Literary agents and publishers often need to read your pitch to get an idea of your story and what it's about.

Literary agents and publishers will make a judgement about you as a writer not just on how well you have written your story but how well you have written your pitch. I call the pitch (or the 'blurb') the story about your story.

A pitch - which might end up being the 'blurb' that is printed on the back cover of your book - is about half  a page at the most, and is different from a synopsis. A pitch sets up a question in the reader's mind that can only be answered through his / her reading your manuscript.

A synopsis is usually rather longer than a pitch. A synopsis tells your story in a concise way. It tells how your story begins, who the main characters are, what they do during the story, what some of the major plot issues that you deal with are, and tells how the story ends.

A pitch does not have to tell the read how the story ends, but it does have to be extremely well written. It must be engaging. It must capture the reader's attention very quickly and hold the reader's attention, and encourage the reader to want to go to page one of your story to see what happens.

As a writer you need to give as much attention and effort to writing an engaging pitch, as you have done to any page within your manuscript. .

If you're a good writer- if you're a good story-teller - then you can write an engaging pitch.
You can tell the story about your story!

Before you draft your pitch, go to a bookshop or library, pick up a book you think you might be interested in reading, have a look at the blurb on the back cover and see what you think of that pitch.

What is the pitch telling you?.
How much information about the story does it give away?
What is the style of language like?
Does it succeed in enticing you to want to read the book?

For more information about developing submissions to publishers and literary agents, have a look at books such as A Decent Proposal by Rhonda Whitton.