I heard about the planned Curtis Brown Discovery Day back in December. I read the descriptions on their website
with interest. A chance to meet an agent. A chance to get feedback.
It sounded
amazing.
It also sounded slightly terrifying.
I did a little research on past
events and discovered, unsurprisingly, that tickets to this free event go fast.
People travel miles for this opportunity. Not just from across the country, but
from around the world. If I wanted to be
part of it, I was going to have to act fast.
I cleared my calendar for the 27th
of February. I figured out my transportation method. Then I waited patiently
for the tickets to be released.
Well, maybe not patiently. That implies I sat
back and waited for the arrival of an email or twitter notification to tell me
to act. I didn’t. I couldn’t. It was too risky.
What if I missed it? What if I saw it hours after everyone else? The
places would all be gone before I’d even applied. Instead the Discovery Day website was added
to my favourites and my screen was refreshed daily. Oh alright, hourly. I wasn’t taking any
chances.
I sent my email request off for a
ticket the day they were released. Despite this I knew my chances of getting a
place were low given how many writers would be interested. I was therefore
amazed when a few days later I received confirmation that I had a ticket.
I spent the rest of that day, and
every day since, switching between being excited and terrified.
Over the coming weeks I will be
preparing for my six minute pitch, sharing the information I’ve learnt about
the event, hearing from writers who will be going to this year's Discovery Day as well those who’ve attended previous events and inviting
you to suggest questions you’d ask an agent.
If you’d like to get involved please
leave me a comment below or contact me on twitter @Elaina_James
Good luck Elaina! I did a pitch-the-agent event years ago, at the LBF, to Luigi Bonomi. He was very nice and kept saying, 'but what is it about?' as I spoke. It was only afterwards that I realised he wanted a one-sentence pitch, and I'd gabbled away with plot and characters and themes. Ah dear. Ig I'd given him the one sentence, he might have then asked about details, but without the one sentence, he was stuck. Ah dear.
ReplyDeleteWish you lots of luck, with the tickets and the pitch!
Thanks for reading and sharing your experience - I'll work on my one sentance thank you!
DeleteI'm also going to this! Feeling quite nervous but think it'll be a really useful day.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, it should be very interesting to get some feedback from an agent and to meet other writers. Good luck with your pitch.
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