SWF All Stars

Welcome to SWF All Stars where we return to our favorite classes and faculty, bringing their valuable knowhow to a virtual audience.

Pitch Perfect with Jackie Cangro

Pitch Perfect with Jackie Cangro was a fan-favorite workshop at SWF22 and delivers insights into the all-important pitching process. Jackie brings decades of experience working at Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster and understands what it takes to make it out of the “slush pile” of submissions.

The details

📅 Date and Time: Saturday, February 8, 3 p.m. Central European Time, 9 a.m. East Coast US time

📍 Location: Zoom 

💸 Ticket price: Only 350SEK (or about 35 US dollars) for the workshop and an additional 450SEK to receive individual feedback from Jackie (limit 10)

Ticketing opens November 25, and closes at midnight on February 6.

More about Pitch Perfect

The goal of a query letter is to entice an agent or submissions editor to request your manuscript. It can also serve as an essential marketing tool for self-publishers. But how do you distill an entire book down to one-page? It's time to put on your marketing hat and think about your work in a different way. A way that will connect with professionals in the indie and traditional publishing worlds. In this workshop with editor Jackie Cangro, learn what every successful pitch letter contains, and the pitfalls to avoid when it comes to selling your work.

In this 75-minute workshop, you’ll gain:

• the five essential elements every query letter should have

• the secret to the all-important pitch paragraph

• how to distill your manuscript into 400 words

• dos and don'ts for finding comp titles

• how to build confidence as you send your work into the world

All Stars sessions will be recorded and distributed to ticket buyers.

Individual pitch critiques

For an additional 450SEK (or around 45 US dollars), Jackie will provide written feedback on your pitch letter via email. Heads up: Critiques are limited. We will offer 10 combo tickets (workshop + critique) on a first-come, first-served basis.

All Star Faculty Profile: Jackie Cangro

Jackie Cangro is a seasoned developmental editor, creative writing instructor, and writing coach providing guidance, inspiration, feedback, and accountability for dedicated fiction and narrative nonfiction writers. She worked at Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster managing their submissions and assessing countless pitch letters.

She served as editor of, The Subway Chronicles: Scenes from Life in New York (Plume), which contains 27 essays about the New York City subway system written by well-known straphangers such as Jonathan Lethem, Colson Whitehead, Calvin Trillin, and Francine Prose. The collection received print reviews nationall. Jackie has appeared on a variety of broadcast media outlets such as CBS Morning News, NY1 and NPR.

Her short fiction has been published in the literary journals Valparaiso Fiction Review, The Cortland Review, and The Macguffin. Jackie teaches creative writing at GrubStreet and The Loft Literary Center. We’re thrilled to have her as our first All Star!

Q&A