Every year, we ask the judges who review KCU Pitchfest submissions to give us their observations about what makes the best pitches stand out, and what keeps other pitches from landing the way they should.
This year, the judges reviewed 95 pitches, which gave them a good sense of overarching strengths and weaknesses. Here are the tips the editors and agents on our jury gave us:
1. Know Your Audience
If there’s one thing that came up again and again, it’s that a lot of pitches were aimed at the wrong age group.
For example, a book labeled “middle grade” where the protagonist is an adult. Or a story pitched for early readers that’s twice as long as it should be. Or dialogue that sounds like it was written by someone who hasn’t spent much time around actual kids recently.
As one judge put it:
“Kids of different generations talk differently, and you really do need to interact with today’s kids to get their voice and mindset down!”
— Jane Chun, Transatlantic Agency
Each age category — early reader, early middle grade, middle grade, and YA — has its own conventions and expectations. Things like:
- Page counts
- Themes
- Complexity of language
- Panel layouts
- Age of the protagonist
These conventions exist because kids at different stages are genuinely different readers, with different attention spans, different reference points, and different things they want from a story. Also, book buyers want to know which age level a book is aimed at.
“Wasn’t super common, but I did notice a common thread of some that would benefit from better understanding of different age groups (early reader, MG, YA) and expected page counts. Some early readers were pretty long compared to what I’d expect, and some MG pitches had very young protagonists for the age category.”
— Cindy Harris, Andrews McMeel
If your intended audience isn’t clear, nothing else in your pitch will land as effectively the way you want it to.
The fix: Spend time reading graphic novels in your target category. Not the classics you grew up with; current books. What’s on shelves right now? What are kids reading and loving? Those should be your reference points.
2. Know the Market (Without Chasing It)
Market awareness is not about figuring out what’s trending and writing that. As one judge wryly observed, by the time you notice a trend, it’s usually on its way out.
What it is about is understanding what kinds of stories are actually being published, and where your book fits into that landscape.
As agent Andrea Colvin said:
“These pitches skewed very heavily toward magic / supernatural / paranormal / space stories, and the kinds of stories that publishers are looking for are much more likely to be contemporary / school / natural world / friendship / ‘issues’ (without supernatural aspects) stories.”
Other judges mentioned that some pitches felt a bit too generic, or like they were referencing an older era of storytelling rather than what’s happening in the medium right now.
Which brings us to comps (the comparable titles you include to help situate your book). Comps are one of the most useful tools in a pitch. They tell an editor or agent: here’s the audience, here’s the tone, here’s the world this book lives in. But they only work if they’re chosen effectively.
Two common mistakes that judges mentioned include:
- picking the biggest, most famous titles you can think of
- treating comps as an afterthought and throwing them in at the end
Emily Daluga of Chronicle Books observed:
“I’m not opposed to someone comping to a big, bestselling title, but you have to use that wisely, and your book genuinely should feel really similar to that big comp genre/audience-wise.”
The bottom line is that the more specific and accurate your comps are, the more they do real work to help your pitch.
3. Clarity Matters More Than Style
When a judge (or any agent or editor) opens your pitch, the art is one of the first things they look at. First impressions matter a lot.
But it’s not just about how polished your art is. It’s also about your skill as a visual storyteller.
“There were some pitches with an interesting concept which suffered from having art which was hard to parse visually. This applied to pitches that had a less polished art style AND pitches that had a more polished art style, but coloring styles and page compositions which made it hard to tell what to focus on in each panel.”
– Lydia Nguyen, Abrams Books
Other judges also flagged panel density; too many panels per page, especially in books aimed at younger readers, makes the story harder to follow.
And one specific thing judges called out: too many “talking heads.”
“Avoid talking heads! Especially in sample pages. It doesn’t allow you to showcase how good your art really is.”
— Josh Sippie, Harper Alley
Your sample pages should prove you can tell a story visually, with movement, pacing, and a sense of how you use sequential art to its full potential. That’s what judges are looking for.
4. Your Hook & Story Need to Land
Judges are reading a lot of pitches. A lot. They need a fast, clear entry point — something that tells them right away what your book is, who it’s for, and why it’s worth their attention.
Your concept needs to land immediately, not gradually. If a judge has to read three paragraphs before they fully understand what your story is, you’ve made it harder than it needs to be.
That’s what a strong elevator pitch does. It’s a single, clear, specific statement that makes someone think: oh, I get it, and I want to know more.
“A snappy one-liner that gets to the heart of the story — for example: ‘Haikyuu meets YuGiOh in this sports manga based off the ancient Mesoamerican game of Pok-ta-Pok’ — helps us make a snap decision if this is something we’d want for our list.”
— Angelica Busanet, Abrams Books
Your title is part of this too! It’s one of the first things that gets noticed, and a strong title does a lot of heavy lifting before anyone reads a single word of your synopsis.
Penguin Random House editor Jenna Lettice’s advice is:
“Spend more time on polishing your art and coming up with a banger of a title.”
Fundamentally, good art still needs good storytelling. Some of the most visually appealing pitches didn’t make the cut because the storytelling didn’t hold up.
Dialogue was an issue some judges mentioned. When it feels awkward, forced, or just not quite right for the characters, it pulls readers out of the story.
“When it came down to it, some pitches I otherwise really enjoyed didn’t quite make it into my top five because the dialogue was a little awkward or contrived.”
— Lydia Nguyen, Abrams Books
6. Lettering Is Important
Lettering came up several times in judges’ feedback, and it’s worth taking seriously.
A lot of creators letter their own work, which is completely understandable — hiring a professional letterer costs money. But poor lettering has a real impact on how a pitch is received. If the text is hard to read or feels like it wasn’t given as much thought as the rest of the package, that’s a problem, especially for books aimed at younger readers.
“There were some times where the lettering felt too thin or was just so small that it was really hard to read on my computer screen. It’s a small thing, but if I’m already on the fence about a book, little details like that can really add up.”
— Emily Daluga, Chronicle Books
“A lot of the lettering in these pitches could be better, and was an immediate thing I noticed….”
— Lydia Nguyen, Abrams Books
“Unprofessional lettering can be an eyesore.”
— Adam Wallenta, Papercutz
If you’re not confident in your lettering, it’s worth spending time to improve it. Again, go back to your comp titles, and study not just the storytelling and art, but how they were lettered, too.
Here’s a great article by graphic novelist K. Woodman-Maynard on tips for better lettering.
The Good News
The judges who reviewed this year’s pitches were genuinely excited about the ideas and talent in the pool.
The pitches that didn’t make the shortlist often fell short because:
- The audience wasn’t clearly defined
- The project wasn’t fully grounded in or easily placed in the current “traditional publishing” market
- The execution made the story harder to read or understand
The good news is that all of these things can be addressed.
If you submitted to Pitchfest this year, or you’re working toward it next year, this is the part that matters most: Keep going!!!
Comics-making is iterative work. You get closer each time you work on your skills, refine your audience, sharpen your hook, and strengthen your storytelling.
Interested in working through these elements in depth? You might be interested in the KCU Graphic Novel Bootcamp, a new three-month course we’re offering this fall 2026. It’s designed to help you build your skills, from story fundamentals to finished pages, in a focused, supportive environment. More coming soon!
Thank you so much for this awesome content-rich read, Janna, the judges, and all the creators! Really appreciate all of this as I’m revising a gn now. You all rock!
Aw, thank you Shirley!
Great article! As someone who is looking forward to pitching next year, these are great things to keep in mind.
Yay! I’m excited to hear that you’re planning to pitch next year. 🙂