An Inside Look at the Pitch Deck for Mostly Invisible Boy

Putting a book into pictures for film studios...#1

Hey,

Last Sylvan Spy, I mentioned my book agent asked me to put together a pitch deck for Casey Grimes #1. Of course I said yes…but reluctantly, like Gloria returning to the sand pit where she’d shoved a rude kid. Heading back to the scene of her crime.

Why reluctantly? Because even though the kid totally deserved it, Gloria still felt a little bad. Plus there was the chance she might get caught when she returned to the popular playing spot.

Oh, you meant me.

To be honest, I’m getting a little tired of learning new skills. It’s something I often enjoy, but since we just moved to Arkansas, I’ve been spending loads of my time learning about concrete slab construction, controlled burns, and small engine repair. Not to mention invasive plant species, the pros and cons of goats, and rifle scopes.

Learning a new skill and getting better and better at it, like learning to play a sport, is fun. Learning a new skill while learning three or four other new skills at the same time—because you have to—is not very fun.

I guess I’m having a Casey Grimes moment. Land Creature Defense plus concealing his identity from Robert plus Mythic History plus running from Old Knock... No wonder Casey struggled when he first made it to Trickery School.

Anyway, I agreed to create a pitch deck for The Mostly Invisible Boy…reluctantly.

The goal with a pitch deck is to have something visual for film studios to look at that will quickly give them the main stuff of your story. You might think producers, directors, and even actors spend lots of time reading books that could possibly be made into movies, but that’s not how this works.

Right now, at this moment, I’m tempted to go on a rant about how it’s rare for people in the creative industries—fiction writing, film—to spend time reading books. But I’m resisting the temptation. Mostly because you can read a longer version of that rant in this post.

As I put this pitch deck together, I needed to identify the big stuff. Main plot points and central themes—those I’ve worked up before. I also had to develop some additional content that’s of special interest to film studios. Things like Tone, Concept Overview, Competitive Edge, and a fun one, Key Characters.

And I needed to create a consistent visual style for the deck. The colors were an easy call: browns, grays and greens, your basic Sylvan wardrobe. The illustrations were more challenging. Since we’re pitching the book as live action, it made sense to use photos to represent characters and settings.

Let me tell you, trying to find stock photos that look anything like my characters is not an easy task. I’ll go ahead and admit there were several family arguments with my wife and kids piling on as I showed them snapshots. But in the end, everyone over here was happy—which was apparently the goal, I discovered. Who cares how I, the author, felt? I thought the first Ms. Jones was suitable, but no, it just had to be option #33. (Just kidding, a bit.)

But it makes sense, actually. If Casey Grimes ever reaches the casting stage, we’d want actors who would be recognizable to readers within seconds. Not people you’d stare at and say, Holy creeps, I give up, who’s that supposed to be? So that was the goal, as much as possible, with this humble pitch deck.

But make up your own mind. Below are the first nine slides in the deck, including some big picture stuff and a couple main characters. Did I get the concepts and snapshots right? Did I even come close?

And if you’re wondering about what happens next, that’s a good question. Apparently my agent will be contacting live action studios in the weeks ahead and if there’s interest, this pitch deck will be one of the first things they’ll see. Since all of this is new to me, I’m not totally clear on what happens after that.

Trial by combat would be a welcome option because I’m confident this story, being dangerous and full of fights and subterfuge, can take all comers. I’m also confident I can take any other competing authors, if it comes to that.

While I don’t like to boast, I may as well reveal that my strength and agility put me in the 99% percentile of all kidlit authors. All this basketball, multi-kid wrestling matches, and DIY work has paid off.

While I’m being honest, I also have to admit that children’s authors, as a group, are not known for being especially fit and dangerous. We’re more known for sitting around in pajamas, drinking green tea, and writing social media posts with too many gifs and emojis.

As an author, I’m kind of a weirdo. Which is why I’d win that author combat for sure.

But that’s beside the point, since I’m pretty sure film studios don’t use duels to pick their projects. (Sadly.) When I find out how it does work, I’ll let you know. For now, here’s the first batch of pitch deck slides for Mostly Invisible.

What do you think?

The first nine slides of the pitch deck for The Mostly Invisible Boy. More to come...

New to Casey Grimes? You can find all the books right here in my author store as well as on that other site, Amz, of course.