20.48: Now Go Write- How to Pitch Your Work

Writing Excuses

Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler

Business, Careers, Fiction

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 30 November 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, DongWon digs into one of the business topics of our upcoming craft book: pitching. How do you talk about your work so other people immediately understand its category, vibe, and why it matters? They break pitching into two parts—content (what you say) and presentation (how you say it)—and share concrete tools like comp titles, short taglines, and simple back-cover formulas to sharpen your pitch. You’ll hear how iteration, audience-awareness, and practicing aloud (think karaoke for pitches) turn a clumsy elevator spiel into something that lands. Tune in for hands-on advice you can use next time an editor, agent, bookseller, or potential reader asks, “So, what’s it about?” Homework: Write three short, 2–3-sentence pitches for your book (or other WIP) that each take a different angle—one focused on worldbuilding, one on character, one on plot. Then read them aloud to someone and watch where they light up, glaze over, or lean in, so you can see which pitch actually works. ANNOUNCEMENTS: Last Annual Cruise The final WXR cruise sets sail for Alaska in September 2026—don’t miss your chance to be part of it. Learn more and sign up here. *Scholarship applications for our cruise are open now until December 31st, 2025. You can learn more and apply here. Call for Writing Breakthroughs Have you had a breakthrough in your writing because of Writing Excuses? If so, we want to hear about it. Fill out this Writing Breakthroughs Google Form for a chance to be featured in a WX Newsletter! Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Dan Wells, Erin Roberts, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and DongWon Song. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community! Writing Retreats Newsletter Patreon Instagram Threads Bluesky TikTok YouTube Facebook Our Sponsors: * Check out HomeServe and use my code homeserve.com/excuses for a great deal: https://www.homeserve.com * Check out Talkiatry and use my code Talkiatry.com/WX for a great deal: https://www.talkiatry.com Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody, this is Erin, and I've got a question for you.
0:05.1	What have you learned from writing excuses that you use in your own writing?
0:10.9	Now, we talk a lot about tools not rules, which means there are things that we're going to say that you're going to be like, yes, that is for me.
0:19.2	That's the tool I'm going to use in my next project. And there are others that you're going to be like, I, that is for me. That's the tool I'm going to use in my next project.
0:21.9	And there are others that you're going to be like, I'm going to leave that to the side.
0:26.2	And what we want to know is which of the things that we're saying have really worked for you?
0:32.9	What's the acronym you're always repeating? What's the plot structure you keep coming back to? What's a
0:39.3	piece of advice that has carried you forward when you've been stuck in your work, or that you've been
0:44.3	able to pass on to another writer who's needed advice or help? However you've used something that
0:50.8	you've learned from us, we want to know about it and we want to share it with the
0:55.5	broader community. Every month, we're going to put one of your tips or tricks or tools in the
1:03.0	newsletter so that the rest of the community can hear, how have you actually taken something that we've
1:09.1	talked about and made it work for you? And I'm
1:12.6	personally just really excited to learn about these because a lot of times y'all take the things that
1:18.9	we say and use them in such ingenious and interesting ways to do such amazing writing that I'm
1:25.7	just like chomping at the bit to get in these tools and
1:29.3	tips and share them with everybody else. So if you're interested, please go to our show
1:35.8	notes and fill out the form there and be part of this project and just share with us what
1:41.6	you're doing, what you've learned, and how you're using it so that we can share with everybody else.
1:47.5	Really excited again to get all this in because honestly, what we say is made real and important and meaningful by what y'all do with it.
1:59.0	With that, you are out of excuses.
2:02.0	Now go tell us what works for you.
	...

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