Ready to Submit

It’s been a long process, but I’m finally ready to begin submitting my memoir to literary agents. After more than three years of writing, editing, receiving comments from readers, and making more edits, I’m feeling good about the book. I have studied the most effective ways approach agents and know that I need to follow their instructions for submission exactly. Let the process begin. I am realistic, girding myself for rejection, but willing to be persistent. Wish me the best.  

Searching for an Agent

 

There are five major publishing houses in the United States. Within each of those publishing houses are many, many imprints, or subsidiary publishers. If you want to have a book published by any of these, you must go through a literary agent. With the very rare exception, major publishers will not deal with individual writers.

So, while I am awaiting comments from readers of my memoir, I am researching literary agents/agencies and their specific requirements. So far, I have created a spreadsheet of 28 agents or agencies that accept memoirs and that I think are approachable. I used a couple of websites to find these.

• AgentQuery.com 
• Association of Author’s Representatives 

I found the second resource to be the most useful.

Each time my search lead me to a specific agent or agency, I went directly to that website and researched some more. It had to feel like a good fit.

It is not important to find a local agent as submissions are handled electronically. Most agents seem to be on the East Coast, followed by the West Coast.

Quite a few of the agencies recommended reading How to Write a Book Proposal. I purchased the 5^th edition, which is by Jody Rein with Michael Larsen and am organizing files of general materials frequently requested by agents so I can pick and choose according to their specifications. For example, some of my file titles are Author Bio, Targeted Audience, What Makes My Book Stand Out from Others, and Chapter Summaries. Agency websites often have general information on book submissions as well.

While agencies usually require a great deal of information (I’m estimating 40-60 pages), I also need to be able to create some type of introduction that will convince the agent within the first paragraph or two that my submission is worth reading. I don’t mean that they want 40-60 pages of my actual memoir; instead, they mostly want support material to convince them it’s worth their time.

So, I will have my multiple general files on which to draw, but each agent seems to want something different, so I will regard my files as resources from which I can draw information. It will be important for me to read and fulfill the exact material required by each agent. This can be found on their individual websites.

Wish me luck. It is a lot of work, so I know I will have to remain dedicated to the process.

Writing an Unforgettable Memoir

Each time I attend another class at Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop, I realize how much more effort I must put into the writing my memoir. This most recent class, taught by Candace Walsh, was probably the best so far.

After about nine months of typing away at my computer, I realize I have recorded about half the stories of growing up at our family cabin in northeastern Minnesota. Once I get all the stories in place, I think the real work will begin as I edit, rearrange to make the story flow well, and work on the craft of writing. People like to read memoir because they like to see how others solved their problems.

The best memoirs include an obstacle that must be overcome. Examples.

• The Glass Castle—How can the author accept that her parents don’t act like parents should?

• Between the World and Me—How can the author prepare his son for an unjust society where they are in constant danger?

• Licking the Spoon—How can the author learn to feed herself, nurture her soul, and figure out how to give and receive love, when she grew up in a house where she felt her parents did not see her?

Some of the concepts I will need to incorporate are

• The impact of loss through people dying, divorce, and neighbors no longer coming up to the lake.
• Tension, suspense, and conflict dealing with nature and with people.
• Personal reflection—what I saw/experienced and what those experiences really meant. How did they drive my future behavior? How did they transform my life?
• Being at the cabin was such a happy time, and it was lost as I became an adult. How can I resolve the loss of the innocence of childhood?
• Are there other internal and external conflicts I need to explore?

I will also need to flesh out the story through

• Details, details, details, including lots of sensory images. The reader should feel not only a sense of place, but of time.
• Relating the senses to emotions using similes and metaphors. (i.e., “He felt out of control like a …..”)

There are certain universal themes on which I want to build. If you are at a loss for ideas, do an Internet search on universal themes. Some that I want to explore are

• Mortality
• Perseverance

• Family

• Freedom

• Friendship

• Innocence

• Love

• Nature

• Change

• Self-awareness

• Self-reliance

• Coming of age

 Questions to consider while writing memoir.

• How much of the story should be embellished?

• Am I able to admit that this is my story of what happened, which might be quite different from the memories of others who were there?

Books to read that will help me to better understand memoir.

• The Art of Memoir, by Mary Karr
• The Faraway Nearby, by Rebecca Solnit
• So Long, See You Tomorrow, by William Maxwell
• Love Medicine, by Louise Erdrich—good example of bookending a story