Mastering the Art of Book and Memoir Pitches

Send us a text

This episode unravels the secrets to successful pitching in the literary world, highlighting the importance of research, personalized query letters, and effective summarization. Amra offers practical advice for writers, from perfecting elevator pitches to navigating freelance writing opportunities and securing media attention. 

• Exploring the significance of query letters in pitching 
• Tips for crafting an effective elevator pitch 
• The role of a one-page synopsis in storytelling 
• Building confidence for freelance writing through pitched articles 
• Importance of media attention and strategizing outreach 
• Pitching writing workshops to build credibility and presence

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Amra's Armchair Anecdotes.
I'm Amra Payelich, writer,teacher and storyteller.
Pull up a chair and let's diveinto stories about writing, life
and lessons learned, sharingwisdom from my armchair to yours
.
Welcome to Amra's ArmchairAnecdotes.

(00:24):
In this episode, I am talkingabout the art of the pitch.
So this is something that wehave to do constantly.
As writers, as artists, ascreators, we are always pitching
.
So usually we're pitching anovel when we are submitting to

(00:44):
publishers, but then there areother pitches that we need to do
in terms of to media outlets totry and get freelance articles
published.
We also pitch our expertise interms of trying to get workshops
with writing organizations andbuild our credibility and our

(01:05):
media portfolio.
So today I'm going to talkabout the different types of
pitches and give some tips andtricks about how to do that.
First, I'm going to start withpitching a novel to a publisher
or to a literary agent.

(01:26):
So when we're pitching to apublisher or a literary agent,
we need to craft a query letter.
We need to craft a letterthat's telling them about our
book, that is trying to find thebest way to appeal to them and
to sell our book.
So I'm going to be using myquery letter that I submitted

(01:52):
for my published memoir ThingsNobody Knows but Me and this
memoir.
I had an agent and my agentpitched it to publishers and it
wasn't picked up and she didn'twant to pursue it any further.
So then I took on the job ofpitching it myself and I

(02:15):
researched the best way to dothat, and this is something I
had already done, obviously inorder to get my agent.
So I already had someexperience in that.
So the first thing is you needto research.
So research, obviously, thepublisher that is best suited
for you for your novel or foryour memoir or your non-fiction

(02:38):
book, and make the case aboutwhy are they best suited?
The best way to think about yourbook I'm going to use the word
book from now on is to come upwith an elevator pitch.
So an elevator pitch isbasically, if you were stuck in
an elevator with someone for 30seconds and you only had that

(03:03):
time while you're going up tothose floors, how would you
pitch your book?
What would you tell them aboutit?
And so I've actually pitched inperson.
Um, there's some opportunitiescalled literary speed dating and
I had the opportunity to dothose, and so I had to develop

(03:25):
pitches for my books and thinkabout this elevator pitch and
think about how to verbally, ina very crowdy and noisy room,
get this pitch across.
So it's about, you know, makinga connection with someone and

(03:45):
also kind of capturing theessence of your book.
So I find the best way to talkabout these things is to look at
an example.
So I'm actually going to beusing my memoir example.
I will be providing show noteswith some tips and within those
show notes I will actually beincluding my query letter and

(04:08):
the one that was successful.
So, first of all, you know, ina letter you have your address
details and your website.
I would encourage every writer,no matter where you are in your
writing journey, to create awebsite.
Even when you are starting out,you don't really have much.

(04:28):
Having a website that is likeyour face, your digital
introduction that has your biohas, you know, a nice
professional headshot, whateveryou can afford, depending on the
stage of your career.
I actually spent most of mywriting career taking selfies or

(04:49):
getting my husband to takephotos of me that I then used as
my headshots.
Sometimes I put them throughfilters and made them look nicer
.
It's only this year, a fewmonths ago, that I paid money
and I actually had my hairprofessionally done, I had my
makeup professionally done and Ihired a professional

(05:09):
photographer to takeprofessional headshots of me,
and there is a difference.
I have seen that there is adifference.
However, depending on where youare at your stage of your
writing career, that is notsomething that you need to
invest in and you need to spendmoney on when you are an
emerging writer.
I certainly did not.
So you know, I've been in thewriting industry for 27 years

(05:33):
and I only paid for aprofessional headshot this year.
So just having a face on yourwebsite and these days when you
are pitching also, you know theysort of want to know that you
have a social media presence.
There is an expectation thatyou will be doing promotion and
publicity.
So you know that's somethingfor you to think about and I'll

(05:56):
go into more detail later on.
So then I had the date,obviously, the name and address
of the editor, and the subjectline was submission of my memoir
Things Nobody Knows but Me.
So the first few sentences arecrucial.
This is where you aredemonstrating that you have

(06:18):
actually done research and youare thoughtfully submitting your
book to this publisher.
So the way that you do this isyou have to actually research
what books they have publishedand why they might be interested
in your book.
So in my instance, you know, Idid not read all of these books

(06:41):
because I was pitching to fivepublishers.
So, yes, I read some of thebooks, but I did not read every
book.
But I spent time going throughthe catalogue, looking at
descriptions of the books thatthey had published, reading
media interviews by thepublishers and getting a sense

(07:02):
of which books were similar tomy book and that demonstrated
that that is something that theywere interested in.
So in the instance of TransitLounge, I had found two
publishers.
So my first sentence is I amsubmitting a query for my memoir
Things Nobody Knows but Me, asyou have published memoirs from

(07:24):
Australian women writers ofdiverse backgrounds, such as
Banana Girl by Michelle Lee thatexplores her Lao background,
and Playing House by Amy Troy.
So it's not enough just tostate the publishers that sorry
the books that you'redemonstrating why they'd be

(07:45):
interested.
You actually have to show aninsight about why.
So in my instance, I saidAustralian women writers of
diverse backgrounds.
Is that something I hadidentified as unique to who I am
as a writer, who I am as aperson and what I am trying to
establish and put forward in thepublishing industry.

