Page 1 of 1
Non Fiction Proposals for memoirs- yes, no, maybe so?
Posted: September 29th, 2010, 1:09 pm
by JuiceinLA
Hi Nathan, I am a bit frustrated with the genre my unpublished book falls into (Memoirs), in part because I am never really sure which rules to follow in querying for a memoir, i.e.; non-fiction or fiction rules. As I muck through it , I keep coming across conflicting advice. This weekend at a writer's conference several successful memoir writers spoke and some indicated they in fact submitted Non-Fiction Proposals with their queries, some didn't. I have never done this, and wonder if I have now been doing it wrong.
Is it expected/the norm that a query for a memoir will include a non-fiction proposal? If not, when is it appropriate?
Thank you!
Re: Non Fiction Proposals for memoirs- yes, no, maybe so?
Posted: September 30th, 2010, 1:32 am
by Nathan Bransford
JuiceinLA wrote:Hi Nathan, I am a bit frustrated with the genre my unpublished book falls into (Memoirs), in part because I am never really sure which rules to follow in querying for a memoir, i.e.; non-fiction or fiction rules. As I muck through it , I keep coming across conflicting advice. This weekend at a writer's conference several successful memoir writers spoke and some indicated they in fact submitted Non-Fiction Proposals with their queries, some didn't. I have never done this, and wonder if I have now been doing it wrong.
Is it expected/the norm that a query for a memoir will include a non-fiction proposal? If not, when is it appropriate?
Thank you!
I'd just send a query about the project without attaching the proposal, though as always I recommend pasting in some material below the query in the body of the e-mail, such as the overview or some of the sample pages. I'd avoid sending attachments, even if it worked for some people.