Alan Smith
Masterclasses are in-person at the Provo Marriott Conference Center on Wednesday, February 10th, 2027.
The Fast Pitch
How to Make Your Manuscript Impossible to Ignore
Location: To be determined.
Duration: 2 hours – ?:00 ?m to ? MST
Class Fee: $??.00
You may have spent years writing your manuscript. When you finally get in front of an acquisitions editor, publisher, or literary agent, you may have less than a minute to make them want to know more.
So what do you say?
A great pitch isn’t a synopsis of your book—and it definitely isn’t a breathless attempt to cram 80,000 words into sixty seconds. The purpose of a pitch is much simpler: create enough curiosity that the person across from you asks the next question.
In this fast-moving, interactive masterclass, publisher Alan Smith will help writers identify what makes their manuscript better, special, or different from the dozens of other projects an editor or agent may hear about that day.
Participants will learn how to distill their manuscript into a compelling one- or two-sentence pitch that introduces the protagonist, establishes the story world, reveals the central conflict and stakes, and delivers the most important ingredient of all—the hook.
And then we’re going to test it.
Through a speed-dating-style pitching exercise, participants will pitch their manuscripts repeatedly to other writers, discover which elements consistently generate interest, revise their pitch, and try it again.
The goal isn’t to tell someone everything about your book.
It’s to make them want to know more.
- Build the Fast Pitch: Distill your manuscript into one or two sentences that introduce the main character, establish the story world, reveal the stakes, and create curiosity.
- Find What Makes Your Book Different: Identify what is better, special, or different about your manuscript—and why it stands out from others in the same genre.
- Create a Strong Hook: Learn how to reveal just enough to make an editor, publisher, or agent want to ask the next question.
- Test and Refine Your Pitch: Use rapid-fire, speed-dating-style pitch rounds to discover what listeners remember, where they get confused, and what makes them want more.
- Deliver With Confidence: Practice conversational pitching, learn what to leave out, and know when to stop talking and let the publishing professional respond.
Alan Smith
Alan has been getting into trouble with books since fifth grade, when he earned a D in reading—not because he wasn’t reading, but because Alfred Hitchcock and Edgar Allan Poe were far more interesting than the assigned homework.
These days, that D feels oddly appropriate.
Alan is the Publisher of Rogue River, an imprint of Roan & Weatherford Publishing, specializing in high-tension fiction: mystery, suspense, action, crime, thrillers, and horror. In other words, books filled with death, danger, deception, darkness, demons, Dracula, drama, and the occasional deeply disturbed character. Alan is drawn to sharp hooks, memorable voices, and stories that make it difficult to turn off the light.
A lifelong reader, writer, storyteller, and professional speaker, Alan brings decades of sales and communication experience to publishing, including his work as Director of Sales.
Turns out, sometimes a D in reading is exactly the qualification you need.
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