(08:06):
And then I, you know, addedjust a little descriptor of one
of those books, just to reallyhone in on why, and that I'd
done my research, that I wasn'tjust listing the books for the
sake of listing the books.
So obviously this is very shortand very succinct, I think it's
.
You know, it is one sentence,one long sentence, obviously

(08:27):
with punctuation, but it isstill succinct.
I then went into a descriptionof my memoir, and I think every
writer finds this very hard todo.
We are creating books.
This very hard to do.

(08:49):
We are creating books and theseare extensions of ourselves,
and it's very hard to take thatstep back and to then look at it
in terms of the themes and lookat it in terms of what it's
trying to do, and so I have sometips for doing that that I will
go through.
I will first share mydescription of the book and then
I'll talk through how Iactually got to this description

(09:11):
.
So this is what I thencontinued on my memoir Things
Nobody Knows but Me, 69,000words is the story of a bond
between mother and daughter andthe toll that mental illness
takes on an individual, a familyand a community.
It is also an insight intoBosnian culture and, more

(09:33):
broadly, the experience ofmental illness for people who
come from non-English speakingbackgrounds.
I was 16 when my wagon caughtup with me and I ended up in the
high school counsellor's officeand I finally learnt the
medical label for the maladythat had dogged my mother and
affected my childhood.
I had spent my whole lifecalling my mother's illness a

(09:58):
nervous breakdown.
Now I found out that my mothersuffered from a mental illness
called bipolar disorder.
In adolescence I became mymother's confidant and learned
the extraordinary story of herlife.
When she was 15 years old, shevisited family friends, only to
find herself in an arrangedmarriage.
At 16, she was a migrant, amother and a mental patient.

(10:22):
A migrant, a mother and amental patient, and so you know.
This ended up being actually abit of the blurb that was used,
because I had come to thiscatchphrase and the power of
three in terms of the at 16, shewas a migrant, a mother and a
mental patient.
So sort of distilling andcapturing the heart of the story
.
But it was a very difficult,difficult journey to get to this

(10:46):
, and so I am wanting to provideyou with some tips so that you
can shortcut this process, and Inow use this to shortcut the
process and to be able to do allof this much easier, because,
even though now I am notsubmitting my novels for
publication anymore, because I'mpublishing them myself under my

(11:09):
small press, I still need to beable to write blurbs, I still
need to be able to distill thethemes and the story in terms of
, you know, being able to domedia releases and trying to get
media coverage, and I stillneed to think about books.

(11:30):
That it is comparable to when Iam doing Facebook advertising
in order to try and advertisethese books and get them
promoted.
So the way that I did this wasI there was a competition I had
to, I wanted to enter and theywanted a one page synopsis of

(11:54):
the book, and this is somethingthat you need to have.
If you are submittingtraditionally, you need to have
a one page synopsis of your book, and what this is is you are
just capturing the mainstoryline of your book and you
are including the main beats,and you also need to include the
ending in order for thepublisher or the agent to really

(12:18):
get a sense of what your bookis about and see if it's
worthwhile reading it.
Now some agents choose not toread this synopsis.
They want to read the book andget a sense of it themselves.
Some absolutely want to read it.
So it is subjective and youknow, when you go out there
you'll hear different peoplegiving you different advice.

(12:38):
But the one thing that you doneed is a synopsis.
You do need an overview of yourstory, depending on how long it
needs to be.
So I found this wonderful toolthat I will also include in the
show notes about how to write aone-page synopsis.

(12:58):
And as I was going through theprocess of writing this synopsis
, I realized that the structureof my memoir didn't actually
work, that it was kind of notsetting up the context of the
book soon enough, because usingthis three-act structure really
opened up my eyes to oh, I needto sort of capture those beats

(13:21):
and make this interesting,because you know, know, memoir
is a lot of things and you aretrying to contain it into one
story.
So you know, my story was aboutmy mother and me in our
relationship and her bipolar,and that did help me edit the
book after that.
My original draft was 90 or 100000 words, which what I was

(13:43):
originally going to try andsubmit to publishers and agents.
And so by doing this one-pagesynopsis and using this
structure to think about what isthe actual story, I was then
able to cull all these scenesthat I loved, because you know
you love everything you write.
I was able to cull these scenesand really see the spine of my

(14:06):
story and see what this book wasabout.
And so now what I do with everybook that I'm writing, I usually
do the brainstorming and then Istart the writing process and
then usually when I'm about20,000 words in, I actually stop
and I do this one page synopsisand I just check about my beats

(14:27):
and check is this story working?
And then I know that this is,you know, structurally, that the
story is okay.
And also I have something thatI'm going to be able to use for
the blurb, for the descriptionat the back of the book, because
once you have gotten it down toone page and it might take a

(14:49):
while, it did take me a whilewhere it started out with, you
know, 3,000 words and thenculling and culling and culling.
When I got it to one page, thenthat was easier to kind of look
at and find the elements to beable to write the description of
the book.
And you're going to need thatshortened description when you

(15:10):
are pitching and writing thequery letter.
So long process about how I gotto that and what you need to be
able to do so, and then also,you know, doing those power of
three, using those literarystrategies in terms of trying to

(15:30):
zhuzh it up a little bit.
So my query letter then goes onto things nobody knows but me
is about a mother-daughter bondfractured by years of manic and
depressive episodes marked bypowerful changes in mood and
energy.
That was eventually broughtunder control through an

(15:50):
accurate medical diagnosis.
Memoirs such as Strange Places amemoir of mental illness by
Will Elliot and Madness, amemoir by Kate Richards, shed a
light on sufferers of mentalillness from an Anglo-Celtic
perspective.
The story that is by and largemissing from the literary
landscape is that of the migrantaffected by mental illness, and

