As I’ve written elsewhere, I had a blast at the #VirtualErma, 2020 Erma Bombeck Writers’ Conference. I was disappointed when it went virtual because I’d been waiting years to fly to Dayton.

How often do you hear someone say that?

But many authors and humor coaches that I’ve read and admired were slated to be there, and it seemed the right time and shell out the money to go.

Alas, it was not so. And while the Marriott Hotel allowed me to cancel my reservation–and punish me by robo-calling me about three times every hour to pitch staying with them, United Airlines gave me a voucher to fly within the next year or before they go out of business, whichever occurs first.

But I was surprised at how much fun I had, and how helpful the conference was. I’ll be writing about that over the next few posts, but let me start with one of the sessions that most inspired me–a session on “How To Write a Page-Turner.” The presenter, an agent, talked about what she was looking for. Hurray for that! Then, she said that she’d take submissions from attendees.

This was especially heartening because humor is one of those genres that many agents distain. Really.

So now I need to craft my pitch, and the conference had suggestions for that, too. The most concise was that it must be 50 words or less, and it has to have a sense of the character’s problem, arc, and offer a thumbnail comparison to similar-but-different works.

So that’s what I’m doing now. Wish me luck. I’m looking at a lot of by Problem Child stories and seeing if I can find a narrative throughline for a short, humorous novel.

Before I go, let me share a link to a Writer’s Digest post on pitching. I hope it helps, you, too. Here it is.

Take care, have fun, laugh a lot, and keep writing.

Robb