Pitching is one of the most stressful parts of the creative process. And the most critical. Even the best idea remains only that until someone with the money and distribution to make it happen signs on.

What follows is an edited excerpt from Levy’s book, covering topics such as prepping for the pitch, the bible and… the dreaded waiting game.

Pitching styles

There’s an easy answer to finding your pitch style: be yourself. Like Brad Goodman says on The Simpsons, ‘There’s no trick to it. It’s just a simple trick.’

I have a personal ritual I do just before a pitch meeting. I’m a pretty relaxed guy, but when I get a little nervous, my hands get a little clammy. My solution? I buy a 75-cent cup of coffee and I hold it. It warms my hand (and my soul), giving me a dry handshake and caffeinated confidence to face what’s ahead.

Industry magazines and websites sporting articles on pitching often misinform us with macho tales of creators who nail pitches by working themselves up into a frothy frenzy. If this doesn’t sound like you, don’t try to go that route. Being the most energetic and exciting pitcher doesn’t make your idea any better, nor does it guarantee the executive that you will be effective in helming a series and managing a crew. So, let’s not overrate the importance of flashy pitching skills.

In reality, a little sincerity and natural enthusiasm go a long way.

Speaking of sincerity, never open your pitch by saying that you’ve got the best idea ever or that it’s the next SpongeBob. Statements like this raise skepticism. Just show them your idea. Give them a chance to draw an honest opinion. That’s what you came for.

Before the pitch begins, the creator and executive try to figure out if they click as people. Most people liken it to dating, although I don’t think it should be anywhere near as stressful as that. Whatever your pitching style is, don’t forget to begin the meeting with a good old-fashioned, getting-to-know-you chat. Both parties will want to talk about their backgrounds, and if the development executive neglects to do so, spur them on. They’ll be glad to share because most everybody likes to talk about themselves. When the time comes to get down to business, the executive will give you the prompt to begin.

Doug TenNapel (Earthworm Jim, Catscratch) describes his pitching technique: ‘I keep the pitch short because length doesn’t accomplish anything. I’ll give the title (Kid Blast!), a description of the type of show (‘It’s a puppet-animated action-comedy for boys six to 11’). Then, I’ll give a brief description of the show’s content: ‘It’s about a kid and his gingerbread dog who just want to have a blast everywhere they go. You see, the kid and dog like to have fun, but the dog is made of cookie so they can’t get him wet and bad guys want to eat him. By the end of each show, the dog is eaten or melted and Kid Blast just bakes up another batch of his favorite mutt.”

Since animation is a visual medium, creators should be sure to display some pitch art on the table while they are explaining ideas like the one above.

TenNapel reports that his next move is to present a paragraph description of the main characters, followed by three to five sample episode ideas. With that, the meeting can be done.

‘By this time,’ he says, ‘I’m already checking my watch and offering the executive an out in case the material just isn’t for them. They usually have a few questions to feel out the material. It really isn’t that hard of a decision at this point: either they get it and see dollar signs or [they] see it as something that will kill their career if they make it.

‘Sometimes we go back to talking about movies or friends and families, or how interesting my artwork is in the pitch material, but essentially, a show has been pitched.’

Creator etiquette and the common mistakes of pitching

According to Linda Simensky, vice-president of children’s programming at PBS Kids, many people who pitch are either not that great at representing their property or don’t seem to know it well enough to make the pitch completely sound enticing.

Simensky advises, ‘Creators should know their properties and be able to talk about them, rather than reading from the pitch or doing an unfocused pitch that doesn’t really represent the idea. Give examples of how a show is funny, rather than saying it’s going to be funny.’

Over many years of pitching, I have learned to pitch my projects with enthusiasm and spontaneity, and in the most concise manner I can. But I keep in mind that pitching is a two-way communication. You have to have an understanding for how the pitch is being received while you are giving it. You have to be ready and willing to be interrupted by questions and comments.