(16:13):
so I found one of thesuccessful things that if you
could do with your query letteris actually looking at the
publishing industry at large,looking at that landscape and
looking at the stories that areout there, and what is it that
you are offering that isdifferent.
What is it that you are doingthat is unique to you and that

(16:37):
makes your story something thatneeds to be out there?
And if you can make thatargument successfully, if you do
that research successfully, itwill do two things.
One, it will really prompt theagent or the publisher to see
that you know what you'retalking about.
But secondly, it will reallylead you deep into the themes

(16:58):
and deep into the heart of whatis this story that you're trying
to tell.
And then, when you're lookingat the media attention and the
promotional aspects of it, youreally know what it is that
you're offering.
That's different out there.
So for me it was about the factthat there are so many stories
now that are being written aboutthe different perspectives of

(17:21):
mental illness, but we're notseeing these stories from a
diverse background, we are notseeing the multicultural
perspective.
And that is where I come in.
That is where I come in with myBosnian background to be able
to share that perspective andshare that story because it is
different.
And then I go in and I make mycase about why it is important

(17:47):
to have this diverse perspectiveand what I'm offering.
So it is my hope that thismemoir, in addition to telling a
great story, will have thepotential to be used as an
educational resource aboutparenting with a mental illness
and the challenges of sufferingfrom a mental illness within

(18:07):
non-English speaking backgrounds.
People from non-English speakingbackgrounds face the highest
risk of suffering a mentallyrelated disorder, and yet these
same people often don'teffectively access treatment
because of cultural andreligious stigma.
When they do access treatment,they are often misdiagnosed or

(18:28):
not able to participate ineffective treatment because of
language barriers.
Now, because of my mother'sbackground, mental health is
something that I have alwaysbeen very interested in and I
have always collected researchon and collected information on.
One of the most interestingfacts that I found in my little

(18:50):
journey was that there was astudy of people who were from
former Yugoslavia and that therewas a very high proportion of
this community that were beingdiagnosed as schizophrenic or
bipolar, and this researcherwent through the diagnosis of

(19:11):
these people and realized thatthe culture and the way that we
speak and the language that weuse was actually influencing the
diagnosis.
So, because the researcherswere not aware of the cultural
context, they were misdiagnosingthese people.

(19:33):
Because we have this you knowthing where we have a lot of.
I'm going to kill you.
I'm going to kill myself, likethis hyperbole in our language.
Even you know, when we'retalking about um spark, what you
know a child is sleeping.
So you know, in western cultureis, is that they're sleeping,

(19:53):
you know, peacefully, um,there's all these lovely
contexts and sayings about it.
In ours it's spava kozaklan.
They're sleeping as if theirthroat is cut.
So you know, even somethinglike that, an image of a
sleeping child is described in avery violent image, and so I

(20:18):
can understand why these, youknow, psychiatrists, who did not
have the cultural context, werelistening to people who were
from former Yugoslavia, so youknow, from Bosnia, from Serbia,
from Macedonia, from CroatiaSlovenia was also a Republic and

(20:41):
kind of like, oh, these peopleare mentally ill.
A republic, uh, and uh, kind oflike, oh, these people are
mentally ill, um, so you knowthat cultural context is what I
was offering and that culturalcontext is something that I had
identified, that was differentand that was, um, you know
something that I could sharethen.
Oh, and also, um, looking at,you know, the publishing

(21:07):
industry broadly and doing thosecomp titles, so mentioning
those books that are touching onyour theme and that are
touching on your book but thatare not offering your
perspective also, really, youknow, shows that.
So then, the last threeparagraphs are me spruiking
myself, you know know, talkingmyself up and talking my

(21:30):
experience up.
So my debut novel, the gooddaughter text, publishing 2009,
won the 2009 melbourne prize forliterature civic choice award
and was also shortlisted in thevictorian premier's awards for
an unpublished manuscript by anemerging writer.
I'm also author of a novel forchildren, I'm your friend on
loan Garrett Publishing andco-edited the anthology Coming

(21:51):
of Age Growing Up Muslim inAustralia, alan and I'm on 2014.
That was shortlisted for the2015 Children's Book Council of
the Year Awards.
I have been funded by CreativeVictoria to be mentored by Alice
Pung in developing this book.
Excerpts have been published inanthologies School of Hard
Knocks in the upcoming anthologymeet me at the intersection,

(22:12):
pre-mantle press 2018.
Nerves breakdown was publishedin rebellious daughters
anthology, ventura press 2016.
Woman on fire in a changejournal, illora press, 2013.
So, um, if you were doing themaths with me, you would have
realized I was writing this bookfor five years.
I was actually writing thisbook a lot longer than that.

(22:33):
I was writing it my whole life,in different ways and in
different shapes.
And my debut novel, the GoodDaughter, is my first attempt at
a memoir.
But I was too raw and tooscared to write at that time
really honestly and delve intothe truth, and so I wrote it as
fiction and I kind of disguisedthings a little bit Also.

