Brighton and Hove Group: The Elevator Pitch

Join the Brighton and Hove Group on Wednesday 3 September from 1pm for an interactive session the ELEVATOR PITCH via a BOOK SWAP GAME hosted by group organiser Rebecca. 

As an active member of the writing community in both the UK and Australia, I’ve learned a great deal about pitching, editing, submitting, networking, publishing, and print-on-demand (including Kindle Direct Publishing – KDP). But there’s one invaluable lesson I’ll never forget. It was back in 2012, when the London Writers’ Club used to hold monthly in-person meetings. Authors would stand up in front of a live room of approximately 60 authors (scary itself) and an agent (scarier still) and deliver an elevator pitch for their book (scariest, right?). It was nerve-wracking, but it taught me so much.

A fellow Society of Authors leader recently shared with me a brilliant game, and I’m inspired to take it one step further with you.

Here’s how it works:

Bring along a book — maybe one you’ve picked up from your shelf, or an old favourite (if you can’t part with your copy then grab one secondhand).

Wrap it so that the title and author are hidden.

On the outside, write a 3-sentence elevator pitch—just enough to hook us, without giving it away.

At the meeting, we’ll read the pitches aloud and everyone will “bid” on the books by giving them an anonymous score from 1 to 10—just like publishers bidding in a pitch meeting. We’ll spend about 5 minutes with each book.

Then we’ll unwrap the books and see what we’ve won! And the person who bid for the book gets to take it home.

The reason I think this could be a really valuable session is that it follows on from what Justine Solomons said about our writing community—and how important it is that we know one another and offer up some kind of value by sharing our voices, our ideas, our creative identities and our skills in a way that’s supportive and interactive.

We’ll meet in the The Regency Town House, 13 Brunswick Square, Hove, BN3 1EH. Tea, coffee and biscuits, including gluten- and dairy-free options, will be provided by group organiser Rebecca for a donation of £2 via SumUp.

The Regency Town House is a charity and lets us meet here very cheaply, so please make a donation as you leave if you’re in a position to do so.

All members welcome! 

To join us, click the Going button below and enter your details in the RSVP form so we know how many people to expect.