More on the pitch

[bartl]

One thing which Steven forgot to mention, which is VERY useful on the pitch. Having someone on the inside to help you with the pitch. Especially with the sparse atmosphere in comics, inside contacts can make the difference. Steven has, I think both here and in Master of the Obvious, even written guides on how to make contacts (and how to not make contacts).

[WatsonGlenn]

One thing which Steven forgot to mention, which is VERY useful on the pitch. Having someone on the inside to help you with the pitch. Especially with the sparse atmosphere in comics, inside contacts can make the difference. Steven has, I think both here and in Master of the Obvious, even written guides on how to make contacts (and how to not make contacts).

The pitch is one thing I could never do. I would hate the rejection.

[bartl]

The pitch is one thing I could never do. I would hate the rejection.
Well, that's what happened the one time I made a pitch. I don't quite recall te details, but I discussed an idea for a series of 8-pagers with friends, and somehow I ended up with two mid-level comic artists who wanted to draw the series, and an editor who moved me on to the editor-in-chief (only to have the whole thing crash and burn when the line was sold). Since I was already quite well-paid in my day job, I didn't push it any further.

[Inkthinker]

VERY true.

Editors see a lot of pitches. It can help enormously if someone they know recommends yours, because they can make some sort of base judgement on it immediately based on the standards of the person making the recommendation. Assuming that person has respectable standards, of course...

:D

I haven't read Grant's articles on making contacts, but I find that the best sources of contacts that I've made are Forums like this one, and the DeviantArt community (which has probably something like 200 or so skilled, professional artists of different genres in the population at different points in their careers). Interacting with people in these communities has lead to freelance work and recommendations to publishers. I even helped an animator on DA get hired at my studio by recommending his work to the higher-ups, because we needed a guy and he was perfect for the job. Without DA, I don't know that I'd have ever found him.

[Brenz]

I've done a fair amount of pitching...I recently changed tactics after a lull. Rather than writing the same kind of professional, yet supplicant, letter of the tone I might use in job interviews, I'm going to use a more businesslike approach: here's what I can do, here's why it would benefit your company to print it, here's how much it will probably make you.

That mini-bio and paragraph of polite thanks is out the window. I think an ideal pitch may be 1/2 concrete application and 1/2 content, that is, selling the recipient on why it's an interesting premise. Appeal to both the businessman and the reader in an editor.