How to pitch to an editor or agent

Get ready for your pitch session!

• Be professional.
• Dress in business casual.
• Don't chew gum.
• Make eye contact.
• Be friendly, but not over-friendly.

• Have your elevator pitch ready, one to two sentences of your book. 
• (Love this idea!) Have something prepared like a one-page synopsis of your book to hand to the agent. Here's an idea: one sheet with summary of book at the top, bullet points of key features that would help it be marketable, ideas for marketing and a little bit about yourself.
• Do what feels right to you like practice your pitch or have notes in front of you.
• When the meeting is over say "thank you" and move on.

• Clarify what they are asking you to send, how and where.
• If they say "I wish I could take it on", ask "do you know of an agent or editor who might be interested?" Write down the names. After the conference contact the other agents or editors and say "so-and-so at the writers conference said you might be interested in seeing my work."
• They might say something about how the story isn't working. Now is your opportunity to talk to a professional. Ask what they think would be better or make it more marketable. They may not know without looking at the full work but it can't hurt to ask.

Use a writers conference as an opportunity to further your career!

Tagged 7-7-7

I haven't had this tag, have you?
Go to your WIP, flip to page 7 or 77, find line 7, post the next 7 sentences. Tag 7 writers.

Instead of tagging writers, I'm going to put up Mr. Linky then you can link us to your 7-7-7. If you don't want to link here, let us know in the comments.

I picked page 7 of my WIP:

I study my dirty, red flip-flops as I go. Something shiny catches my eye. A penny.

See a penny,

Pick it up,

All daylong

You’ll have good luck.

When I was younger I wanted to believe that lie so badly. If anyone needed luck it was me. But no matter how many coins I picked up or threw in the wishing ponds, my luck was limited to finding the stupid penny. Even birthday wishes didn’t come true.

The Power of Hands

Submissive dogs reveal their throats. Humans show their palms.

When people want to be open or honest, they will often hold one or both palms out. When someone is concealing something, they often hide their palms behind their back, shove hands in pockets or arms-crossed.

There are 3 main palm command gestures:

1. Palm up
Submissive, nonthreatening, or pleading.


2. Palm Down
Authority. Think of the Nazi salute.


3. Palm Closed
Also, palm closed with pointed finger. Wants listeners to submit.




Rubbing palms together shows positive expectancy.

Hands clenched together might seem a sign of confidence. It actually shows restrained, anxious, frustrated or negative attitude. The higher the position of the clenched hands the higher the person's frustration.

The Steeple is used when superiors give instruction or advice to subordinates. The steeple should be avoided when you want yo be persuasive.

The Face Platter is a positive form of flirting. A woman will place one hand on top of the other and lay her chin on top.

Hands Behind Back is a gesture of superiority, confidence and power.

Hand Gripping Wrist communicates frustration and attempt at self-control.

Do any of your characters do these gestures? Should they?

We interrupt this blog for a Blog Tour! Welcome Connie Sokol

I'm happy to review Connie Sokol's book, MOTHERHOOD MATTERS

In these hectic days where life's demands can quickly become a heavy burden, Motherhood Matters helps you find more memorable moments and take the stress out of the to-do lists. Written with clarity, concision, and wit, this short, yet indispensable handbook is better than flowers, more guilt-free than chocolate, and gives back to the woman who sacrifices so much of herself every single day.

First line:
"Motherhood is near to divinity."


Don't you LOVE the cover? I'm a little prejudiced to purple.

I enjoyed this book! It's not just about being a mother but also about mothering. Just like from the beginning where Connie says this is a book when you've had it with mothering or when you want to be reminded of the beauty of motherhood or when you need a good laugh. This book is a book of joy, not about to-dos or what I should have done.


Fantastic book with short chapters full of humor, stories and encouragement.

One of my favorite lines: "What matters is that we learn to love "mothering"--for it is a learning process--whether it be of our own children, our neighbor's children or children we teach. In the process, we recognize with gratitude our womanly nature to nurture..." (p.16).

**Perfect for that special woman in your life whether it be a mother, sister, aunt, friend. And just in time for Mother's Day! You can buy it from Amazon here.

