Your Book: The Job Interview

Applying for a job starts with a company getting scads of resumes. They immediately toss the ones with typos in the resume and that are poorly written into the circular file. Then they start digging it to find a "match" with the company's needs. For argument's sake, let's say 100 resumes come in, 30 get tossed immediately. Of the remaining 70, they narrow it to 20 reasonable candidates that "match" the company's needs. Of those, now there's more intense scrutiny. That's when they'll start noticing the little things. This one's schooling isn't quite a fit. That one has a five-year period of sketchy employment. Now they have 8 candidates. They get called for an interview--phone only. Right away, two just sound unqualified or not confident. One stammers, badly. Okay, they have five. They're all brought in for interviews. Three are eliminated--one because he bombs the interview, the other two because the "feel" isn't right . . . they don't seem like a match for the office. TWO candidates remain. Of those final two, the person interviewing says . . . "Why you? Tell me why I should hire you?"

So . . . your book.

Why you?

You have to sell your book (pitch), and you have to write well. But there has to be some "star" quality, especially today. Something that makes an editor/agent pause and think, "Hmmmm . . . I haven't heard that before." Because the editor/agent has to make THEIR case for your book to their higher-ups, just as the final job candidate will need to be vetted.

It's not enough to be competent. It's not enough that you write pretty sentences. It's not enough that you're clever.

So why you? Why your book? WHY should we hire YOU?

Never Underestimate a Few Words

Home again.

Eye? Purple with shades of black. Head? Persistent headache. But . . . knee? THIS is now my number-one issue (with the obvious exception that I am still allergic to something that has the ability to put me into anaphylactic shock but I don't know what it is . . . ). The hospital didn't undress me . . . neither did the ambulance. So I didn't realize my knee was smashed. And when I was checking out of the hospital, I THEN became acutely aware I must have landed on my knee while tumbling to the pavement. It was scraped and red. A little swollen. Now it is spongy and has the consistency of pudding on the sides. Knees aren't supposed to be pudding-like. And don't ya LOVE that I'm a writer and came up with that????? LOL! We'll see what my doctor says. Perhaps I have a whole new diagnosis. Pudding Knee.

So home to massive piles of laundry and dog hair (no one here to vacuum up after my beasts this week). And back to the blog and deadlines and writing and life.

So, my editor meeting was a smashing success. And now that I've had a day or two to think about it, he at one point looked at me and said . . . "Marketing is all a part of it nowadays." As if we're all not aware, right? Every author scrambling for promo. And then . . . importantly: "Never underestimate the power of being able to pitch your book in a sentence."

You see, Magickeepers is about a rogue clan of Russian magicians who emigrate to the U.S. after the fall of the Romanovs and hide their identities by working as illusionists in Las Vegas. Magic is real in my book . . . and only by blending into show business can they keep their heir apparent safe. But yeah, in a sentence? I can do it. Is it three books, a thousand pages total at least? Yeah. But one sentence. Why so important? Because your pitch doesn't stop when you sell. There are independent bookstores and the chains and marketing and PR and press and . . . librarians and eventually, for this book, KIDS . . . and not everyone is going to give you an hour to share your vision. While I would love to have lunch with every independent bookstore owner in the U.S., I can't. So I need a sentence. I need to shorthand.

I've said before that I know, sometimes, when a writer is in trouble (in terms of trying to make a sale) when telling what his or her book is about requires a ten-minute backstory.

A few words. A sentence. It can be important.

Oh . . . and one more thing? One tiny detail? The sentence has to be unique. You have to get attention with it.

So . . . in your wip, have you nailed it yet?

Do share!