Hope for Novelists and Other Writers by da-AL

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Do you have an elevator speech? Book writers are told that they need an ‘elevator speech’ — a one-minute pitch for when they inadvertently meet their star-maker. It’s also useful for talking about one’s book with everyone else.

Theoretically, that is. My elevator speech rarely gets past the first floor.

Bunny rabbit outfitted person reads paper.
Ryan McGuire of Gratisography is a smart bunny.

But I love my books, which is why I keep at them. My two novels are in the final edit phase as I build an audience of followers (that means you, dear reader) who I hope will be interested in them when they’re self-published. They’re narrated by a 40-year-old woman, in the form of letters to a deceased grandmother.

“An epistolary novel: written in the form of a series of letters.” Merriam-Webster Dictionary

The Hope Part of this Post: This video reminds me of me pitching my book — and Maria Keogh Semple’s “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” did great!

Here’s part 2 of her pitching (this time to another very successful author), which is also shown comically yet realistically…

Semple’s book is so successful that Cate Blanchette is starring in a movie version of it!

What’s been people’s reaction when you tell them about your books?

47 thoughts on “Hope for Novelists and Other Writers by da-AL”

  1. I wish you success with your two books. I know what you’re going through at the moment and share it with you: my own e-pub path involves a quint, with each of the five books topping 100+ words. My intention is to publish the first 3 books together and follow up quickly with the remaining two (thus all must be ready to go before I can put the first one out there.
    My elevator pitch? I’ve not yet perfected it, It runs something like: The Mythic Quest of an earth-bound divine with epic amnesia and a need to discover what sin has earned her this banishment

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  3. Well, I am not a writer in the sense of the word, I guess…at least I am not trying to publish any books, etc.. however, like a book, any writing I would do would come from the heart, not just to publish something… “I do not do, say or write something to been seen or heard… I do, say or write something because it needed to be done, said or written…” (Larry “Dutch” Woller)

    I would self-publish in order to insure that my words and thoughts would be published, not those of others in order for them to gain fame or fortune… 🙂 … and seeing as how my writings and thoughts would come from my heart and are a part of me and my life and there is no way I could explain my life in one minute to anyone, the one minute elevator speech would not work for me… 🙂

    “The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.” Gustave Flaubert

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  5. I’d not heard the term ‘elevator speech’ before. I know a lot of writers say they got kicked back and passed on numerous times before they finally got a deal, and a lot of those are some of the most prolific writers of today. You show great perseverance and it’s so inspiring to read. That first video made me chuckle, everything she wanted to say (epistolary novel, view of 14yr old girl but not YA, misanthropic woman) gets crossed out, even to the point of being told it’s ‘dead in the water’. Keeping going after all of that takes guts and passion. But it’s so worth it. Interesting post, thank you for sharing. Wishing you all the best with the two novels you have in editing at the moment… exciting times! 🙂
    Caz xx

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  6. I’m not known as a author (that says something about *my* elevator speech) so when one of my books comes up, people get nervous and change the subject. Or perhaps they’ve already read the books and that’s the real reason they change topics.

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