Blogger: Mary Keeley
Soon it will be the busiest conference time of the year. If you’ve been feeling butterflies beginning to flutter in your stomach at the anticipation, you likely are not alone. Much is involved in preparing your materials for conferences to ensure that you are organized and at ease in your meetings with agents and editors. Let’s take one thing at a time. Today, we’ll focus on your one-sheet, aka pitch sheet or sell sheet.
This will be review time for those of you who have done these before, but I’ll 
make a guess that one or two items have fallen off your radar since the last time you created one. And too, with the ever-increasing number of writers pitching their projects, something said here might spark a creative new approach to use in your next one-sheet.
About Your One-Sheet
For those of you new to the concept of a one-sheet, it is a page that capsulizes what you have written and why you think it’s special. It also provides important details. Here are six tips as you get started:
- It is a professional document and should look professional.
- Edit your text to be as concise and descriptive as possible. Your perfectly chosen words will be noticed.
- It may be the first impression of your work an agent or editor sees. We all know that first impressions stick. Have at least one additional set of eyes proofread it before you print copies on heavier stock than standard printer paper.
- Use professional software such as a newsletter or flyer template in Microsoft Publisher to design your page. This minimizes the possibility of the design skewing when it is printed or emailed to another computer.
- Choose colors, shading, images, design elements, and fonts that communicate the tone of your nonfiction book or the emotions, main character, and setting in your novel. Adapting an old adage…your design is worth a thousand words.
- It’s better to use both sides of the sheet than to crowd too much onto one side, using a small size font for the text, making it hard to read. Leave space between sections to make it user-friendly for the agent’s or editor’s quick read during a 15-minute pitch meeting. They want to give you their best response in the few minutes you have together. Help
them out.
Information to Include
Place these in defined, easy-to-locate sections:
- An image that reflects your topic or your novel’s setting, time period, or theme. Choice of color or black and white depends on how much color you plan to use elsewhere.
- Title – in a larger, highlighted font
- Genre and word count
- Hook – an intriguing phrase or sentence that will capture agents’ and editors’ attention and make them want to learn more
- Brief description – Write it like back cover copy or sales copy. If you need examples, read the back cover of the books on your shelf or in a bookstore. Its purpose is to entice shoppers to want to purchase the book, or in this case, entice the agent or editor to request a proposal. Highlight your fresh approach to the topic or unique twists to your novel.
- Endorsements for your book – if you have firm commitments
- Your professional author photo and brief bio – Your bio should focus on your qualifications for writing your story or nonfiction topic. Your photo is important because it helps the agent or editor remember you and your conversation when he or she returns to the office.
- Your name, website, email address, and phone number
- Your agent’s name and contact information if you have one
Don’t wait until a week before the conference to begin working on your one-sheet. Your first impression needs to be stellar, and it will take time to compile all the pieces, design the page, and create your hook and brief description. Maybe I’ll be privileged to see yours at a conference this year.
What is the hardest part of creating a one-sheet for you? Which part comes easiest to you? If you have given a one-sheet to an agent or editor in the past, what feedback did you receive? Do you have additional suggestions?
TWEETABLES:
Preparing for conferences: Your one-sheet takes time to do well. Don’t treat it as a last-minute item. Click to Tweet.
Your one-sheet is your first impression with agents and editors at a conference. Make it stellar. Click to Tweet.
Oh, Mary! 🙂 Thank you so much for this. I needed this, as I’ve never made a one-sheet before. And I had already wondered what it was to include. But you did something most helpful … you gave examples. That means so much. I’m already thinking about a photo for my one-sheet … to make it special … and I just had a darling idea! 🙂 I so hope to meet you in Dallas. 🙂
So, so thankful for the examples … thank you also to Gabrielle and Michelle.
Shelli, I’m glad to hear this prompted an idea. Of course, you will want your one-sheet to have its own life and feel that suits your unique book.
Ahhh, just wait til September. I’ll bring my crayons and we can do them in the car.
🙂 Jennifer!! As long as you promise to stay in the lines. 🙂 But I know the answer to that. 🙂
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
WHAT LINES??
