A sound bite is a few sentences that capture the essence of a story and entice the reader to want more.  It should take about 15 seconds to recite. Basically, it adds more information to your story in a sentence.

Visit Your Favorite Book Store

A good exercise, to help you write your sound bite, is to go to your favorite book store and read the back copy of books similar to yours. Write down the back copy of ten books that made you want to read them. Using these as a guide, sit down and write three paragraphs about your book.  Then condense it down to one paragraph.

Examples

Below is my sound bite for my biography of “Thomas Nast: Political Cartoonist.”

Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist, believed that right was right and wrong was wrong.   He took it upon himself to bring down the notoriously corrupt “Boss” William Tweed, who ran New York City after the Civil War.   His drawings unnerved Tweed and he wanted those damn pictures stopped.  Tweed tried to bribe, threaten and scarce Nast.  But nothing worked.  Nast was determined to put him behind bars. And he did.

Below is another example. The sound bite I wrote for my picture book biography of Amelia Earhart focusing on her flight across the United States.

While on a flying vacation in 1928, Amelia Earhart flew into a storm. Her small plane had an open cockpit and cold air blew in her face and rain soaked her clothes.  Frightened, Amelia worked hard to maintain control of her plane.  Finally, the storm ended. Relieved, Amelia flew down close to the ground to look around.  Nothing looked familiar.  She was lost!

Favorite Sound Bite

My favorite sound bite is the prelude to the TV series Battlestar Galactica. It consists of fifteen words.  The Cylons were created by Man. They rebelled. They evolved.  There are many copies.  And they have a plan.

Whether talking about our projects or submitting them for publication, writers need to be prepared to present their work in a compelling way. Having a good manuscript is not enough anymore. We need to pitch our work and follow through with a well written manuscript or proposal.

Pitching is a technique that started in Hollywood. Screenwriters would meet with producers and verbally pitch a story in a few quick sentences. The producer says either “no” or “tell me more about that one.” It was a quick way to sell a screenplay.

Today, writers can attend conferences and sign up for three or five or ten minutes to pitch to an editor or agent. The goal is for the agent or editor to ask to see your manuscript.

What is the pitch?  A carefully crafted, short, verbal statement that will make an editor or agent want to know more? It should be concise and compelling. Its purpose is to intrigue and inform. Think of it as a type of advertisement.

How to start?   Boil your story down to one sentence.

A good place to find examples of a story in a sentence is the TV Guide movie section.  Here are some examples:

– The tale of a love struck giant ape rampaging through New York City. [King Kong]

– The Marvel comics’ superheroes band together when the government tries to eliminate them. [X Men]

– Happy romp about a penguin colony that finds its mates through song, and an outcast who can’t carry a tune but can dance like Fred Astaire. [Happy Feet]

– Indiana Jones is assigned to find the mystically empowered Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain it for their own evil use. [Raiders of the Lost Ark]

– A fairy godmother helps a woman meet a prince. [Cinderella]

– A woman forces boys at a detention camp to dig holes.  [Holes]

Look at these sentences and think about how they are answering these questions: who, what, when, where or how.  This is a good clue to help you start boiling your story down to a sentence.

Next – The Art of Pitching:  The Sound Bite