I’ve had some great experiences pitching and having projects pitched to me since first arriving on the convention scene in 2005. In the last year alone I've taken pitches at The World Horror Convention in Austin, The Bram Stoker Awards in Long Island, and KillerCon in Las Vegas. Pitching a project is not the mysterious dark art most make it out to be, but it is your one chance to make a strong impression with an agent or publisher. I'll be taking pitch sessions for Cutting Block Press and The Editorial Department at The World Horror Convention 2012 in Salt Lake City and am always on the lookout for the next big thing in the horror/suspense genre. Introductory Critiques, Manuscript Evaluations, and Query Submissions Packet Evaluations are a great way to make sure your work is pitch-ready, but the face-to-face pitch is up to you.

Here are a few cautionary Do's and Don’ts I’ve learned over the last few years, making it from one side of the pitch table to the other. Whether you've already booked your convention registration, or are just considering attending a writing conference, these tips will help you present the best possible pitch, and give your project a chance to stand out from the convention noise.

"So why couldn't Malfoy have brought that necklace into the school -?"

"Oh, Harry, not that again..."

Many readers, myself included, echoed Hermione Grangers' frustration at that point in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

For the past few weeks we have been looking at the best-selling Harry Potter books, and the lessons that aspiring authors can learn from them. We talked about when to hold back detail, how to drop hints, and the importance of believable characters and creative worlds.

But before you think that we see Harry Potter as the Holy Grail of fiction, let's move on to Number Five: everyone needs an editor.

When Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone first released, it was a quick-read novel at just over 200 pages. As the popularity of the series grew, so did the page counts. The plots grew darker, the subplots more intricate, and at least from this editor's perspective, the characters started to repeat themselves. How many times does a reader need to hear that Harry thinks Draco Malfoy is planning something sinister? Or see the Weasley twins plotting a prank? And do we really need all those adverbs to tell us how the characters are feeling?

Diagon Alley.

The Knight Bus.

The Quidditch World Cup.

Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.

Hogwarts.

These were not places that existed in our imaginations before we met Harry Potter, but for many readers they are now as real as Times Square.

If we, as writers, look to JK Rowling for tips on how to make our own books better (as we have been doing here at The Editorial Department for the past week), perhaps the biggest lesson is this: create a world the reader will remember.

The world that Rowling built for Harry Potter is vibrant in its detail and extravagant in its creativity. She takes well-known fantasy archetypes - wizards, trolls, giants, dragons, goblins - and drops them, unexpectedly, into the present day. According to Rowling, we could see them on our modern streets before they disappear back into the fantasy world of castles and quills.

It's Harry Potter time here at The Editorial Department, and in honor of the final movie release (well, Part One of it) we're looking at what can we learn from JK Rowling's popular series that will help us in our own writing endeavors. We've talked about two different aspects of plotting - holding some information back while still preparing readers for the big surprises. Now we're ready to look at characterization with Principle Number Three:

Heroes have hormones.

Harry Potter is a classic hero - young, idealistic, brave, and very lucky. He fights his darkest enemy for the first time at age eleven and wins. He hops onto a broomstick and becomes an instant jock. He, literally, slays dragons. And he does it all with modesty and two faithful sidekicks.

If that was the only Harry Potter we found on the page - calmly accepting challenges, coming to irrefutable conclusions, and waging war, he would have been a good bloke to watch for a book, but then the romance would be over. Harry Potter would be boring. A perfect character, one who always has the right answer and never makes a misstep, quickly becomes a caricature.

This week we're talking about Harry Potter. No, not the much-anticipated movie that's releasing this week (although I, for one, already have my ticket). We're talking about the books that started it all, and the lessons that authors can apply in their own Works In Progress.

Principle Two: Chekov had a gun; Trelawney had a prophecy.

Being patient and letting a story unfold does not mean that a writer should hold back major plot twists until the last minute. Within writing there is a literary technique called Chekov's gun - an element is introduced early in the story, but its significance does not become clear until later. "One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it," he wrote.

There aren't many guns in Rowling's tales, but readers quickly learn that seemingly offhanded comments prepare readers for unexpected revelations. Hagrid's mentioning Sirius the night Harry's parents died prepares readers, almost without their noticing, for the inclusion of Sirius into the story later; they have already crossed a certain barrier of plausibility about his involvement because they have known for some time that he was there.

This week-and probably for weeks to come-everyone will be talking about The Boy Who Lived. It's hard to believe it's been thirteen years since we first met Harry Potter, the wizard hero of JK Rowling's epic series. In anticipation of the movie that launches the quest for the Deathly Hallows, I decided to re-read the entire series, all 3407 pages (in the Bloomsbury editions) spanning seven books. I found not just a captivating, imaginative story, but lessons in great storytelling applicable to all writers who are creating novels of their own.

We'll explore five ideas over the next few days, and look for applications to your own writing.

If you're like me, you're not doing NaNoWriMo. I know, isn't this a sin for someone who claims to be in the world of aspiring writers? But this is how it works for me: doing NaNoWriMo would be like going outside and shooting 1,667 freethrows a day on the basketball court. I would have to shoot so fast and quick that even after a month of having shot 50,000 freethrows, I wouldn't be any better at it. In fact, in order to shoot the freethrows, I would have to ignore every impulse on how to shoot freethrows better and instead focus on how to shoot them faster.

That's not how I like to do things. That might work for an NBA player who doesn't need to reevaluate how he shoots the ball, but for me, I need to figure out the best way before I go for volume. I'd rather push myself for quantity after I've worked out many of the quality kinks.

So instead, I'm writing daily with another goal in mind--practicing not the quantity of my writing, but the quality.

"What's your book about?"

If anyone knows that you are an aspiring writer, you have probably heard this question. It can come at awkward times - when another parent sees you typing away on the soccer field sidelines, or across the Thanksgiving table from a distant cousin. Or you can hear it at a writer's conference, when you find yourself in an elevator with the editor or agent who would be a perfect match for your Work In Progress.

So what do you say? You have spent months - even years - writing tens of thousands of words. You have agonized over the physical details of your characters or just the right anecdotes to help your readers understand your message. How can you possibly summarize it in the time it takes Uncle George to pass the gravy, or in time it takes your dream publishing partner to reach the twenty-second floor?

Welcome back to the iPad Advice for Writers series. I have a whole list of iPad apps for writers and editors I'd like to review, so stick around, fellow iPadders and those jealous of our considerable awesomeness. Upcoming reviews include Pages, Noterize, Office2 HD, My Writing Nook, Split Pea, iAnnotate PDF and more.

Today I'm going to start with Bashō, a writing app exclusive to the iPad.

It took me way too long to find the ō to use in the above app's name, henceforth it shall be known as Basho.

Basho advertises itself as a distraction-free writing environment for the iPad. If you are a Mac user, think WriteRoom, or the nirvana-inducing Ommwriter.

Let me first say that I'm not typically an early adopter. I got my N64 after Gamecube was already out. I still use my scroll-wheel iPod and I have never had an iPhone. I usually wait for something to be cheaper or refurbished or 2nd generation before I jump on board. I'm not afraid of the early experience, I just don't mind waiting and enjoying what I have at the moment.

Ah, not so with iPad. And I'm not sure why. When it was first announced I thought it was a giant iPhone that couldn't make calls. But then I played around with one. And my kid played around with one. And I was hooked. I told myself I didn't need anything, just the dirt cheap 16GB Wi-fi only one. And maybe I could figure out how to make it work for me.