(22:56):
So you know, I had quite a fewcredentials at this point in
terms of the publishing industrythat I could make that case.
But the other thing that I hadbeen doing, and that I still do
a little bit, is I had beensubmitting standalone chapters
of this memoir to journals andto anthologies to build that

(23:18):
literary history.
I mean, I did it also because Ilike getting published for one
and two.
I did it because writing a bookfor five years takes a really
long time and you need littlewins along the way, you need
encouragement, and so I hadfound this method of submitting

(23:44):
standalone chapters as shortstories and getting them
published as a way of giving methat that little bit of a lift,
that bit of motivation.
And then also that if I didwant to submit to publishers, I
would have a case about, um, thefact that this book had a
proven audience.
Um, you know, with thesechapters, um, so you know, uh, I

(24:08):
also was tricking myself intowriting a memoir because it was
so intimidating.
So I was originally justwriting essays, just writing
standalone chapters, so the lastsection of my query letter, and
I did fit all this in on onepage.
I did play around a little bitwith the margins, I'm not going
to lie, but I did fit it all inon one page.
I did play around a little bitwith the margins, I'm not gonna

(24:29):
lie, um, but I did fit it all in.
This memoir is complete andready for submission.
Please find attached to onepage synopsis.
Please also find attached aself-addressed postcard for a
response to my query.
I look forward to hearing fromyou.
Um, so, uh, at you know, therewas still a bit of posting of

(24:49):
things happening.
Uh, these days we're kind ofcompletely digital, and so I was
posting this letter, um, and so, because I was posting it, I
thought, okay, I'll do um thepostcard so that you know, and I
put on the back, uh, requestingfull um manuscript, requesting
the first three chapters, or sothat way they could just tick it

(25:12):
and pop it into the postbox,because I was trying to make it
as easy on them as possible torespond to me because at the end
of the day, you want a response.
It doesn't matter.
It's better to get a responsethan no response and sort of
languish in limbo.
Um, the other thing that I didthat I just see that is not

(25:33):
included.
Uh, at this point I wassubmitting query letters
simultaneously, so I submittedthem to five publishers at the
same time.
And, um, I think I was flaggingat one point that I was doing
simultaneous submissions.
I don't know that publishersget worked up about that anymore

(25:55):
because it takes them so longto respond.
So you should be playing theodds like you know, playing slot
machines or playing the lottery.
Just keep, you know, trying tosubmit.
Keep, um, you know, trying tosubmit.
But there was this expectationat one point that, um, you do
not submit until you hear fromone publisher, which is
completely unreasonable.
Um, I think it might beworthwhile to flag that it is a

(26:20):
simultaneous submission, just sothat they know that other
people are looking at it at thesame time.
And then, when you do get aquery request, um, it is a good
idea to update the publishers.
So when I got, I ended upgetting, I think, two or three
query requests.
Uh, sorry, requests forpartials or full manuscripts, I

(26:43):
can't remember.
I think most of them were fullmanuscripts.
So I I think I got threepublishers responding and asking
for full manuscripts.
So at each point I was updatingthem and I was just saying you
know, just to let you know I'vealso had another request.
The really weird thing was oneof the publishers got incredibly

(27:04):
offended about the fact that Ihad submitted elsewhere and I
had another request and that Iwas updating them.
And he got really offended andhe was like and don't use my
name with the other publisher.
So I thought he was.
He thought I was trying toleverage attention and kind of

(27:26):
go, oh, I've got this, um, whichI wasn't.
I was actually just trying tobe professional and just trying
to maintain that communication.
And so when I received an offerfrom a publisher, I immediately
notified the other publisher,uh, who had the full manuscript

(27:47):
request also, um, and just saidyou know, just to let you know,
thank you so much for yourrequest.
I have actually received anoffer and will be withdrawing at
this point.
So at that point, you know,usually you might want to try
and negotiate and try and use,you know, one offer.
I wasn't interested in that, atthis point, this was the book of
my heart that I had spent mywhole life writing, that I had

(28:10):
spent five years working onintensively, that my mother had
read a draft of and was involvedin the writing of, and so I
just wanted to honor her lifeand I wanted to publish it.
And I just wanted to find apublisher that was on the same
page with me and that saw thevalue in the story.

(28:31):
And as soon as I got that, Iwas happy to continue with that
publisher.
So I will attach, um, the queryletter, um, and you know, uh,
what, what you should do.
So, yeah, I think, to recap,you need to do research.

(28:53):
You know, I would recommend itmight be hard for some people,
some people might actually findthis advice hard and, again,
take everything I say, just likeanything anyone else says, with
a grain of salt, becauseeveryone's writing journey is
different, everyone's experienceis different and what works for
me may or may not work for you.
So, you know, vet it foryourself.

(29:15):
Um, but I personally doresearch as I am writing.
So, because this book was fiveyears in the making, I was
reading every memoir out therethat was about mental illness
and I was making notes about it.
I was looking at the publisherswho are publishing these books
and making note of that.

(29:36):
Looking at, you know, all ofthem, collecting the information
and sort of developing astrategy in terms of what I
wanted to do to move forwardwhile I was writing.
Now I was saying that thatmight be difficult for some
writers is some writers mightget disheartened if they are
looking at, you know, books thatare published and when you are
in that early emerging stage ofyour journey, it might be

(30:01):
intimidating for you.
So, you know, mediate that asyou can in terms of what works
for you and what will keep youmotivated.
You know, think of thatelevator pitch, doing that
one-page synopsis and preparingit, helping to sort of check the
structure of your book and alsoto think about what it is that

(30:25):
your book is doing that isdifferent and that is unique,
that your book is doing that isdifferent and that is unique.
So I will attach all of theinformation in my show notes.
So please have a look at thoseand see if they are helpful.

(30:46):
In this next section I am goingto talk about my freelance
writing experience.
So I'm going to talk about howI started pitching and
establishing my career as afreelance writer.
I have actually had quite a fewarticles published.
Now, oh my gosh, I did a countat one point.

