To write a story one thing. To pitch it is another thing. Previously, we looked at two main components of a query letter; Logline and comp titles. In this blog post, you will read the pitches authors used to sell the manuscripts which we see now as picture books. 

I would love to take the chance and thank friends who kindly shared their pitches with me. I hope analyzing these pitches helps you in forging the best pitch you can. For me, pondering on these pitches was a fruitful learning process. The list is ordered alphabetically based on the book titles. 

Clovis Keeps His Cool 

Katelyn with the below pitch sold her manuscript to Page Street Publishing.

Katelyn didn’t give a comp title along with this pitch. She says that she only gives a title when it helps to explain the manuscript. This is a piece of advice from her that was very helpful to me, and I share it with you:

I run a critique & pitch service, and clients sometimes feel they have to force a comp, so they cite an outdated, virtually unknown book that doesn’t help showcase their work.

Making Their Voices Heard: The Inspiring Friendship of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe 

Here is a sample pitch for a picture book biography:  Vivian pitched her manuscript through her agent to Little Bee Books.

Vivian didn’t give any comp title in her query letter.

Raja’s Pet Camel: The Magic of Hope

Anita pitched her manuscript directly to Cardinal Rule Press.

(The character’s name changed from Sami to Raja post-acceptance).

For the comp title paragraph, Anita wrote: 

Rat Fair 

With this pitch, Leah contacted  POW! Kids Books directly.

And here is the comp title paragraph:

An interesting point is that she used a movie as a comp title.

Rice from Heaven: The Secret Mission to Feed North Koreans

Tina pitched the manuscript through her agent to Little Bee Books.

Tina didn’t give any comp title in her query letter.

Run, Little Chaski!

Mariana pitched her manuscript in DVPit and landed a contract with Barefoot Books. 

Her agent, at the time of submitting, compared the manuscript with ¡Vamos! Let’s Go to the Market ​(2019 , by Raul the Third) and The Princess and the Warrior (2016, by Duncan Tonatiuh).

In the next blog post, you can read 6 more pitches of published picture books.  If you are an author, willing to share your pitch in my blog, please, kindly drop me a message.

I write blog posts about the craft of writing picture books regularly. The list of the previous posts is on the PictureBookPedia. Also, I publish a quarterly newsletter that includes links to recent blog posts.

Looking forward to reading your comments.