Most of us need to hone our basic communication skills before we can focus on our pitching skills. A good form of practice is learning how to keep an audience engaged. Attend any industry panel discussion that opens the floor up to audience questions, and you’ll see how much trouble the average person has expressing their thoughts or questions in a clear and concise manner.

Holding the attention of a development executive in a pitch meeting is important not just because they’ve made time to meet with you, but because if you can’t capture and hold their imagination for one meeting, you can’t expect your creation to capture an audience.

Simensky, having received hundreds of pitches over the years, kindly offers a roundup of some of the mistakes that creators and producers make when pitching.

• When you are pitching to a network, know what shows it produces, and watch them before you come in. (You wouldn’t interview for a job without knowing what the company does, would you?)

• Don’t think that your show needs to be exactly like the other shows on the network. They have those shows already. Don’t insist that you know a network better than its own executives, no matter how much you’ve studied. Maybe the network is trying to do something different.

• Don’t tell the executive that other networks really like the idea and are interested. The pitching process is a lot like dating. If you wanted to date someone, would you tell that person how many other people are interested in dating you, or that you are interested in dating other people?

The pitch bible as a leave-behind

I’m always amazed at how much bad advice pops up on the subject of pitching animation. One recent online article advised readers to hand out copies of a pitch bible at the start of a meeting. In reality, that’s a terrible idea. As soon as you hand over a pitch bible, the development executive has a choice whether to read ahead, become distracted, or not listen to you at all.

A pitch meeting should not be a creator monologue either. There’s a balance to strike. The creator should know his/her project but present it casually and conversationally, leaving lots of room open for questions and comments along the way.

Save handing out pitch bibles until the end of the meeting. Don’t even show that you have them until that moment. If you show your pitch bible, the development executive will ask for one, and you’ll be stuck handing it over and fighting for their focus.

Going one step further, I know an entertainment lawyer who advises not even giving out pitch bibles at the conclusion of a meeting. He believes they should be mailed out after a meeting because this will help record that the meeting took place and that a pitch bible was received. These are two things that could come in handy in the unlikely event of a copyright dispute down the road.

Instead of using a bible in the meeting, I advocate making three to six 10 x 14-inch color prints of show art that you can flip over one by one as you introduce and discuss the project.

Pitching extras

‘For The Powerpuff Girls, my main selling point was my finished student film. I was able to pop in my film and actually show what I was talking about. After seeing the film, the development executive liked what she saw so much that she bypassed the rest of her development team and took me to see the president of the company, Fred Seibert. He watched it, liked what he saw, and started negotiations for The Powerpuff Girls that day, ‘ says Craig McCracken, creator of The Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends (Cartoon Network)

As McCracken’s story shows, for some creators, pitch-meeting extras make all the difference. This was especially so in this case because when McCracken sold The Powerpuff Girls he was a relatively unproven newcomer. It’s true that nothing shows a creator’s point of view or execution intent better than some finished animation. That said, there is an art to communicating execution within a pitch bible, and sometimes it may even be preferable for a development executive to use their imagination rather than be spoon-fed a sneak preview of the final product.

Test footage is a potentially lethal pitch extra, one that could taketh away as much as it giveth. In short, if your bit of finished animation is not TV perfect, don’t show it. The production values should be top-notch and fully representative of how your show might look on-air.

Other pitch extras may include music/original songs or statues/maquettes of the characters. Stephen Hillenburg’s pitch to Nickelodeon, featuring a yellow dude named SpongeBob SquarePants, utilized several pitch extras.

Hillenburg recalls, ‘I created a bible and a few paintings to explain the characters and their world. To supplement this I sculpted SpongeBob, Patrick and Squidward and put them in an aquarium where they were propelled by an air pump. I also recorded a temp theme song on a small tape recorder and mounted it inside a conch shell with a mercury switch so the song would play whenever the shell was lifted to the ear.’

