Pitch a Book Idea, Get It Published

By Betsy Mikel in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 4, 2011 9:20PM

So you have a grrrreat idea for a book. Now what? Why not pitch it American Idol style in front of a panel of mean and judgmental judges? In fact, you can do just that in Naperville on Thursday at a Pitchapalooza event. But hopefully the judges will only be a little mean and not so judgmental.

Anyone with a book idea gets one minute to pitch it in front of a panel of judges, which will include Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry - between the two of them, they have 25 years of experience in the publishing industry and have published 13 books - and a guest author. The judges will critique style and marketplace potential. At the end, Eckstut and Sterry will pick a winner and will offer him or her a personal introduction to a literary agent who they believe will be interested in publishing the author’s idea.

Eckstut and Sterry are doing this event to help promote their new book, The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published: How to Write It, Sell It, and Market It . . . Successfully!. More than a how-to guide on getting published, it also details how authors can effectively use the new digital landscape as a tool to promote their work. Eckstut and Sterry take a look at several steps along the publishing process, from coming up with a search-engine savvy title to understanding e-book pricing and royalties. We haven’t read it ourselves, but that guy who only works four hours a week said reading The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published: How to Write It, Sell It, and Market It . . . Successfully! helped him land a nearly six-figure advance.

Pitchapalooza, January 6, Anderson's Bookshop, 123 W Jefferson Ave., Naperville, 7 p.m.