By Deb Werksman I noticed in my recent pitch sessions that I'm getting a lot of pitches that are really plot summaries, rather than providing the kind of sales hook that I'm looking for. Let me start by telling you why I need the sales hook. When I find a project that I think we should publish (it meets all my criteria), I take it into an Editorial meeting where I present it to our publisher, editorial director, and all the other acquiring editors. I may be first in the lineup, I may be last in the lineup, I may have 1 project to present or I may have 10, and all the other editors may have 1 project to present, or they may have 10. We may have 1/2 hour for the meeting, or an hour for the meeting, or 90 minutes for the meeting. So I may have 3 minutes to present a project, or 5, or 1 minute. The first thing I have to have, is a 2-3 sentence "hook" that has people totally enrolled in and excited about us publishing this book. What the hook tells them is WHY the reade...
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