New York Author Pitch Fest A Little Pitchy

Well, I made it through the Hollywood producers author pitch fest event as planned, but I was truly exhausted when it was over. After an intense day of workshops and practice, each of the 150 authors sat down with each of ten producers for exactly two minutes to give their pitch saying why their story would make a great movie or TV show.  The biggest thing I learned from this is that I am not my normal competent self when it comes to a presentation like this.

The chemo is having an effect.  One gal who was pitching a book she wrote about her breast cancer treatment told me, "Oh yeah, chemo brain.  I still can't memorize things after a year from treatment." Oh great! Another factor about this I hadn't really realized.  I actually had difficulty memorizing the short pitch, even though the subject was so familiar to me.  It was a very strange sensation . . . sort of like brain damage I suspect.

Anyway, it was hard to tell whether the reactions were positive or just benign.  Over the next few weeks the studios will get back to our publishers with any books they want to follow up with.  Whatever happens, it really was a great opportunity.  It is sort of a foot in the door, in that these studio executives now know my name and book titles. We were told that a long time can go by and then a studio will suddenly pull out an idea they heard at one of these events and follow up on it. The next pitch is in six months in Vegas. Tempting, but I don't think I'll be going.