Pitching your novel? Marvin Baker gives you a few hints how.
Screenwriter Marvin Baker knows all about pitching.
I met Marvin in 2014 when I sat down for breakfast at the Willamette Writers Conference. Armed with my coffee, I settled in to share stories and talk pitching with a group of writers I did not know. After I introduced myself, Marvin launched into a story – one I just can’t forget – about how difficult it is to break into the business.
I met with Marvin again this week at his favorite coffee shop in West Linn. Over another cup of coffee, I asked him to share that story once more.
“I went through the same years of rejection as most people,” he said. “Then in 2007, everything changed. I finally broke through. I had a television pilot optioned out, and we went down there for two weeks at the end of August. It was perfect. I celebrated my birthday, and we spent two weeks in Hollywood checking out housing, and looking and seeing the possibilities – what it would actually be like to live down there. We were ready to move.
“And then the writer’s strike came along and derailed all of that.”
The entire conference table groaned as he said those words. To be that close – and to have it all slip away – was unimaginable to us.
“That was kind of tough to take,” Marvin said. “I’ve had other things happen like that since then. It doesn’t get easier. But, now, I’ve just accepted that it’s a business. It’s not me, it’s them. It really truly is.”
I nodded my head, knowing the feeling, knowing the frustration. We’ve all felt it before: the sting of rejection. The form dismissals.
But that still leaves the question: how do we do it? How do we walk into that pitching room, grab their attention, and keep it?
Marvin explained that the first thing to know is it’s actually not all them. I tilted my head in confusion, and he explained.
Read the rest of the article at the Willamette Writers Conference website.