If you’re pursuing the traditional publishing route like me, then you may be familiar with the dreaded query letter process. It’s where after spending months to years on your novel you now have to sell it to people. So you condense your entire 300-page novel into 300 words and send it to every agent who is currently accepting authors in your genre.

Maybe you’ve already started this process, or maybe you’re preparing for it. Either way, it can be overwhelming. That’s why I’ve already started, a year before I plan to actually hit SEND. How? By practicing describing my novel in comfortable, informal situations.

Every time someone asks, “What’s your book about?” that’s an opportunity. Talk yourself up! Learn how to package your book. These people are, after all, your future readers. So if you can sell them on your book, then you can sell an agent too. Think of it as beta reading for query letters. Even if you’ve already sent query letters, you can still practice before you send more.

After refining my messaging for the past six months, here’s what I’ve learned.

Step 1: Define your genre. That’s the first thing people want to know. If you haven’t done this yet, do it now. If you’re struggling on how to define it, research it and do your best. Mine happens to be Female Gothic meets Body Horror. Bonus if you can compare your book to other well known books.

Step 2: Start with the inciting incident. If you only have a few minutes to chat about your novel, bring your potential reader right into the action. Stuff like “After a terrible accident…” or “The research team discovered something deadly deep in the frozen tundra…”.

Step 3: Make your character relatable. People want to see themselves reflected in what they read. For my character, it’s her shyness and her being sheltered that is a challenge. So I say something like “Winifred has kept to the shadows her entire life, fearful of the eyes of leering men. But now…”

Step 4: Customize your message based on your audience. When women ask what my novel is about I say “It’s about the societal pressure that women feel to look and act a certain way.” And the overwhelming response is “That’s awesome!” Which is good because they’re my target audience. If I were talking to a makeup exec or a plastic surgeon, though, I’d probably change my message to a more generic line, something like “It’s about an artist’s obsession with his new muse, and how it just might be the death of her.”

Step 5: Practice constantly. I had the good luck to be at a family event this weekend and I got to practice my “what’s your novel about” speech on many people. Even over the course of the weekend, I found my response was getting clearer and more concise. By the end, I had boiled it down to about 3 lines.

Go ahead and practice. Start with the closest people in your life then move on to strangers. If by the end people are saying: “I would definitely read that!” or “There is a need for that!” then you know your messaging is working. Now take that messaging and go write your query letter!