What Goes on a One Sheet?
For the next couple of weeks on Tuesday & Thursdays we’ll be focusing on conference preparation here at Writer…Interrupted.
One of the big facets of preparation for a writing conference is the One-Sheet/Pitch Sheet/Sell Sheet. This piece of paper goes by a lot of names, and it causes a lot of consternation and fear in unpublished authors, but basically it’s a sheet of paper that tells what you’ve written and why you think it is cool. It’s used during your agent or editor appointments or if you happen to have a moment with an agent, editor, mentor, or otherwise interested party to help you organize your thoughts and give you something to refer to and/or hang on to so your hands won’t shake.
Often I hear the question “What goes on a One-Sheet?”
So I thought I would show you the One-Sheet I used to help sell my first novel. I’ll walk you through what I put on it, and hopefully, the picture isn’t so small and grainy that you can’t tell what it is. I think if you click on the picture you should see it a little bigger.
I created my One-Sheet using a newsletter template from Microsoft and Microsoft Publisher 2007. By fiddling with the colors and the text boxes, I arrived at a layout that I liked so much, I’ve continued to use it for each One-Sheet I’ve prepared since.
As you can see, I chose to use the front and the back of the sheet. I got tons of information on the back that helped focus the book specifically for the publisher I was targeting.
On the front:
- A picture that illustrates the book–theme, historical era, something that gives the flavor of the story. That’s why I chose black and white for the picture.
- Contact information (removed here for obvious reasons) for both myself and my agent.
- Story genre and word count.
- A hook line.
- The title of the work and the author’s name again.
- A brief overall summary of the story.
- Very brief character GMC’s.
- Author photo and brief bio. (I put my new photo on the sheet for the purpose of this demonstration, but used the one I had from two years ago when I actually pitched this story at the conference.)
On the back:
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