40 Best Elevator Pitches for Books in 2023
The elevator pitch is one of the most important tools for selling books. Writers use them to pitch agents and editors to get book contracts. Publicists use them to get more attention for authors before and after book publication. Sales reps use them to help with sell-through to book buyers at bookstores. And ultimately, they end up on on the covers of books to try and tempt readers.
(5 Reasons Writers Fail to Land an Agent or Book Deal.)
For me, a great elevator pitch doesn’t give away everything, but it does share enough that I can easily picture the stakes of the book in a concise statement. And since I have the opportunity to speak with so many authors (more than 250 in 2023 alone) through for our author spotlight series, I thought I’d share my favorite elevator pitches from 2023.
While there were plenty of other great elevator pitches in 2023, all 40 of these pitches made these books instant additions to my TBR list. Peruse these pitches for books you might want to read, sure, but also take notes to help you create an amazing pitch for your project.
Fantasy
House of Roots and Ruin, by Erin A. Craig (Delacorte Press): When Annaleigh’s sisters begin to die one by one on their isolated island estate, she must unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family and decide whether to trust a mysterious stranger who seemingly has secrets of his own in this atmospheric, spellbinding novel.
The Foreign Exchange, by Veronica G. Henry (47North): A Vodou priestess turned amateur sleuth investigating a ritual murder is embroiled in an insidious case of corruption that reaches beyond the shadows of New Orleans.
Forged By Blood, by Ehigbor Okosun (Harper Voyager): An orphaned girl from the Kingdom of Ife must use her forbidden blood magic to kidnap the boy responsible for her mother’s death and keep him alive long enough to bargain for her people’s freedom.
Historical Fiction
The Last Russian Doll, by Kristen Loesch (Berkley): In 1991, a young woman returns to her homeland of Soviet Russia to solve a murder and ends up unraveling the devastating history of her family. She starts out with nothing but a single key.
The Secrets of Hartwood Hall, by Katie Lumsden (Dutton): It’s 1852 and recently widowed governess Margaret Lennox takes up a new position at the mysterious Hartwood Hall. There she meets Mrs Eversham and her son, Louis—but it seems that everybody here has something to hide.
The Winthrop Agreement, by Alice Sherman Simpson (Harper): The Winthrop Agreement, a Gilded Age tale, follows an immigrant daughter’s rise from life in a Lower East Side tenement to the heights of haute couture, driven by a hunger for a place in society while protecting secrets she must not betray. A work of historical fiction . . . with a twist of Gothic.
Horror
The September House, by Carissa Orlando (Berkley): A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare.
Edenville, by Sam Rebelein (William Morrow): Small town/cosmic horror about a group of creepy English professors who use the stories in one man’s head to build a doorway to another world. Starring sentient sunflowers, strange creatures, an old-timey blood curse, and Tom Jones music.
Where the Dead Wait, by Ally Wilkes (Atria/Emily Bestler Books): A Victorian Arctic explorer returns from a disastrous expedition in disgrace. Thirteen years later, he must return to this haunted landscape to rescue his former second-in-command, and dig up the secrets of his own cannibal past.
Literary
The River, The Town, by Farah Ali (Dzanc): When drought strikes a part of the country and a main river begins to dry up, a family begins to change in ways that leaves them questioning everything about themselves.
Others Were Emeralds, by Lang Leav (Harper Perennial): A stirring portrayal of guilt, loss, and memory, Others Were Emeralds explores the inherent danger of allowing our misconceptions to shape our reality.
Middle Grade
The Umbrella Maker’s Son, by Katrina Leno (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers): In a city where it’s always raining, the son of an umbrella maker discovers that a rival umbrella company might be at the root of all the wet weather.
Back to the Night Before, by Katherin Nolte (Random House Books for Young Readers): A magical adventure about two brave siblings determined to find a treasure that could save their family.
Tagging Freedom, by Rhonda Roumani (Union Square & Co): Kareem Haddad is a 13-year-old Syrian graffiti artist at the start of the Syrian Revolution who, after a close call with the secret police, is sent to live with his Syrian American cousin in a small town in Massachusetts. Together, they discover the power of activism and the courage it takes to stand up for freedom of speech everywhere.
Mystery/Thriller
No One Needs to Know, by Lindsay Cameron (Bantam): When an anonymous neighborhood forum is hacked threatening to expose the darkest secrets of New York’s wealthiest residents, three women—each with something to hide—will do anything to keep their secrets hidden, even if they have to kill to protect their own.
Five Bad Deeds, by Caz Frear (Harper): A woman who believes she’s a good person is forced to confront that self-appraisal when five “bad” deeds come back to haunt her in the most devastating of ways.
The Only One Left, by Riley Sager (Dutton): A live-in health aide is assigned to care for Lenora Hope, a mute 71-year-old woman suspected of murdering her family decades earlier. Using an old typewriter, she makes her new nurse a tantalizing offer: I want to tell you everything.
