Elevator Speech - Hook Line Blogfest

Having just attended a conference, I have first hand experience with the dreaded, "Tell me about your book." line that editors and agents use when you meet with them. Its nerve wracking as it is to meet with someone to pitch your book...not knowing what to say leaves them blinking silently with a sympathetic smile on their frozen faces.

I heard an agent call the one-sentence pitch an 'elevator speech'. Its from the idea of having just the amount of time it takes to reach the next floor to sell your book idea to the hapless editor who got on the elevator with you.

As a writer, I usually take 400+ words to get my idea across so the query...and the hook line send a shuddering quiver through my guts. Brian, who hosts the Time Guardian Blog announced a Hookline Blogfest and I had to take the challenge. Boil your book down to a one-sentence pitch. (*sigh*)

Here goes...

Bayou Blue - An ambitious journalist follows a career-making cold case to the bayou of Louisiana where she gets trapped in a hurricane with a mysterious sheriff bent on hiding the truth behind the crime.

Whew! Can't wait to read all the other great entries. I'm sure I'll learn a lot about phrasing and semicolons. Until Next Time...Go Write!

Photograph by ellyjonez, Uploaded on April 22, 2009.