Marketing Your Best Seller 133 possess some skills at making—and maintaining—con- nections. You don’t want a pitch partner who insists they are the most excellent networker in town, but have zero names in their database, or were tossed out of the last three parties they attended. You want a pitch partner who enhances your repu- tation, not diminishes it. If it is someone other than your best friend, you will want to create a simple contract that states exactly what he or she gains by doing this extra work for you. Obviously there is a 昀椀ne line between the friend who just wants to help you out by sending out a quick email to their friends about you and who never does anything more, and a real pitch partner, who makes introductions or deals that put money in your pocket by doing the talking for you. If you’re not sure what kind of compensation is appropriate, ask them what they want, and see if that sounds reasonable to you. If you are going to a very important meeting to talk about your work or career and you have your pitch part- ner in place, the next step is to videotape a mock meeting. You can even have a friend or family member stand in for the person to whom you are pitching the book. Record what your pitch partner says, then play it back and cri- tique it together. A production executive at Paramount Studios used this technique in his o昀케ce, bringing in his sta昀昀 and making them all practice pitches together so that they were ready for their big network meetings, in