HAHAHAHA!
Actually, I am a rule follower when it is required to advance my career. Or my kids are watching.
Oh I love one-sheets! They are fun to fiddle with and very handy for procrastination purposes when the writing is going badly. And then if you have procrastinated enough…your one-sheet is done well before the conference. I do have a question. Even when I resize my images (one story image and an author photo) the one sheet is still too large to e-mail. There has to be a solution for this right? Thanks for doing this post, Mary. It is always helpful to know more about this, especially as I am just kindof winging it in the one-sheet department.
Kristen, did you try it in PDF format?
Great Idea…I think I’ve managed to change documents to PDFs before. I’ll give it a try. Thanks so much!
Mary, though I’ve created one-sheets before, I still get nervous about them. 🙂 I appreciate your post, and the examples.
I’d love to hear your suggestions on how to write the description/back cover copy aspect of the one-sheet. 🙂 After just registering for ACFW, you’ve got me excited about preparing! 🙂
Yay, Jeanne! Can’t wait to see you there! 🙂
Jeanne, I don’t know anything about your story, but here is a generic suggestion. Focus on the elements that are unique to your story, the primary struggles of your main characters, and the emotions involved. Use these to lure the agent or editor in, and then end by questioning if they can ever resolve their struggles or will they ever be able to find love together, whatever fits your story. Reading back cover copy on other books will be helpful for you.
Thank you, Mary. That helps. 🙂
An image, a photo, bio, basic info, book description and white space on one page–talk about making every word count.
I echo appreciation for the carefully crafted examples. They are delightful. I am eager to begin the trial and error of my own One-Sheet. ‘Twill be half frustration, half fun, all fruitful.
“‘Twill be half frustration, half fun, all fruitful.”
Well said!!
True, Shirlee, every word has to earn its right to be on your one-sheet. And yes, there may be some frustration trying to fit all the pieces together. But as Meghan mentions below, designing the one-sheet can also provide creative relief when you need a break from writing the manuscript. I hope you find it surprisingly fun.
Mary, thank you for such a detailed post. One-sheets were, at first, intimidating to me. (The hook still is.) But then I began to see it a visual creative outlet. Since we concentrate almost exclusively on words, it was refreshing to look through images that matched my imagination of a scene or story.
Great point, Meghan. And it accomplishes necessary work at the same time you’re getting creative relief from your manuscript.
It’s important to note that the one-sheet doesn’t have to be done in one swoop. In fact it might be better to treat it as a project in process. Give yourself time to step away and go back to it with fresh eyes until you are sure it’s at its best.
How fun to see my one-sheet here. I was nervous creating it for my first conference, and never dreamed it would one day be on the Books & Such blog! God is in the business of exceeding our expectations. 🙂
As I designed my first one-sheet (and the others that have followed), I focused on the feeling of my story. There is a fine balance between conveying all the important information, and doing it in a way that reflects our story and our voice. I spent many hours creating this one-sheet, moving things around, tweaking the words, adding and removing graphics–but it was well worth the time I invested. This particular one-sheet has become the template I use for my other one-sheets.
I am so impressed with this one-sheet!!
What’s your going rate, in Dairy Milks?
If I recall correctly, my one sheet was somewhat well received at ACFW 2013. Strangely enough, by other writers. I am SURE that the hideous one-eyed beast I used to ‘portray’ my MC had nothing to do with it. Nooooo.
I mean, *yes*, he is an accomplished actor and blah blah blah humanitarian blah blah gives to the needy blah blah and yeahhhhh…
When I interviewed him for my blog, he called me “Dahling”. I kid you not.
Did I mention some people even read what I wrote on the actual one-sheet?
So yeah, that too.
So our lesson for today, is make your one-sheet fridge worthy, WITH really great content.
There’s that word again, “content”.
Do I plan to lay it on thick with extremely perfectly excellent >>written<< content?
Umm, yuh huh.
Excuse me while I go check my Pinterest boards for… words.
