice: keep the manuscript in your bottom drawer and reassess it from time to time. You never know what gems will be revealed with the passage of time.
And if not, at least you’ll have the satisfaction of having finished it.
More tips from the experts:
Follow this reporter on Twitter @SarahMcInerney
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