5 Common Types of Smiles

1. The Tight-Lipped Smile
Lips stretched tight across the face, forms a straight line and teeth are concealed. Does the smiler have a secret? Or maybe withholding an opinion? Women takes this as a clear rejection signal.






 2. The Twisted Smile
Known in the Western world as sarcasm.

3. The Drop-Jaw Smile
The jaw is dropped down to give the impression of laughing or being playful.

4. Sideways-Looking-Up Smile
The head is turned down and away while looking up with a tight-lipped smile. The smiler looks juvenile, playful and secretive. The Coy Smile!
This smile makes med want to protect the woman.






5. Natural Smile
A natural smile produces characteristic wrinkles around the eyes-insincere people smile only with their mouth.


How do your characters smile??

Foto Friday

What are they saying? 
This may be a good time to understand body language with the elections coming up...



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7 Common Lying Gestures

It's hard to be a good liar. The subconscious mind acts automatically and independently of the verbal lie. The moment someone begins to lie, the body sends out contradictory signals. Children are innocent and when lying may cover their mouth completely with their hand. Adults learn how to lie better.

Here are eight common lying gestures:

1. The Mouth Cover
Use of whole hand, fist, fake cough cover or shhh gesture.

2. The Nose Touch
Quick touch of several quick rubs (unless they have a cold or allergies).
Intentional lying causes an increase in blood pressure and the human nos actually expands during lying. This is referred to as "Pinocchio Effect." This results in a brisk rub to satisfy the "itch."


3. The Eye Rub
"See no evil" gesture.
When a child doesn't want to look at something, he'll cover his eyes with his hands. And adult will rub their eye. This helps them avoid looking at the person they are lying to.

4. The Ear Grab
"Hear no evil" gesture
This is the adult version of a child putting hands over ears to block out his parents punishments. The Ear Grab may also signal the person has heard enough.

5. The Neck Scratch
"I'm not sure I agree" gesture and is usually done with the index finger of the writing hand.

6. The Collar Pull
Lies cause a tingling sensation in the delicate facial and neck tissues. Increased blood pressure from the lies causes sweat to form on the next when the liar feels you suspect he's not telling the truth. "Hot under the collar" comes to mind.
It also occurs when a person is angry or frustrated.

7. Fingers-in-the-Mouth
This is an unconscious attempt to reverting back to a nursing baby or thumb sucker when under pressure.

Foto Friday~The Thinker

Did you ever wonder what The Thinker really is thinking?
Maybe his body language will help us out

He shows a thoughtful and thinking attitude but the the body posture, his hand supporting his head, reveals a dejected person.



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Boredom, Decisions, Stalling

Boredom
When a listener uses his hand to support his head it's a good sign boredom is setting it. It starts with the chin being supports by the thumb then the fist and usually ends with the head fully supported by the hand.
Drumming fingers of tapping foot are signs of impatience.

Decision-making
Chin stroking happens when a listener is going making a decision.  The gesture after the chin stroking will tell you whether their decision is negative or positive. Leaning back and crossing arms and legs is negative. Leaning forward with arms open is positive.

Stalling
Someone who wears glasses may take them off and put one arm in their mouth.

Banana Split A Culinary Mystery by Josi S. Kilpack BLOG TOUR

I did not forget that I'm one of the stops for Josi's blog tour! I'm just so use to putting my book reviews on my review blog that I forgot the stop was on my writing blog. 

SORRY!

Hop on over to The Book Addict to read my review of Josi's latest book.

Body Language Month

My daughter had to do an English paper about men, women and their body languages. I picked up one of her books and skimmed it. I wondered how much more depth my characters would show if I added gestures, correct gestures. Running a hand through the hair or scrubbing the face are overused in my stories. What if one of them steepled their fingers? Or clutched their hands behind their back? Covered their mouth when talking?

This month I'm going to post what I've learned from The Definitive Book of Body Language by Allan & Barbra Pease. I hope you get out as much out of the book as I did!

How about you? Do you use body language in your stories?