At 11 pm the night before my first conference, I read something suggesting I bring a one-sheet to my agent/editor appointments. What? I didn’t have a one-sheet—in fact, I didn’t even know what a one-sheet was. I figured it out (thank you, Google) and got started right away. Talk about working under pressure! However, it was a fun project and I was happy with how it turned out. 🙂
This was a great post, Mary, and I’m saving it for future reference. The practical info and ideas you shared will be helpful when I make my next one-sheet—and this time I won’t wait until the last minute!
These are great tips, Mary. I wish I’d had this information back in 2008 when I prepared my first one-sheet. Much to my surprise, I’d finaled in the Golden Heart that year.
Florescent green newbie writer me showed up at the Romance Writers of America national conference in San Francisco that summer feeling overwhelmed by the over 2,000 attendees swarming the hotel. When the time for my pitch sessions drew near, my anxiety meter was needled. The first was pretty much a disaster. I could barely speak, and what I did say was complete and utter nonsense, I’m sure of it.
I survived that ordeal–barely–and went to my second pitch session with the assurance that I couldn’t bungle things much worse than I had during my first. At least I knew what the agent looked like. I’d met Janet Grant at Mt. Hermon earlier that year. Well, met might be a stretch. I’d seen her at an agent panel, but I’d never actually spoken to her. I lacked the courage.
Janet greeted me warmly and attempted to put me at ease, which enabled me to speak in a somewhat normal voice. I showed her my one-sheet. She’d never seen one at RWA Nationals before, so she was a bit surprised that I had one. The story didn’t wow her, but I expected that. I knew I had a lot to learn.
Because Janet wasn’t interested in the story, we still had several minutes left of the appointment. I was afraid I’d be forced to get up and walk out early, as had been the case at my first session. Janet, ever gracious, came to my rescue. She asked ever so gently if I’d like some tips on how to improve my one-sheet. Would I ever? I listened intently as she taught me some of the same tips in this post. I still have that marked copy–along with the memory of Janet’s kindness.
I’m happy to report that a much stronger version of the story I’d pitched in the lackluster one-sheet that Janet helped me with was contracted by Love Inspired Historical and will be released early 2016 as my second LIH. How’s that for a happy ending?
There really were spaces between the paragraphs in my comment, er, novella. Honest. The cyber critters appear to have gobbled them up. Sorry.
Keli, don’t you wish there was an edit option?
(Of course, then we’d spend too much time revising our comments.)
LOL, Peter. There is an edit option on Facebook. If anyone wanted proof that I have perfectionistic leanings, all they’d have to do was look at the number of comments I’ve tweaked there. 🙂
I noticed my comment here isn’t the only one without spaces between paragraphs, which makes me feel a bit better.
the spaces disappear…they’re…wait for it…spaced out…
I love it, Jennifer, but then you know what a fan of puns I am. 🙂
Great story, Keli, about how things work out.
I’d like to throw in a comment regarding PDFs. I learned the hard way to save everything to PDF before printing or sending. That way the formatting and other design elements *stick.*
Great information. Thank you for helping me get this ball rolling.
The words in the one-sheet are the easy part for me (relatively speaking). It’s the design part, the layout and creative element, that concerns me.
My current version, a neat, one page of just text, isn’t going to stand up.
Mary thanks! I’m going to write this page first and Then go back and edit my way through the synopsis I’ve been drowning in! Sometimes, backward just works for me 😉
Great post, very informative – thanks!
This post is invaluable information for newbies like me. Having something to clone and then mutate is so helpful. Many thanks! I look forward to every Books & Such blog. I have learned a great deal about the professional aspects of writing novels from your whole team. God bless you for the care you show us all.
Thank you for this post. I have not heard of a one page before and as I am about to enter the marketing phase of my first novel, it will likely come in handy. I have one question, though. When trying to draw attention of agents and publishers how does the one page differ from a query letter? Thank you, Mary!
Thank you for this point-by-point guide. I’ve enlisted the help of my son to design and format my one-sheet for the conference. Your post is just what I needed to convey what I need.