Butch Hartman (The Fairly OddParents) advises a creator to bring everything they think they’ll need to answer the many questions of the people to whom they will be pitching, which might include written material, drawings, pictures and videos – whatever it will take to get your point across. He says, ‘Remember, just because you’ve been living with an idea for a year or so doesn’t mean that the client has. They are blank slates and you will have approximately 10 minutes to fill their heads with just as much stuff as you have in yours.’

Each series pitch is unique, so each creator should figure out how pitch extras will best work in his or her pitch meeting. One rule is that the pitch extras should not be more interesting than the show itself. Use pitch extras to support the pitch, communicate a key aspect of the show, and to help generate additional enthusiasm. You don’t want to risk being gimmicky in your presentation. That could take away from the substance of your proposal and your credibility as a creator.

The waiting game

After the pitch meeting, how much time should a creator give a network to get back to them with a verdict? Most development executives or networks will tell you that it is their aim to give feedback on a pitch within two to six weeks, or even less. I can testify that sometimes this actually happens. More often, the wait can be as long as three months or more.

From my experience, the longer waiting periods should not be blamed on the network; usually they are the result of an executive who is spread too thin and has myriad duties and responsibilities lying outside of development, and in some cases the result of the executive’s inability to manage his/her own development process effectively. Whatever the reason, it leaves you waiting.

The next question, naturally, is, ‘Is it okay to show other networks my idea in the meantime?’ The answer is absolutely ‘Yes!’ In fact, you’d be a fool if you didn’t. The fisherman with more lines in the water is more likely to get a nibble, right? The same applies here.

The only time it would be a faux pas to do this is if a network asks you to hold off from showing anybody else. If they do request this of you, make sure to agree on a set period of time you are willing to take a the pitch out of further circulation. In all fairness, this is the purpose of an option payment by the network, in which the network pays a flat fee to reserve its option to buy the property at a later time. Still, it’s okay to give a network, should they request it, a two-week grace period before continuing to pitch a project.

The far more likely scenario is that networks will assume you are pitching elsewhere simultaneously. Make sure you are not pushing your simultaneous pitching in each network’s face. It is a mistake to try to play networks against each other. If you are in the enviable position of having two networks interested in your property at the same time, your lawyer or representative, under your counsel, should negotiate the better all-around deal.

If you find yourself waiting longer than one month for feedback, it is okay to gently check in with the executive. I like to shoot them an e-mail asking them if they’ve had a chance to review the materials and if they can offer any feedback. If the waiting period extends into the three months or more, I might check in with a call or e-mail every couple of months, sometimes not even asking about the project, but just saying, ‘Hello,’ or giving them some news about a personal film project I’m working on, or simply to tell them how much I’m enjoying a new show on their network. These unobtrusive check-ins remind the executive you are still out there and help sustain the relationship, while giving them a very gentle nudge for feedback.

Once the wait for an answer exceeds three months, it might be best to consider that you did, in fact, get an answer: No. It’s a shame that it has to work that way, but that is sometimes the reality. The good news is that you weren’t just waiting on one network’s answer. You pitched several places at once. This should help even the most obsessive among us to let it go and move on. Never take the news (or non-news) personally.

As much as writing is rewriting, pitching is re-pitching and development is redevelopment. Tack 10 years on to that and you’ll see how much time and effort it took for me to make my first deal. It requires a thick skin to keep truckin’ down the (probably very long) road toward a deal. Still, it is hard to imagine a better reward.

David B. Levy is the author of Your Career in Animation: How to Survive and Thrive (Allworth Press, 2006), which was the first career guide for animation artists working in North America. His latest title Animation Development: From Pitch to Production is published in the U.S. by Allworth. Levy has been an animation director for six series to date, including Blue’s Clues, Pinky Dinky Doo and The Electric Company. He teaches animation at Parsons School of Design, the School of Visual Arts and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and regularly lectures at Pratt Institute and the Rhode Island School of Design. You can reach him at dbl1973@gmail.com.