Crafting an Elevator Pitch for a Novel
How do you sum up your book in a sentence?
An elevator pitch is a popular marketing concept. How would you share an idea, product, or service in 60 seconds? Marketing a book as an indie author requires crafting an elevator pitch designed to work on social media, in advertisements, and in conversations alike. You need to grab a reader’s interest immediately or risk falling back into the crowd forever.
Distilling a novel down into a one or two-sentence nugget that summarizes the plot in a compelling fashion while capturing the interest of readers is challenging. I admit my own elevator pitches are hit-and-miss in their effectiveness. Crafting an elevator pitch takes time and practice before it sounds right. Once you’ve honed your pitch, though, the marketing rewards can be immeasurable.
I appeared in an episode of the Strange Stories with Phillip Carter podcast earlier this week. Phillip and I discussed my forthcoming novel, Among Hidden Stars, and I summed up the essence of the concluding chapter of the Alien People Chronicles trilogy with a single line.
Indiana Jones in space.
Phillip described it as the best elevator pitch for a sci-fi novel he had heard. He employed my one-line summary as a marketing tool hyping the podcast episode — stirring the curiosity of a few listeners.
I’ve used a similar approach to distilling the plots of my other novels down to a single marketable sentence.
Alien People — First contact with Earth turns deadly
Dark Metamorphosis — Abduction uncovers dark conspiracy
Pandora Reborn — Malevolent witch escapes from buried chest
Under a Fallen Sun — College students vs. aliens
My success with crafting elevator pitches comes from experience with writing headlines for a daily newspaper. You must be succinct in conveying a story’s content in a few words because headlines occupy such limited space on a page. The headline needs to capture a reader’s attention in a split second and compel them to read the rest of the article.
Marketing a novel or short story employs the same philosophy. You need a snappy headline, in essence, to grab a reader’s attention and compel them to read your story.
If you want to catch the full episode of Strange Stories with Phillip Carter where I make my elevator pitch, you can watch it any time on the podcast’s official YouTube channel. Phillip is a fellow indie sci-fi author and is currently doing a Kickstarter for EARTHLOOP — an upcoming trilogy of mindbending time travel novels with a The X-Files vibe. You can learn more about this project on his author website. And please check out his newsletter, Short Stories by Phillip Carter, here on Substack.
I still haven't managed to come up with a good elevator pitch for my novel. I know I need something, but nothing I try seems to hit the mark.
Wonderful, thanks for the plug bro! Looking forward to seeing what story you put forward for the STRANGE STORIES anthology later this year!