Shark Tank-esque Pitch Practice Feedback Panel with Katharine Sands and John Cusick

Do you dread in-person pitches? What about diving into an elevator, finding an agent there–and spending three floors stumbling over the seemingly-simple “So, what’s your book about”?

The “tell me about your work” question, unfortunately, isn’t going away–but we’re here to help.

Tell us your pitch, as you were pitching very nice, literary sharks–the kind that don’t eat people–and we’ll help you tell your story with more speed, less stress, and better results.

Please note that while the format is Shark Tank-esque, the tone and feel will be supportive, kind, and constructive–just like you’ve come to expect from us. 

John M. Cusick is a Senior Vice President and literary agent with Folio Jr. / Folio Literary Management, representing a diverse list of New York Times bestsellers and award winners including Julie Murphy, Joan He, Laura Sebastian, Christian McKay Heidicker, and Abdi Nazemian. He represents fiction for kids, teens, and adults, and is also the author of the YA novels GIRL PARTS and CHERRY MONEY BABY (Candlewick Press), as well as the middle-grade duology DIMENSION WHY: How to Save the Universe Without Really Trying (HarperCollins). You can find him online at https://www.foliojr.com/john-cusick.
Send the books kids will sneak/steal/borrow in secret. Those personal, dangerous, life-saving stories. Genres: Children’s, Middle Grade, Picture Books, YA, author-illustrators. No adult works.

Katharine Sands is a literary agent with the Sarah Jane Freymann Agency in New York City. She is the agent provocateur of Making the Perfect Pitch: How to Catch A Literary Agent’s Eye. She has been a guest speaker on writing and publishing for Poets and Writers, The American Society of Journalists and Authors, UCLA, New York University, and the New York State Council on the Arts.
Katharine has worked with a varied list of authors who publish a diverse array of books including fiction, memoir and non-fiction. Among the books she represents are: The Apothecary’s Curse, by Bram Stoker Award nominee Barbara Barnett; Girl Walks Out of a Bar, a memoir by Lisa Smith that was featured by People Magazine as Notable Nonfiction; and teenage climate activist Jamie Margolin’s Youth to Power: Your Voice and How to Use It.
Katharine likes books that have a clear benefit for readers’ lives in categories of food, travel, lifestyle, home arts, beauty, wisdom, relationships, parenting, and fresh looks, which might be at issues, life challenges or popular culture. When reading fiction she wants to be compelled and propelled by urgent storytelling, and hooked by characters. For memoir, femoir, and himoir, she likes to be transported to a world rarely or newly observed.