(31:10):
Um, I don't know what the countis, maybe 50, maybe I'm
exaggerating, I don't know, butthere was quite a lovely number
there.
If you're interested in lookingat my articles that I published
, um, go to amrapayalichcom um,I think it's slash articles or
look for the page uh, about, andI've got links to all of them

(31:30):
and you can read them online.
So that's something that youcan do.
So it's something that I wantedto do for a long time.
I felt like I had informationthat I wanted to share, not just
about books, but abouteverything, and I struggled with

(31:51):
confidence.
I struggled with how to do it,and then my first opportunity to
write freelance came about.
I was on Facebook and thisemerging writer had done a
writing workshop in a highschool and they were talking

(32:11):
about the fact that they had,you know, delivered this writing
workshop.
That was so wonderful and howthey really had the students so
inspired.
And then the English teacherswere interfering and telling the
students what to do and ruiningthe creative vibe, and this has

(32:34):
started an online discussionwith other English teachers who
were like hello, I don't thinkyou're quite understanding what
teachers do and the fact that welove students who write, and
that's not what they were doing.
And especially, I was lookingat it through the lens of an EAL
teacher.
So a teacher from an Englishwho teaches English as a second

(32:55):
language, although now it's anadditional language, because we
have a lot of migrants who speak, more than you know, a second
language.
They speak numerous languages,so it's EAL now, and this
workshop was being delivered tostudents who were from a

(33:15):
non-linguistic speakingbackground.
And so I read this and Iresponded to it in a really
visceral level where I was veryangry, where I was like you
don't understand, when you arean EAL teacher, there is a trust
and a bond that you developwith a student, where you are

(33:35):
teaching them how to spell words, how to pronounce words.
So just this week I had a classwhere I was reading a short
story and in there was the wordraucous and I knew how to spell
that word, maybe, and I knewwhat the word meant, but I
actually did not know how topronounce that word.

(33:56):
I realized I have not reallyused that word.
I have not heard that word used, and so I said to the kids I
don't actually know how topronounce this and I always have
my computer connected, so I dida google search how to
pronounce raucous.
Um heard raucous raucous waspracticing that, and then was

(34:18):
asking the students to practicewith me.
Okay, let's practice raucousraucous.
And so this is something thatyou do as an eal teacher.
You, you are always exposingstudents to new vocabulary.
You're teaching thempronunciation, teaching them how
to learn new words, teachingthem context and talking about
context, and then also justsometimes actually telling them

(34:39):
how to spell where they're likethey know the word that they
want to use, they know what itmeans, but they don't know how
to spell it and they just needthat bit of support.
They ask you to spell it.
And so I read this article bythis emerging writer and was
really upset because, um, shewas writing about, you know, the
teachers in a very denigratingway and um presenting herself as

(35:01):
a little bit of a savior.
Uh, you know, by deliveringthis writing program and I'm
like, oh sweetie, when you're ateacher, you're there every week
.
You know it by delivering thiswriting program and I'm like, oh
, sweetie, when you're a teacher.
You're there every week.
You know it's a very differentthing.
You're not.
You know like you are inspiring.
You are coming in to inspirestudents, but you're not really
understanding what happens in aclassroom with teachers and
students.

(35:22):
And so I ended up, you know,pitching a response and writing
to the editors and saying youknow my perspective, I want to
write a response to this.
These are the reasons.
This is what I want to say, andthe editor was interested in
that, because usually in writingit's about putting an idea out

(35:44):
there, putting an opinion outthere, and then getting response
.
It's about starting aconversation, it's about, you
know, continuing that.
And so I wrote a response tothat article and I had it
published.
And that was my first freelanceexperience and the first
experience of you know writingabout something that I'm an

(36:04):
expert in, because at that pointI'd been teaching for for quite
a few years.
I've now been a teacher in ahigh school for 12 years, I
don't know.
I think at that point it waslike six or seven years or
something.
So it was still a good chunk oftime and and I was like, oh,
now I've got a credit and now Ican do this.

(36:24):
And sometimes you don't realize, but you actually stand in your
way and I had been standing inmy way where I knew I wanted to
pitch and I knew I sort of hadideas and things to say, but I
could never quite get there, Icould never quite get over that
line.
And so I started then thinkingabout ideas and I would have

(36:49):
conversations with people andI'd be like, oh, that's an idea
to pitch.
And then I would also thinkabout can I interview people and
can I pitch that?
Where I'm also showcasing otherwriters, my strength and what I

(37:09):
really like doing is writingfrom the first person
perspective and sort of sharingmy lessons and sharing things
I've learned, which is what thiswhole podcast is.
This whole podcast is me justsharing my lessons and things
I've learned about differentthings and just starting that
conversation.
And so that made me think, oh,I can do this.
And so that made me think, oh,I can do this.

(37:31):
So I would encourage you tothink about interests and
insights you have to offer, youknow.
So I thought about my interestsand I did some brainstorming
and I was like, okay, I'm ateacher, the student-teacher
relationship, you know,multiculturalism, teaching,
mental health, western suburbs,writing and the fascinating

(37:52):
thing is, once you start comingup with ideas, they just keep
coming.
Like my daughter is sick ofthis sentence now, where I'm
like I think there's an articlein this.
Where I have a conversationwith her about something and I'm
like I think there's an articlein this, so, oh god, can't we
just have a conversation?
I'm like, no, my brain.
And the other thing is, once youstart pitching to editors, you

(38:16):
develop a relationship with theeditors and they are looking for
writers.
They are looking for, you know,writers to support for stories
to publish.
And so I first developed areally great relationship with
SBS Voices, which is not aroundanymore, but now there's like
SBS News where they're stilldoing sort of similar things,

(38:40):
and I started pitching to themarticles and my first few
articles needed a bit ofeditorial work.
I needed to kind of get thatstructure and figure out how to
construct these opinion piecesand these first person point of
view pieces.
And then, as I kept writingthem, I got better at it.

(39:03):
I was able to really get thatstructure down and got to the
point where the editor was likedon't send me the complete
article, pitch me the idea.
And then I started pitchingideas and she would change and
shift it a little bit.
She's like, oh, that'sinteresting, but could you
actually write it from thisangle?

