Does anyone commission non-fiction? How to sell myself...

[lalalonglegs]

I have done a proposal for my first book and my agent says that an editor at a big publishing house wants to talk it through. He says she is quite prickly and I am just really worried I will blow it - how do I prepare? I have never been good at selling myself and, although it is a subject I know a lot about, I am currently too nervous to pick up the phone. Can anyone give me any tips or pointers about how to approach this?

no advice but wanted to say good luck ! (it sounds very promising)

can't your agent coach you on this? a friend's agent re-wrote her broadcast stuff for her when she was pitching it to a book publisher and made some invaluable comments

Wow, congratulations! I don't know much about publishing, but I pitch creative projects a lot in my work. Prickly people are generally either insecure themselves or are just sticklers for details. So listen carefully to his questions in case it's a 'stickler' situation, ask to clarify the question if you're not sure what he wants to know, and give him 'just the facts ma'am'. If he's a stickler, babbling could annoy him, so make a point of stopping and listening to him. In case it's insecurity, be careful that your own insecurity doesn't come across as prickliness too and that your wealth of knowledge on your subject doesn't put him on the defensive. Even when you're giving him information that you're the expert on, you can acknowledge him as the expert in his field (ie. on publishing factual books) eg: I know you've got so much experience & expertise on publishing this sort of book, what kind of thing would be most helpful for me to tell you about? GOOD LUCK - it's an amazing achievement to get this far!