This is coaching to bring out the best possible writer's voice in a pitch. That elusive quality that makes literary agents froth with excitement and attach themselves to your ascending star.
It amuses me the way writers have so much sass and humour when they write in their blogs; they are a little less exuberent when they post on communal threads (usually amongst scary strangers who all seem so cliquy together) and a little more reserved still in their novels. By the time they come to the pitch, all that sass disappears up it's own you know what and trembles there, refusing to come out. Not a pretty metaphor, but you get the idea.
It's not just fear of failure and fear of the unknown - IMHO, we creative types have huge problems when it comes to promoting ourselves. You all know a hundred exceptions that break the rule of course, but I bet for every one of them there's tens of thousands who cannot get past that hardwiring in the brain that screams "I AM NOT WORTHY" at least once every millisecond (yep, gets noisy when all the harmonics set in - techie joke).
So the deal is this, if you want to send me the pitch for your book (up to 300 words) and the first page (up to 250 words) I will try to help you inject that thing so full of voice I'll be able to hear it all the way across the pond. I will then post your pitch and my suggestions for people to add in their two-penneth and when you are happy with it, I'll add the before and afters to this page so people can see the difference.
Alternatively, you can send me the first 2 pages (or 555 words, whichever is the greater) and I will do something very similar. To see how it works, checkout the first brave victim here.
Send your submissions to jacky@hengistarcher.co.uk and let's get this party started.
As soon as I am able, I'll post some I made earlier, just to give you the idea.
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