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Where does this belong?

Posted: March 2nd, 2014, 8:10 pm
by Eccentric
Hey Nathan, I'm a bit stumped with getting started on presenting my book. I would like to know which approach I should take in submitting it to an agent. The book is about me growing up as a boy in a lesser known country. I don't consider it to be a work of fiction though there are fictional elements to it ( names were changed to protect identities.) My conundrum is this, which approach should I take when presenting this to an agent? I know fiction and nonfiction have different requirements when presenting to agents. Would you suggest I present this as a work of fiction or rather a nonfiction? And also, I haven't completed the book but I was made to understand that this isn't usually an issue with nonfiction. What's your take on that?

P.s
Thanks for this awesome site, lots of useful info. You'll be seeing me around here more often :D

Re: Where does this belong?

Posted: March 8th, 2014, 10:52 am
by Nathan Bransford
Eccentric wrote:Hey Nathan, I'm a bit stumped with getting started on presenting my book. I would like to know which approach I should take in submitting it to an agent. The book is about me growing up as a boy in a lesser known country. I don't consider it to be a work of fiction though there are fictional elements to it ( names were changed to protect identities.) My conundrum is this, which approach should I take when presenting this to an agent? I know fiction and nonfiction have different requirements when presenting to agents. Would you suggest I present this as a work of fiction or rather a nonfiction? And also, I haven't completed the book but I was made to understand that this isn't usually an issue with nonfiction. What's your take on that?

P.s
Thanks for this awesome site, lots of useful info. You'll be seeing me around here more often :D
If it's just changing names and maybe creating composite characters to protect identities, that sounds like a memoir. If actual events were changed and it's more of a composite then that is more a novel. Hope that helps.

As for submitting to agents, the process for novels and memoirs is pretty much the same, so I'd go about it as you were planning.