What’s a “One-Sheet”?

In preparation for going to the ACFW conference in Denver in September, I’ve been working on the various items (besides completed novels!) that I’ll need for my pitch sessions and the (hopefully) other opportunities I may have to present my works.

One of the things I’ve heard mentioned a number of times are One-Sheets. What are they?

Tracy Ruckman explains the basics in this pdf file. In fact, due to the nature of these graphic samples, many of the upcoming links are pdf files as well.

Author Kaye Dacus has written a helpful article here at Seekerville. Then she has links to some of the one-sheets that she’s used (and sold the novels). Some of them look more like two-sheets to me, but who am I to argue? Maybe they use slightly heavier paper and go on both sides?

This one is for a stand-alone with series potential. (I’ve read and reviewed Stand-In Groom.) So one page is devoted to the hook for one book, and the other page is divided, half as a mini-proposal and the other half showcasing the remainder of the series.

This second sample is for a historical trilogy (also sold). She uses the first page for the first book and the second page for blurbs about each book in the proposed series. This one has the ‘proposal’ bits in a column down the left side.

Here is a one-sheet Kaye used to propose three series at once. To show diversity? In the article linked above, she talks about the various uses of each style.

Dineen Miller is a graphic designer who creates one-sheets for writers willing to pay for the service. I understand she is very reasonable. Her site has a bunch of samples you can look at. To me, many of these look very busy.

Back to the drawing board to create a one-sheet that looks like ME and the projects that I want to pitch. And now I have a bunch of samples linked on my own website where I can easily find them later!