(39:25):
And so I would then go, oh okay, I'll, you know, think about
that and I'll write it aboutthat angle.
So I remember once pitchingabout friendship, and you know,
and then it changed intofriendship breakups and how do
you deal with friendshipbreakups.
And then the interesting thingabout that article is then it

(39:46):
was picked up and I wasinterviewed on the radio about
it, and so it's just fascinatinghow, when you put these things
out there, you don't know what'sgoing to come back, and that's
why you just need to generatecontent and release it out into
the world.
And so, you know, some of myarticles have led to some really

(40:07):
interesting situations.
Articles have led to somereally interesting situations,
and the other thing that'sreally great is people reading
them and people seeing somethingof their lives in them and
writing me an email, and so Iwould get these beautiful emails
and responses from people outof the blue who had read my
article and they reallyconnected with it.

(40:29):
And so it's an amazingopportunity because you're doing
so many things.
For me, writing is figuringthings out, figuring out who I
am, figuring out my thoughts andideas, my learnings, my lessons
, but then it's also aboutbuilding my thought leadership.

(40:51):
This is a new word I learned,by the way.
I had to actually find thedefinition of this because I'm
like I need to actually say theproper definition of this.
So what is it that you are anexpert in?
And so, in terms of thoughtleadership, I have now figured
out my area of expertise andwhat I can pitch.

(41:14):
So I would send emails toeditors with ideas of what I
want to write.
I would include things thatI've done before and I would
include links to previousarticles that were on that theme

(41:36):
to sort of demonstrate to themmy understanding.
And in the pitch, I would alsorecommend that you sort of
include where you've beenpublished.
So I've now been published insome very high profile, so in
the Age, in the Guardian, inliterary journals, in SBS,
Voices, in ABC, as education.

(41:59):
So I now have some you knowcredentials to include In the
beginning.
You might not have that, someyou know credentials to include
in the beginning.
You might not have that, and soyou can talk about your
personal experience and why, uh,you are the person who should
write this article, um, so youknow, again, crafting it as an
idea why you think that thisarticle has benefit looking at,

(42:22):
have they written somethingabout it?
What are you responding to?
Um can also be helpful.
And then, um, you know, don'ttake reject, you might not hear
from them.
That might be the rejectionwhere it just it's crickets
which has happened to me.
Um, so I would encourage you totry and pitch it to a few

(42:44):
different places.
Also, in the beginning, it mightbe worthwhile actually writing
out the article and becauseusually when you're an unknown,
they want to see your writingand they want to actually accept
the completed article becausethey're they're not sure.
And so that is what washappening to me in the beginning
.
They would not actually acceptit.
They would say I'm interestedin seeing the complete article,

(43:08):
and then they would look at thecomplete article and then they
would ask for edits and then,after I made the edits, they
would go okay, and then I wouldget the contract and they would,
you know, confirm that theywere publishing it.
Now that I've developed thisskill and developed the
relationships and the networksand, you know, have the
publication history, I do haveeditors, even editors who don't

(43:32):
know me who are willing toaccept a pitch from me and you
know, do the contract based onthat?
Do the contract based on that?
Um, in terms of rejection, Ijust sort of wanted to talk
about that because you know Ihave had some interesting uh
moments in terms of rejection.

(43:53):
One of the the most interestingones is I, my regular editor
that I worked with for one ofthe publications, was on leave,
and so I pitched an article tothe editor that was covering
their patch while they were onleave and they accepted an
article from me, and so I wrotethe article and I submitted it

(44:16):
and I didn't hear anything for alittle while.
And so then I followed up and Ididn't hear again about that
article and was a bitdisheartened because I thought
I'd developed a relationshipthere for a while and so I just
left that.
It kind of disappeared into thebackground.

(44:38):
And then I had another idea andI pitched it and my regular
editor was back on deck and theyaccepted it.
And then the editor that was onleave contacted me about the
article that they had ghosted meabout.
I was like, oh yes, we justwanted to edit it a little bit

(44:59):
and then proceed with thepublication.
And so my theory is, um, thatmy article had kind of dropped
down the list and they hadforgotten about it, and that
they were then embarrassed.
They thought too much time hadpassed and well, maybe they just
completely forgot about it.
And then, when they saw that Iwas being published again, they

(45:19):
were like, oh, I accepted anarticle from her and then, you
know, put me back into the frontof their mind.
So the reason that I'm sharingthat story is because always
behave with professionalism andpractice a bit of amnesia.
You know, if your pitch goes inlimbo and nothing happens,
pitch again, there might besomeone else who is on deck,

(45:42):
there might be another editorand so that someone new they
might be more interested in theidea that you are submitting the
second time or the third timeor the fourth time.
So, really, persistence is key.
It is hard in the beginningwhen you are emerging and you
are going through those crisesof confidence and you're like am

(46:04):
I good enough?
Is this really something Ishould be doing?
But it is something that youknow really holds you instead.
So I would also say think abouthow can you rework this pitch,
you know, instead of an op-edwhere you focus on your own
experiences, can you make itmore of a research-based case
study or can you interviewothers?

(46:25):
So even you know, you know, ifyou're like I really want to
write this, um, and then youcome across another publication
where you're like I can pitchthis, but they don't do first
person memoir pieces, they wantmore of a research article,
pitch it as a research article,um, it's interesting.
You know, when you're a writer,the skills are translatable and

(46:46):
you can do different things,you can try different things and
then figure it out.
So I would really encourage youto, you know, think about what
you're an expert in and thinkabout what you can pitch
articles on and also connect itto the themes of your book.
You know, I wrote a bit aboutmental health, a bit about

(47:08):
bipolar, and then in the byline,you know, amrapailich, author
of memoir Things, nobody Knowsbut Me and I did have people
buying and reading my memoirbecause of the byline.
So this is also an opportunityto to, you know, get readers, uh
, who are out there and you know, it's interesting the more that

