On Crafting an Elevator Pitch

One of the things I’ve struggled with is having a ready answer when someone asks what my book is about. Depending on who is asking, I can generally get away with a kind of vague answer along the lines of “It’s fantasy, kind of like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.” I know… certainly not descriptive, though it does serve its purpose.

As for a more detailed description, that is a significantly harder question to answer. In part, I think this is because I want to avoid spoilers for the book. But I also think this lack of concise description comes from trying to condense an entire novel into a paragraph.

Perhaps the real problem is a combination of the two. How do you create a paragraph adequately explaining what happens in the book without revealing too much, while also making the book seem anything but generic?

Unfortunately, I don’t have a good answer to that at the moment, but I continue the search for the right words to explain this world-containing book all in the span of time it takes to take an elevator trip.

Have any of you created an elevator pitch for your projects? What are some of the things you struggle with when it comes to descriptions that are so concise? I would love to hear from you!

~ Theresa

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