The Elevator Pitch for Selling Your Art

Pretend you're in an elevator and suddenly realize that you're standing next to the person you want to publish your book or stage your play, to carry your project forward. What do you do?

This is what we each practiced at the Creative Capital arts careers seminar on Saturday. We took turns pitching our hottest projects at seminar leader, Daniel Jones, a writer/performer/director recently named by American Theatre Magazine to their list of the top 15 upcoming movers-and-shakers. In this case, Daniel was playing the part of whatever mover-shaker we each most wanted to meet.

First we each assembled what we'd say.

THE HOW-TO:

*LIST three nouns and three verbs that describe the piece of work. Very precise and concrete. One of my nouns to describe Cobalt Blue was "novel." The other two were "painter" and "sex." My verbs were "arouse, offend, seduce."

*WRITE a sentence or two using those words, or most of them, to tell the person what the project is about. No arts jargon, nothing flowery or scholarly. Tell it straight and get across your own excitement about it.

*PRACTICE the roughly 30-second elevator moment with a friend.

*INCLUDE THESE ELEMENTS:
Introduce yourself.
If you can, say something about the luminary's work and how it's relevant to what you're doing.
Say what your project is, using a relaxed, conversational version of your sentence.
Give them a business card or some other way to contact you.
Close with a way to keep the connection going, such as an invitation to a signing or an art show.
Say thanks and withdraw.
Be prepared to say something else useful if the person wants to extend the conversation.

MY SCRIPT: I said approximately this to Daniel who was playing the part of an unsuspecting publisher:

Peggy: Hi. I know who you are. I just read in The Times about your new imprint. Congratulations.

Daniel: Thank you.

Peggy: I'm dazzled to get to meet you. I'm just finishing my third novel Cobalt Blue about a painter who has a religious experience while she's working that causes her to go hog-wild with sex. It's about tantra. It's pretty serious literary stuff. Sort of like some of the books you've done: a bit disturbing. It'll either offend or seduce you. May I have my agent call?

Daniel: Oh, yes!

Peggy: Let me give you my card. (awkward sympathy-inducing moment of trying to get one of my cards out of the plastic sleeve of my nametag where I'd stashed them) Here. Thanks. Good-bye. (getting off "elevator" dizzy with the rush of adrenaline)


Well, by the time that experience was over I was more excited than ever about working on my book, and ready for any elevator.

What was also cool was to see the others in the group do their pitches. People were very good at it, it was just a matter of loosening up and getting into the spirit of it.

For anyone who didn't see the previous post, this one-day seminar is offered at locations across the country by Creative Capital in cooperation with other agencies. This particular class was co-hosted by the the N.C. Arts Council and held at McColl Center for Visual Art.