Online Classes:

To set up an online class for your writing group, contact Janet Wellington:  mail@janetwellington.com

 

Upcoming online class..June 2010:

Building the Fiction Pitch, Step-by-Step

Writer's University www.WriterUniv.com/

 

CLASS DESCRIPTIONS:

 

Building the Fiction Pitch, Step-by-Step

 You’ve completed the manuscript of a story you love, and now all it needs is a home.  Time for the next step: marketing your story to an agent and/or editor at a writing conference you’ve just decided to attend.  The thing is, you might be the most talented writer on the planet but if you can’t describe your story in an exciting but succinct way during a pitching opportunity or appointment, you could be in real trouble.

 By taking this 4-week course you’ll learn:

	Techniques to help you analyze your story.
	The anatomy of a pitch, plus the different lengths you’ll need to create and why.
	How to design a pitch for an individual appointment and a group appointment.
	What to say—and what not to say—if an agent or editor wants to know more about your story.
	The biggest benefit of having an agent or editor appointment at a national or regional writing conference.
	The biggest mistake writers make in pitching their stories.
	What to do to prepare to pitch.
	How to craft the opening for your pitch.

I started learning the art of pitching stories in 1995 when I attended my  first Romance Writers of America national conference, and haven't stopped since!  I've presented workshops on the art of pitching both regionally and nationally, and now teach primarily online.  

 

Pitch Perfect

Getting to the Heart of Your Romance Novel or Women's Fiction Story (for pitching AND querying

Workshop Duration: 4 weeks

 Who should take this class?   Anyone working on--or even thinking of writing--romance or women’s fiction (this is also a great method to plan a NEW story!)

 You might be the most talented writer on the planet, but if you can’t describe your story in an exciting but succinct way, you’re in trouble.

 Everyone needs to learn how to pitch.  Okay, maybe everyone except those few heavy hitters who have the luxury of only having to share a vague idea about a story with their editors because their stuff always sells well (we hate them, but let’s move on...).

 So, the rest of us need to be able to present our story ideas within query letters, synopses, and during frightening agent and editor appointments at writing conferences! 

	Can you use a sentence to describe your story?
	Can you capture the essence of your tale in 25 words or less?
	When your listener wants to know more about your story, do you know what to say and, more importantly, what not to say?
	Do you know the biggest benefit of having an agent or editor appointment at a national or regional writing conference?

 The main goal of this class is to help you understand the different types (and lengths) of pitches you need to prepare, and for you to learn several ways and styles of organizing your pitches (that you can utilize in query letters as well as agent/editor appointments).

 Testimonials

(this was one of my students at a writing conference where I taught a class on pitching and then provided some one-on-one guidance to selected students): 

 Hi Janet -- Now that I'm back home, I just wanted to say thank you one more time for all your help and encouragement with my pitch.  I was so drunk with relief when I walked out of the (editor) meeting that I forgot to tell you the editor actually complimented the way the pitch was put together -- and I followed your formula almost to a "t."  If I hadn't taken your class, I hate to think what I would have come up with.      [The outcome?  The Harlequin editor asked this unpublished writer for her complete manuscript!]

 Here are testimonials from previous online classes of PITCH PERFECT:

 “Thank you so much, Janet. As you yourself said, Pitch Perfect is not for the faint of heart, but it is for the serious writer. If you take no other class, take this one! Make no mistake. This is work -- ditch-digging, backbreaking work -- but this class will gift you a set of skills that will aid you in every book you pitch and every book you write. Janet digs for the heart of the story, and she will find gold. As many times as I wanted to rip my hair out in frustration ;-) --- I came back a better writer and a much better 'pitcher.' Thank you, Janet. I look forward to working with you again.”

“Just thought you might like to know I had great success today. I made a pitch to an editor from St. Martin’s at the NE Chapter (RWA) conference. She wants to see a partial. After all the preparation from your workshop, it was so easy talking with her about my book!  Thanks for your great workshop and your wonderful support!”

 “Preparing to pitch your book is hard work, and Janet Wellington’s Pitch Perfect class is probably one of the toughest online classes you’ll take, but you’ll love yourself and thank Janet’s ‘dig deeper’ style for making you do it! Pitch Perfect isn’t just about learning to pitch, it’s about learning to verbalize what your novel is all about and it can help you uncover key elements in your story that will not only capture your pitch, but may improve your writing as well.”

Not sure if you should take this class?  Well, in my opinion, for best results you should either be working on have completed a romance novel, novella, or a women’s fiction novel.  However, with that said, if you are currently even starting from scratch, you can also use this process of getting to the heart of your story to set up a condensed story description you can use as a helpful tool to stay on track and write more efficiently! 

 What do you get?  If you read and comprehend all the lectures plus complete all the assignments, you will create your very own pitches (a long one and a short one) that you can utilize for query letters, synopsis blurbs, and/or as a verbal pitch to agents and/or editors at conference appointments.  Or, this process will clearly point out where you need to do some more work on your story.  It might be a painful awakening that you have some serious revising to do, but it will be time well spent.

 Either way, you’ll have gotten to the heart of your story. 

Each session of this course will have a “lecture” plus assignment(s). 

Course syllabus:

Lesson One:     Prepare to pitch

Lesson Two:     Who are these people anyway?

Lesson Three:  Internal conflict -- the emotional element

Lesson Four:    The happy (or satisfying) ending + creating the long pitch and the one-minute-or-less pitch

 Lesson 1:  Prepare To Pitch

Objective: Understand the 2 different length pitches you’ll need to prepare for every manuscript; the 4 elements to every query letter and agent/editor appointment; tips to surviving an agent/editor appointment.  Intro to describing your characters.

 Lesson 2:  Who Are These People Anyway?

Objective: Dissecting your hero and heroine; understanding goals, motivations and external conflicts; understanding hero/heroine archetypes; learn how to describe characters in specific ways

 Lesson 3:  Internal Conflict: the Emotional Element

Objective:  How to isolate the internal conflict in your story and how to describe it within a pitch or query letter 

Lesson 4:  The Happy (or satisfying) Ending

Objective:  Understanding the resolution and how to describe it to tug at the listener’s heartstrings. Combine the homework assignments to create your perfect pitch (designed for a query letter and/or agent/editor appointment). Additional ways of putting together a pitch; wrap-up

 

To set up an online class for your writing group, contact Janet Wellington:  mail@janetwellington.com

 

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Past Classes:

 

RWA San Diego Writers Bootcamp

RWA San Diego published authors will sit down with participants and put them through the drill this spring in
 La Mesa, CA. Attendees should come prepared to work, work, work! Sessions include character profiling, in depth plotting, conflict building and chapter outlines. Leave with well-rounded characters, a compelling conflict that lasts the length of the book, and a plot that carries the story.

PITCH Perfect: How to Survive an Editor/Agent Appointment

Learn ways and styles of organizing your romance novel pitch for an editor or agent appointment (how to feel the fear and do it anyway!)

Learning Annex class: 

"How to Write Romance
Novels That Sell"

In my classes, this is what students learned:

	The ins and outs of the romance publishing industry
	How to find out who’s buying what
	Basic story structuring for the romance novel
	How to analyze current novels for dialogue and POV (point of view)
	How to look for hooks and grabbers in popular novels
	Research tips
	How to deal with the dreaded synopsis
	What to put in your proposal and where to submit it
	How to write a query letter
	Resources available to help you succeed