Pitch Craft: The Writer’s Guide to Getting Agented, Published, and Paid

An award-winning author and Stanford writing instructor demystifies the business of writing with this practical, procedural guide to creating successful pitches, impressing editors and agents, negotiating compensation, and more.

Published multi-genre writer Laura Goode had an epiphany after finishing her MFA and building a freelancing career: Nobody is teaching writers how to wield their persuasive storytelling abilities to make money from their writing. So she decided to write the business-of-writing handbook she needed most.

Pitch Craft draws on Goode’s experience as a novelist, poet, essayist, filmmaker, and creator of a pitching and publishing course to uncover what nobody else will tell you about the business strategy that creates a writing career. With unapologetic honesty earned from years of navigating the publishing world, each chapter in this valuable insider’s guide close-reads a distinct element of putting your work out into the world, such as:

- Constructing effective author bios and websites
- Leveraging your social media platform
- Developing a reliable template for pitches and queries
- Cultivating relationships with publishing gatekeepers
- Strengthening your self-advocacy skills

Pitch Craft is for writers in all genres and of all experience levels, whether you’re just getting started, are considering applying to a graduate program, or have been in the trenches for decades. After reading and completing the assignments in Pitch Craft, you’ll hold a finished pitch in hand and the knowledge and skills to navigate your dream literary career.

Laura Goode is the author of a collection of poems, Become a Name, and a YA novel, Sister Mischief, which was a Best of the Bay pick by the San Francisco Bay Guardian and a selection of two ALA honor lists. With director Meera Menon, she wrote and produced the feature film Farah Goes Bang, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and won the inaugural Nora Ephron Prize from Tribeca and Vogue. Her nonfiction writing on intersectional feminism, female friendship, motherhood, gender, and race in culture, TV, film, and literature has appeared in BuzzFeed, New Republic, New York Magazine, Longreads, Elle, Catapult, Refinery29, and elsewhere. She received her BA and MFA from Columbia University and currently teaches at Stanford University.