Author Insight: Mash-up Book Pitches

The popular way to pitch books has become "it’s ____ meets ____." How would you fill in the blanks for your book?

"Bittersweet is "Waitress" meets "The Cutting Edge."" - Sarah Ockler, author of Bittersweet. 


 

"…I honestly couldn't, and I've had this problem ever since I started writing the query letter to send Above to agents.  It's just such a weird little book.  I've never been able to build a crossover pitch for it that didn’t feel like wearing somebody else's shoes.
" - Leah Bobet, author of Above.

"Lexapros and Cons is the movie Juno with OCD instead of pregnancy." - Aaron Karo, author of Lexapros & Cons.

"Hard to do using comparisons to other people’s books.  How about 'Ann’s unresolved issues with authority, pretention, corruption and life in general meet high school.  Ritzy, high pressure high school.  In upper crust L.A.'" - Ann Stampler, author of Where It Began.

 

"

The Book of Blood and Shadow isThe Da Vinci Code meets The Secret History. (And if you haven’tread The Secret History, you should.It’s awesome.)

I’vealways been proud of my X meets Y formulation for Hacking Harvard, too: Ocean’s 11 meets The Princeton Review." - Robin Wasserman, author of The Book of Blood and Shadow.

"I'm not sure. My editor, described it as the strange love child of David Lynch and A. S. King, and when this was met with stunned silence on my part he added that this was a good thing." - Alissa Grosso, author of Ferocity Summer.

"I'm going to answer this one for the start of my new trilogy, Antigoddess. It's Greek meets dystopia." - Kendare Blake, author of Girl of Nightmares.

 

"Struck is Stephen King’s The Stand meets 2012." - Jennifer Bosworth, author of Struck. 

 

"Esperanza Rising by Pat Muñoz meets A Far Country by Daniel Mason." - Meg Medina, author of The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind.

 

"Forgotten is Memento meets 50 First Dates, with a main character who remembers the future." - Cat Patrick, author of Revived.

 

 

"It's Joss Whedon meets Tim Burton. (a girl can dream)" - Gwen Hayes, author of Dreaming Awake.

"I would leave that up to agentsand salespeople. I’m not saying my stuff is incomparably original, just that I don’t think in marketing terms. - Nina Malkin, author of Swear.

 Stop by Thursday to find out how the rest of the authors describe their books in a mash-up pitch! << Previous