Emma White

Do I want to spend 45 minutes maybe pitching this

this person or should I spread out my chances, pitch more people?

So I had a, I'd made a short list, a long list.

I had my, my people in mind.

I had to pivot on the day.

Some agents were there who I didn't know were going to be there.

And some agents had long lines.

So it was kind of an in the moment decision.

And the idea was that you were supposed to spend about three minutes.

So you had to have a really tight oral pitch and to leave enough time that they maybe could ask you some questions, express interest.

Usually that ended up being, I would say, about five minutes because it really was up to the agent or the editor to stop the person from talking and people get talking and want to keep talking about their book.

So it was

It was a very intense time, but it was so exciting to have real in-person, immediate feedback to a pitch.

Absolutely.

And I like to think of that as well, like nerves are excitement.

So I'm trying to tell myself I'm excited to be here.

So absolutely, I got very good advice before the conference.

They did offer a preparation session, actually.

Anyone who has signed up for PitchFest, you could meet with a participating author who gave you some advice.

You could run your pitch by them and refine it a bit.