Mother-Daughter Murder Night, by Nina Simon (William Morrow): A big-hearted mystery about a grandma-mother-daughter trio trying to solve the murder of a naturalist who washes up near their coastal California home.
There Should Have Been Eight, by Nalini Singh (Berkley): Seven old friends. A mansion in ruins. One last long weekend together. Someone is going to confess … because there should have been eight.
Nonfiction
Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II, by Lena Andrews (Mariner Books): Valiant Women tells the story of the hundreds of thousands of American women—from every race, faith, and walk of life—who served in uniform during WWII and directly contributed to the Allied support operations that helped win the war.
Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America, by Michael Harriot (HarperCollins): From acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot, a searingly smart and bitingly hilarious retelling of American history that corrects the record and showcases the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans.
Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time, by Sheila Liming (Melville House): A smart and empowering book about the simple art of hanging out.
Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing, by Jen Soriano (Amistad): Nervous is an essay collection about how we carry history in our nerves. Through essays that blend personal stories, history, and science, Nervous shows how the long shadow of transgenerational trauma can be healed at a population scale, both from the inside out and the outside in.
Colorful Palate: A Flavorful Journey Through a Mixed American Experience, by Raj Tawney (Empire State Editions/Fordham University Press): A timely self-examination of the “mixed” American experience featuring exclusive recipes and photographs from the author’s multicultural family.
Picture Book
My Little Thief, by Augusten Burroughs (Christy Ottaviano Books): An unforgettable story of friendship between a curious girl with a rich imagination and a winged thief with a very big heart.
Romance
Do Your Worst, by Rosie Danan (Berkley): A disgraced archeologist and an aspiring curse breaker become enemies with benefits when they unknowingly accept conflicting assignments at the same infamous Scottish Castle.
Artfully Yours, by Joanna Lowell (Berkley): An art forger falls for the art critic determined to bring her to justice.
Knockout, by Sarah MacLean (Avon Books): A chaotic bluestocking and the buttoned-up detective enlisted to keep her out of trouble can’t help but stay out of trouble because spoiler alert: She is the trouble.
Capture the Sun, by Jessie Mihalik (Harper Voyager): An intergalactic thief must join forces with the charming teleporter who stole her last job—and may now be her only hope for saving her former crew.
Raiders of the Lost Heart, by Jo Segura (Berkley): Rival archaeologists must team up on a secret Aztec expedition, or it could leave their careers—and hearts—in ruins.
Science Fiction
The Splinter in the Sky, by Kemi Ashing-Giwa (Saga Press): In the aftermath of a failed war of conquest, a tea specialist-turned-spy embarks on a quest to rescue her kidnapped sibling. But doing so, she soon discovers, might require taking down an empire.
Where Peace Is Lost, by Valerie Valdes (Harper Voyager): A refugee hiding from the empire that conquered her people must risk exposure—or all-out war—on a road trip to save her new home from a deadly machine that will destroy the planet.
Women’s Fiction
Meet the Benedettos, by Katie Cotugno (Harper Perennial): Pride and Prejudice meets The Kardashians when an A-list movie star moves to Los Angeles—next door to a family of five eligible sisters.
Escape to Florence, by Kat Devereaux (Harper Paperbacks): Fleeing her controlling husband, Tori MacNair arrives in Florence, the city her grandmother taught her to love, in the spring of 2019. As she digs into her family history, she uncovers a long-hidden story of courage and sacrifice dating back to the dark days of the German occupation.
Isha, Unscripted, by Sajni Patel (Berkley): Unwilling to yield to familial expectations, an aspiring screenwriter attempts to pursue her dreams during an unforgettable night of chaos in this hilarious and heartfelt novel.
Young Adult
The Brothers Hawthorne, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers): The grandsons of a deceased, puzzle-obsessed billionaire deal with the lingering effects of their unusual upbringing as they confront the unknown sides of their twisted family tree and race to solve puzzles on opposite sides of the globe.
Borderless, by Jennifer De Leon (Atheneum): Caught in the crosshairs of gang violence, a teen girl and her mother set off on a perilous journey from Guatemala City to the US border in this heart-wrenching young adult novel from the author of Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From.
Her Radiant Curse, by Elizabeth Lim (Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers): Two sisters, one a beauty and one a monster, must break a terrible curse with the help of a snarky yet lovable snake, and a dragon who’s not all that he seems.
Waking Fire, by Jean Louise (Inkyard Press): This incendiary YA fantasy debut follows a girl who will stop at nothing to save her village after it’s discovered by a dangerous warlord and his army of undead monsters.
At the Speed of Lies, by Cindy L. Otis (Scholastic): A teen Instagrammer is thrust into the center of conspiracy theories and rumors online after two local kids go missing, but finding the truth might be more deadly than anyone knows.