I’ve been getting asked quite a bit about pitching to an editor, agent, or publisher. There’s no standard way to pitch in comics, but there are certain elements of your book that should be included no matter who you’re reaching out to.
I’ve melded my own personal way of pitching with Jim Zub’s method (from his post Here Comes the Pitch and other educational posts by him). Feel free to change it up to be whatever you need, but this is my go to way to make sure I have everything that I need for telling folks about my story idea.
This is everything you’ll find in the pitch doc here (but scroll down under it for a downloadable Word file):
TITLE (OR WORKING TITLE)
WRITTEN BY:
ART BY:
SYNOPSIS:
Short 1-2 sentence synopsis of your story.
DESCRIPTION:
A lengthier description of your story – like something you would see on the back of a book. Ideally 2-3 paragraphs long.
CHARACTERS:
A breakdown of the major characters that we’ll meet in the story (or first arc that you’re pitching if you’re looking to create an ongoing series).
DETAILS:
Give a rough page count of your story, if you’re looking to pitch an OGN. If you’re looking to pitch a monthly series, give an estimate of the number of issues for the first arc and what your overall idea of how many issues it would take to do a wrap-up of the full story.
OUTLINE:
Give a chapter by chapter (or issue by issue) breakdown of what will happen. Include spoilers – you need to let people in on what will happen and how it will all pay off and be satisfying. Aim for each chapter outline to be 1-3 paragraphs long, and summarize it all as concisely as possible.
ART:
If you have concept art, include it. If you have preview pages* of the story, include those too. If not, it never hurts to mention what you envision for the art and list a few artists who’s style you think may work for the book when the time comes.
*if you’re going to include preview pages, keep in mind that the recommended 6-pages don’t have to be the first 6-pages. Use 6-pages from your script and story that best represent the overall vision and tone of your project.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to info@creatorresource.com or ask us over on Twitter or Facebook.
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AMAZING. Thank you for this!
Very helpful article
Is Pitching a Manga/Graphic novel the same as Pitching a Comic?
It would probably be similar! I admittedly don’t have a ton of experience pitching for manga though.