How to Pitch Your Book Without Losing Your Mind
A special Substack live Q&A for all Author Insider subscribers (free + paid)
Hey Insiders,
While there are many challenging steps to publishing a book, perhaps the most daunting one is writing a query letter. For those unfamiliar with the term, a query letter is a one-pager that you send to literary agents to entice them to request your manuscript, which, ideally, they will read with such delight that they’ll then ask to represent you.
A good query letter is concise, persuasive, and well-researched; it provides a brief, intriguing synopsis, describes the book's target audience, offers some comp (comparative) titles, highlights your credentials as an author, and maybe includes a respectful-but-not-toadying-sentence about why you chose this particular agent.
That’s a lot to accomplish in only three or four paragraphs. Which is why query letters typically inspire so much dread in writers. But they don’t have to. With the right guidance and strategy, query letters can go from terrifying to totally doable.
Which brings us to Tuesday, March 3, at 12 pm ET, when I’ll be hosting a free-to-all Substack Live session with Karin Gillespie, the writer behind the excellent newsletter Pitch Your Novel. Karin has published nine novels through the Big 5, small presses, and indie routes, so she knows the querying trenches from every angle.
We’ll talk about:
What makes a query letter stand out (and what makes agents stop reading)
How to choose comp titles that actually help your case
Crafting a hook that sounds fresh—without overpromising
Adjusting your submission strategy in a changing publishing landscape
The mindset shift that makes pitching feel less like begging and more like advocating for your work
This special session is open to all Author Insider subscribers (free + paid).
You can RSVP directly in the Substack app or, if you prefer, use the Luma link to add it to your calendar and get reminders. Either way, I hope to see you there!
Best Wishes,
Panio Gianopoulos
Editorial Director, Author Insider & The Next Big Idea Club
I hope your guest will give a nod to memoir, also, a genre in which I suspect at least some of your readers are interested. Pitching is crazymaking in any genre, yet if we don’t advocate for our own work, how can we expect others to get excited about it and champion it for us?!