One of the people I met at the recent 21st Century Book Marketing Conference was Beth Green, author of Memoirs of the New Age. As an author who feels the need to promote her book but finds it very time-consuming, she found the conference a little frustrating (because it was overwhelming).
In response, she blogged about her effort to create a 30-second pitch (http://www.bethsplace.org/?p=572). Here is her first pitch attempt:
Hi. I’m Beth Green, and I’m a spiritual teacher. I’ve written a book called ‘Memoirs of the New Age,’ and it’s a magical book of fables, poems, prayers and stories, which bring you into a world of special charm.
As she noted in her blog, the above pitch doesn't solve a problem. So she tried again:
Do you wake up every morning wondering if your relationship with your Higher Power is authentic? Do you have hidden resentments toward God? If you do, read ‘Memoirs of the New Age,’ a book of fables, poems, prayers and stories, which illuminate the way we are and bring us through our anguish and anger, until we achieve reconciliation with the divine.
Then, of course, she heard people saying you can't talk about God in today's world. So she rewrote the pitch as follows:
Hi, I’m Beth Green. Do you wake up every morning wondering if your relationship with your Higher Power is authentic? Do you have hidden resentments toward divine consciousness?
Well, I like the pitch with God in it, but I'd make it shorter. Here's my pitch for her:
Do you wake up every morning wondering if your relationship with your Higher Power is authentic? Do you have hidden resentments toward God? If you do, read ‘Memoirs of the New Age.’ It will change your relationship with God.
At the end of her blog post, she featured a prayer from her book. I liked it. I thought it summarized her book very well: God - Let's be friends. Amen.
