Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I have a client who is writing a rock bio of a semi-famous songwriter, and he's using footnotes to cite where he's getting his info (past interviews, websites, etc). Most of the rock NF I read doesn't bother with this, so I was wondering if anyone out there knows what agents expect in this regard. I want to tell him to stop it if it's unnecessary, saving him time and effort, but I don't really know if it is. Any help or links are appreciated.

Thanks,

Art

Art,

I am using footnotes and endnotes in the draft of the memoir that I am co-authoring. The latest version of Word makes it incredibly easy to do. Ultimately, if they get thrown out in the interest of making a book look more 'reader friendly,' I won't care, because I will always be able to go back to my original document and find the sources I used in recreating the background story.

Technically, through the writing of this book, I am becoming what, in the training world, we called a SME, a subject matter expert. A SME knows a subject and what has been written on the topic and by whom.

Regardless of whether or not your client is writing to standards of popular culture, I think it's good for him to document what he's looked at. If he doesn't do it while he's in the midst of it, he will lose it all when he starts the next project.

But, of course, that's just my highly biased opinion!
rose

Thanks, Rose. I will pass that on.

Art

And having the footnotes will help an agent or editor fact check the manuscript before it goes to print.