Breakout Session: The Art of Crafting a Successful Graphic Novel Pitch Packet with Chelsea Eberly

Chelsea Eberly of
Greenhouse Literary

What do agents and editors look for in a graphic novel pitch? How can you be sure to put your best foot forward when showcasing your work? Chelsea Eberly's session walks through the ins and outs of how to create a pitch packet that will attract agents and editors, plus a great batch of Q&A with attendees at the end. 

Chelsea Eberly is the Director of Greenhouse Literary Agency. She represents middle grade, young adult, and women’s fiction, as well as graphic novelists and illustrators who write picture books. She was a Senior Editor at Random House for a decade where she edited the Newbery Medal winning When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller as well as bestselling authors such as Tamora Pierce, Leigh Bardugo, Marie Lu, Sarah J. Maas, Mark Siegel, and Kim Johnson.

Chelsea's session was incredibly tactical and practical, as both an agent and former editor she shares laser-focused expertise on crafting successful pitch packets for graphic novels and walks us step by step and page by page through a case study of a successful graphic novel pitch packet.

Wherever you are in your graphic novel journey this session is highly recommended watching, knowing all that has to be shared in a pitch can only help sharpen and clarify your project, and the graphic novel pitch case study had professional level design of complicated material—these are the pitches that sell! You'll want to follow Chelsea's 9-part pitch packet framework as shared in the session.

Prior to building those nine pitch elements you'll want to do a little imagining. It is common writing advice to go to a bookstore and imagine where your book might be in it, but Chelsea challenges attendees to go much deeper and broader on this experience and use it for your pitch as well: "All of your queries, all of your ideas, and your pitch packet itself, when you're going out on submission those all exist in this sort of "bookstore" of potential books that can be published."

Chelsea talks about how agents and editors have hundreds of pitch packets in their inboxes at a given time, competition similar to being on the shelf of a bookstore or library.

Put yourself in the acquiring shoes, what former editor Chelsea would have said when receiving a pitch packet: "I only have so much of the company's money that I can make offers with, what am I going to put my resources and the company's resources behind? What do I want to spend the next couple of years working on, reading eight to 10 times?"

Brainstorm how your pitch can outshine a hundred other pitches. To get to stand-out level you'll need to read voraciously inside and outside of your category, be constantly consuming the type of art that you're trying to create, and also art that might inspire you in unique ways. 

I loved Chelsea's focus on the bookstore/library experience for reverse engineer marketing: When you're not shopping for a specific title notice how you end up buying, did you have a wish list or were you in a mood for a specific category or genre like beach read or fantasy? How could your pitch and project pique a similar interest at each of these moments of choice?

Pitch Packet Case Study of HAMSTERS IN MY HEAD
out with Random House Graphic in 2026