(47:30):
you get out there like I haveactually had editors contact me
where they're like, oh, we wouldlike you to write this or we
would like you to write that,and I'm like, of course, yes, I
will, I will write that for you.
Thank you, darling.
Uh, you actually know my name,so you know it.
It is about getting out thereand just putting yourself out
there and seeing what comes back.
So now I'm going to talk alittle bit about why media

(47:57):
attention matters and how topitch to media outlets.
Now, this is something thatmight be more relevant to those
of us who are independentauthors, who are, um, publishing
ourselves and are having to puton these different hats.
Usually, if you are published,uh, with a traditional publisher

(48:18):
, they are the ones that contactmedia outlets and get you that
attention.
But sometimes, um, they onlygive you, you know, a publicity
person for a short amount oftime, and they are struggling.
They've got a lot of otherprojects and you kind of might
fall through the cracks.
So it still might be on you totry and get some media attention

(48:39):
and try and get, you know,people talking and writing about
your book.
So think about the outlets thatalign with your topic.
You know, even start with justyour local newspaper.
Usually they're alwaysinterested in a local news story
, and then you can use that as abuilding block, as a stepping
stone to submitting elsewhere.

(49:00):
If they publish a story aboutyou, try and find the right
journalist, editor or producerthat covers your subject area.
And then, you know, think ofthat hook, think about what it
is that your book is telling,what is it that's addressing out
there, what's the theme?
And you know, hopefully you'vealready done this work, so this

(49:22):
is something that you can do, ifyou are.
You know, one of the things thatI do now for anything, any book
that I do, is I create a mediarelease, and so that media
release kind of has thatinformation for me where I'm
like, okay, you know, that'sthere and I sort of have those
points there.

(49:42):
Keep it, you know, clear andconcise and focused.
Don't make it too long.
You need to make it, you know,very short 200 to 300 words.
What is it about and why is itrelevant to now Try and tie it
to a current event, a trend oran awareness day.
So you know, ruth Clare, whopublished Enemy, which is about

(50:06):
her father, who suffered fromincredible PTSD after being
forced international service andbeing a Vietnam vet, then
pitched, you know, an article tothe Age for Anzac Day to talk
about the families and that youknow they are the ones who are

(50:26):
also dealing with the aftermathof a soldier in service.
So, you know, think about whatthings you could tie it to and
offer sort of a freshperspective, highlight your
expertise and relevance.
You know if this is from yourlived experience, if this is
something you've researched,this is something you know about
.
These are some statistics thatyou know.

(50:46):
This is from your livedexperience, this is something
you've researched, this issomething you know about.
These are some statistics thatyou know about.
Um, offer a clear call toaction.
You know, are you pitching anarticle, an interview, expert
opinion?
Um, let them know you'reavailable for follow-up
questions or interviews.
I've had sometimes situations Iremember I I submitted um an
article to an outlet about how Ihad almost fallen for a scam

(51:10):
and they then contacted me andsaid would you be willing to be
interviewed by a journalistwho's going to write about it?
I said no, because I'm at thepoint now where I want to be
paid for my writing and being apart of that interview was not
going to help me in terms ofpromoting my author.

(51:31):
You know background of mywriting, so I didn't see any
value in that.
But sometimes that can alsohappen where they can see that
they can use you for somethingelse.
So you know it's good to sortof do that bit of an overview,
provide supporting material.
So you know, high-qualityimages the author has chart the

(51:53):
book cover, you know, include apress release if you aren't
traditionally published.
Hopefully the publisher hassomething like that.
Or you can do your own Followup.
But you know, don't spam anddon't follow up too many times,
only once and only.
You know I wait a long timebefore I follow up because I
hate following up and a lot oftimes I don't.

(52:16):
I would also encourage you tocreate a media kit for your book
.
You can go to my website andlook at any of my book pages and
at the bottom of my book pagesI have a media kit and in that
media kit I have, you know, theshort description, really short

(52:40):
two-line description of my book,the medium description, the
full description of my book.
I have my social media handles.
I have little posts, leadingposts about the book.
You know, talking about whatthe themes are, what the purpose
is, with myself in quotationmarks so that if a journalist

(53:01):
was interested in that they canjust pull those quotes and use
them.
I have promotional images whereyou know people can download
them and use them in socialmedia.
I have that media kit also as aWord document where they can
download it and, you know,actually copy and paste it
easier if they need to.

(53:23):
So, you know, look at preparingthat background information,
because then a lot of the timeyou can just copy and paste and
you just attach those links whenyou are pitching to media
outlets and they've got all theinformation that they need,
because sometimes they have veryquick turnarounds where they're
like, oh, we've got a spot, wewant to do this quickly.

(53:44):
You know, include your phonenumber when you are pitching to
media outlets, because if theyneed to contact you quickly, um
and yeah, so just providing thatinformation, try and make it as
easy as possible.
So, um, that's something alsofor you to think about in terms
of how to get media attention,how to get eyes on your books,
how to get people talking aboutyour books and how to use that

(54:05):
as a stepping stone for otherthings.
Okay, in this last section I amgoing to talk about how to pitch
a writing workshop, because ifyou are a writer, you know there
are things that you know,things that you can talk about,

(54:25):
things that you can teach people, and this is an also an
opportunity to build a profile,to get readers, uh, to network,
to build that credibility.
So, um, I would get you tothink about what are the things
that you can, you know, talkabout.
So, you know, are you a youngadult author?
Can you do a young adultworkshop and talk about?

(54:46):
You know, the unique um aspectsof young adult fiction?
Uh, I've done memoir writingworkshops and share my
perspective in terms of memoirwriting.
So you're thinking about thegenre.
Uh, is one way um thinkingabout.
You know what's your, how's yourworkshop different from others?
What are you offering in termsof adding value?
Focus on the practicaltakeaways and you know what's

(55:09):
the niche or the problem you'resolving.
Tailor it to the organisationyou know.
So you might be pitching thisto a writing centre, to festival
, to libraries, to schools.
Sometimes you know you need tothink about the level of the
participants and also the length.
That you could do a one-hourworkshop, that you could extend
it and add these extra featuresfor two hours.

