The Art (and Fun) of Pitching

This one-day workshop is designed primarily for nonfiction writers, but is open to writers of all genres and levels, from beginners to seasoned authors. Limited to 12 participants.

When it comes to selling our work, writers are lucky. We have the most important tool we need to turn an idea into a sales document: good writing skills. So why does writing a pitch feel like pulling your own teeth? In this one-day workshop, nonfiction author and journalist Julie Barlow breaks down the fear factor of pitch writing to explain what the ingredients of a good pitch are and how to assemble them to land the sale. She shows participants how to embrace the art of pitching and think of it as a sport.

While pitching is part poetry, part psychology, it’s most of all like cooking: you might as well enjoy it because you won’t survive without it. Whether you are selling a book proposal, a magazine or blog idea, a film script, a radio documentary, or an online course, the basic ingredients are the same. Drawing on her own experience publishing seven books of nonfiction and hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles over her 25-year career—as well as “selling” workshop ideas, radio and film projects and more—Julie shows how writing pitches is also useful in every stage of the creative process of a project, from hatching an idea, to creating, publishing and promoting a finished work.

Participants will be able to develop or workshop their own pitches if they provide a description or draft pitch prior to the class (we’ll workshop on a first-come, first-served basis, and will probably have time to discuss 5 projects). We’ll spend about a third of the class time talking about concepts and roughly two-thirds letting participants read, react, and share ideas about each other’s work.