Review: Life’s a Pitch: How To Sell Yourself and Your Brilliant Ideas

Authors definitely have to pitch. You pitch agents, publishers and industry professionals. Ultimately, you are pitching readers and followers of your work. This is a skill many authors lack and need to know more about. This book is aimed at business professionals but we can all learn a lot from it.  I read a lot of non-fiction marketing and business books, and this is one that stood out for a number of reasons.

Here is what I have learnt from Life's a Pitch: How to Sell Yourself and Your Brilliant Ideas by Stephen Bayley & Roger Mavity, both in terms of writing and book design, as well as content.

• Great title and cover design. This is a great cover for a non-fiction book. I like simple and plain colours. I was drawn to this in a crowded bookstore. It just shows you don't need overly fancy graphics and pictures to grab attention. ( I also love this Blue!)
• New way of writing with 2 authors. The book has 2 authors and they split the book in half with a picture of an old-fashioned book clasp. Both halves are very different and offer varying perspectives. The first is quite “How To” and the second is philosophical, using more story and tangents to make the point. It's the first time I have seen a book by 2 authors done like this. Usually, they do alternate chapters or blend together. This could almost be 2 separate books. It is a model I enjoyed so perhaps others could consider it.
• Listen. “In social meetings, the people who listened most were regarded by the others as the best conversationalists“. That is something I have learned lately after I polled my blog readership. By listening to my readers I am (hopefully) giving them what they want, and building my readership at the same time. If you don't listen to your readers, you often head down the wrong path. What are your readers saying?
• Charisma helps a pitch and helps you be remembered. How can you foster charisma, even on the printed page? Have the courage to be different, and to be yourself. Behave as you wish, write what you want and not what society wants you to write. Follow your own path and you will find your own form of charisma. You will attract people who are interested in what you are writing. Be passionate in your interests and your business and writing life. Emotions count more than logic. Engage people with what you are saying and they will be passionate fans for your work.
• Don't turn into the person you are pretending to be in order to satisfy other people's expectations. The example is given of the miserable Ernest Hemingway, who drove himself to suicide. I took this example to heart in terms of literary pretension. I used to be the person who quoted Hemingway and other literature because I thought that is the person I should be, as a bookish literary type. When I applied to creative writing courses, I tried to write in that way. But it is just not me! I have found my true self and passion for writing with non-fiction, self-development, blogging and fast, action thrillers like James Rollins and Matthew Reilly. Be the person you are when you pitch.
• “You know a design is good when you want to lick it” attributed to Steve Jobs of Apple. I love this quote. When I read a great book, I don't lick it, but I certainly carry it around with me, write notes on it and recommend it to others. Write books that people want to lick. There's something to try!
• Write for therapy and seal those thoughts away. Then create your masterpiece. There is a beautiful section on the Heiligenstadt Testament, which was a letter written by Beethoven to his brothers and never sent. It was all about the crushing defeat he felt facing deafness as a composer. He composed his greatest works after this letter was sent, and that self-pity never showed up in his music. I am guilty, as perhaps we all are, of bringing self-pity to my writing. This is a case of “kill your darlings”. Let that emotion spill onto the page and use it to transmute your other writing into masterpiece.

This is an excellent book – the second half more to my taste. Eclectic and meandering perhaps, but enough meat to satisfy non-fiction business learners, and a lot of inspiration for fans of biography, history and philosophy. I don't review many books on this blog, but this one is worth recommending!
You can buy it from Amazon here ->Life's a Pitch: How to Sell Yourself and Your Brillian Ideas