(55:30):
Sometimes they get back to youand they're like, oh, can you
make this a two-hour workshop.
Can you make this this workshop?
So providing those options, ifyou can highlight how it fits
into their mission orprogramming, that also can help,
you know.
Then doing all those otherthings in terms of the workshop
description, trying to do thatcompelling hook, showcase your

(55:54):
expertise.
Um, if you've done workshopsbefore, I have now learned the
very hard way that when I do aworkshop, I ask participants to
give me a testimonial to tell me, you know, did they enjoy it?
I mean, usually look for theones who enjoyed it and I have
those quotes, I have those astestimonials to then promote

(56:17):
myself.
Also the, the organizers whobooked me.
I ask them to writetestimonials.
So then I've got evidence oflibraries that I've worked with
who thought my workshops weregood to pitch to other libraries
.
So focus on the learningoutcomes.
What are you trying to get theparticipants to do and what will

(56:40):
they gain?
What is it that you're focusingon?
Is it that they are learninghow to structure a young adult
novel or to understand the voiceof a young adult novel?
So you know, thinking aboutthose nuances in terms of the
workshop that you're offering.
Look at the logistics.
Like you know, I've now boughtstuff in terms of being able to

(57:06):
uh connect my overhead.
Do you need an overhead?
Um, I have handouts that Iprovide, so I'm also like that,
will photocopy those um.
Price your workshopcompetitively.
So in australia we've got theaustralian society of authors.
They have a list of what youshould be charging for the
different things that you aredoing in the author business.

(57:29):
So use that as your guide.
Back your pitch up withmaterials.
Have the polished one page workproposal ready, short bio and
headshot.
Provide links.
This is where your website ishandy, also, where you can link
and provide that information.
Um, and you know, I now have aword document where I collect

(57:51):
all of the different workshoppictures that I have, and so now
I'm sort of like, and I can dothis and I can do that, and sort
of I give them the differentoptions, uh, for them to think
about.
You can follow up up, but again,you know, not too much.
Only once.
We recommend fortnight maybe,or a month, and then not again,

(58:13):
because no response is aresponse, very hard but very
true, so you need to leave it.
So that's another opportunityfor you to build your
credibility but also your income, because as writers, as authors
, as creators.
We need to be entrepreneurs.

(58:35):
We need to think about thedifferent things that we can do,
the different skills we offer,the different ways we can make
money and we need to hustle, andthis is one way to do it money
and we need to hustle, and thisis one way to do it.

(58:57):
So, to wrap up, I would reallyencourage you to think about the
different ways that you mightpitch and think about this,
about building relationships.
So, build relationships withpeople on social media.
Look at what they are doing,collect information and then
follow up and engage.
Start small, you know.
Pitch to your local newspapers.
Look at niche blogs or nichepodcasts that you can pitch to

(59:18):
um, use your personal story.
Focus on who you are as aperson, because that's what
makes a pitch stand out.
If it's too generic, it kind ofreads like everything else.
But if you focus on thatauthentic personal story, that
is what will get people andthat's what will get that
attention.
And I would really encourageyou to create a media kit, a

(59:41):
media kit.
So, as I said, I have a mediakit for every single book in
order to promote that, you know,trying to get that media
attention.
But I also have a press kit onmy website for myself.
It has covers of my books, myheadshots that can be downloaded

(01:00:01):
.
It has my bio.
It's got all the places whereI've been featured and have been
put in, and then it's also gotsuggested questions and the
different topics and themes thatI can talk about.
So that way sometimes you knowwhen, when you're pitching and
they're like oh, you're makingit easier for them to put you on

(01:00:23):
and to do your story, becausethey don't have to do all the
research and coming up withquestions, you're actually short
cutting a bit of that.
So those are some things tothink about.
So you know, just having alsothat website, having a public
face on the internet, I wouldreally encourage.

(01:00:45):
When we are are writers, when weare creators, pitching is
something that we do.
Even when you're having aconversation with someone and
you're talking about your book,try and practice that pitch and
practice what it's about, so youcan do that shortcut, because
also, you don't know whatconversation will lead to, where
, who knows who or what couldhappen.
So it's good to practice.
Um, it's something that you canlearn it.

(01:01:08):
Practice really does makeperfect.
It is difficult in thebeginning, but the more that you
do it, the more it becomes,like you know, second nature.
I am at the point now where Ican pitch all sorts of things.
I am not perturbed if I don'tget a response.
I am a bit Teflon and just kindof keep going.

(01:01:29):
And also it's just sointeresting how success begets
success.
So as soon as you book you knowone workshop or one you know
interview opportunity, then youuse that as a stepping stone to
build another one.
Don't forget to visit my website.

(01:01:49):
Look at the episode show notesand the handouts that I've got
to help you.
So I've got my query letter,I've got how to do the one page
synopsis and I've got somegeneral advice about pitching.
I would love to hear from anylisteners about your pitching
experiences or questions.
So go to my website,amrapalichcom slash podcast.

(01:02:15):
So a, m, r, a, p, a, j, a, l, Ic dot com slash podcast.
That's where you can find allthe show notes and the
transcripts and you can alsoconnect with me and leave
comments.
So in my next episode I'm goingto talk about teachers who

(01:02:35):
write, how to be a teacher whowrites and benefits from it, and
, again, an area of expertisethat I have.
I hope you've enjoyed thisepisode and found it helpful, so
get out there, pitch and youwill see success.
Thank you for tuning in toAmra's Armchair Anecdotes.

(01:02:58):
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to subscribe and
follow for more insights,stories and inspiration From my
armchair to yours.
Remember every story beginswith a single word.