I need help!

[Lenny Jennison]

Ok, so i have listened to everyone and looked every where but i still need some info! The response times on this site have been amazing, so has the insight as well. Ok, here is my problem:

My debut book is an autobiography that talks about my life in the world of foster care. This book also travels with me throughout life as I associate the things that happened to me earlier in life that impacted the person I am today. I mean that the things that I went through molded the person I am as a result of the abuses and neglect I had endured earlier. I address the fact that not only was i a foster child but I later went to school to work with these types of children as well. I share the insight from both sides of the issue as well as tips for other kids that have gone through this life in an attempt to understand why we are different from the "average" person. I also talk about the struggles I faced and how I had to adapt while using sociological principles to explain my positions.

Ok, so here is the problem...my book crosses 4 different markets. I have looked high and low to find an agent that has experience with something like this. Ii have even cross referenced agents who dealt with 3 of the 4 different genres. the problem is, I am having trouble pin pointing someone who not only has had success in this type of ms but also would like to represent it.

I am willing to do the work to find this person, I just need a better way of finding the info I need. I have looked at agent query and other agent sites but I have not seen one that talks about anyone remotely close to this topic. Am I over thinking this or just a poor researcher?

[backslashbaby]

Is it fictionalized at all? I'm not knowledgeable about memoir or narrative nonfiction, so I'm no help. If it's definitely nonfiction, maybe the non-fiction or memoir forums could be of some help. Good luck!

[Stacia Kane]

Yeah, going just by what you've posted it sounds like memoir or narrative non-fiction to me, so I'd check those boards out and see what they have to say. :)

[Lenny Jennison]

Yeah, going just by what you've posted it sounds like memoir or narrative non-fiction to me, so I'd check those boards out and see what they have to say. :)

Thanks. I think the thing that makes this so unique, is also the thing that can make it hard to sell. Yes, i touch on so many different concepts but there doesn't see to be certain category that it full fits in either. Thank you for your input, I will check those sites out again.

[Dannica]

It sounds like a memoir to me, as well. When you say it crosses 3 or 4 different markets, what were the 3 or 4 you had in mind.

I would consider where you think you would have the best chance of marketing the book. Is it a general interest tale, that I might pick up at B&N? Or does it involve a very heavy discussion of the foster care system, where you think it could be marketed to academic markets?

If you alone were in charge of selling the book and finding people who might buy it, what group of people would you target?

[Lenny Jennison]

It sounds like a memoir to me, as well. When you say it crosses 3 or 4 different markets, what were the 3 or 4 you had in mind.

If you alone were in charge of selling the book and finding people who might buy it, what group of people would you target?

The foundation of the book is the story of a child that was pushed through the system at an alarming rate (autobiography). By the time I was 10, I had already been through 28 foster families, 2 hospitals and an orphanage. When I graduated college I went into the military and then returned to school. When I went to school I knew i wanted to work with troubled teens. I initially thought I could do this with making movies about the problems in the foster care system. Later i realized that this was not for me and switched majors to work with these kids.

After graduation I got a job in this field.

The purpose of the book is not to establish me as an author that cranks out book after book with tales to tell. This is not to make me have a pity party either. I want to share the hardships that i had gone through in an attempt for other kids to realize they are not alone (self help).
Another use I had in mind was a "how to" guide for new foster/adoptive parents to think of the behaviors these new kids are displaying. As a kid that went through this life and later as a staff worker who worked hand in hand with these kids, i have a perspective most "professionals" do not have (parenting).

The last market would be geared towards the adoption workers who try their hardest to prepare the parents with advice. I have seen first hand the "tricks" they tell these families to try to attempt the kids to feel welcomed in the new home. I point out that the one thing they need to do is allow this child to know they are there for them and allow the kids to make mistakes. I go further into detail but this is the concept.

When i first thought about this project, i planned on doing all the marketing. I still do. I would first target the foster care system and show them the validity of the concepts. This could be used to show the system as well as new "parents" where the "triggers" lie when dealing with children who have been removed from their families. The autobiography part would be marketed to the people in my life who had known me but were looking for examples of why I was the way I am. Then I would target kids that are in the foster care system that are looking for explanations of how someone else had to learn to deal with the same issues they are currently going through.

This book would also be used as a tool to show children's homes how they can improve their current models and provide an even better care system by examining the deconstruction of other really great programs.

As i said, this book has a lot of great qualities but in the end, this also make the work harder to place in a store.

[lwallace]

I had the same question as Dannica. What are the 3 or 4 markets this crosses? I only see 2 possible markets, and I think you will have to press hard on one of the two. If it's memoir, all well and good, but if that is mixed up with some research, analysis, and commentary about the foster care system, then you might have a book with two centers. I think an agent would ask you to go one way or the other. If this is purely memoir, then clearly its net impact will be to allow (and even prompt) the reader to extrapolate from the one case (yours) to the many--that is, foster care at large.

A true memoir would be ruined if you get off into research and informational detail about foster care UNLESS and only unless the present you that you have become is now this public advocate for individuals in foster care and if you have this public persona that leads you to research, analysis, and advocacy. If you want to do a non-fiction book on the state of foster care with occasional segments based on personal experience and segments reported by others, that's another type of book.

It can't be both--well, I can't say "can't," but it's unlikely to fare so well by trying to do these two very different things.

[Sheila Muirenn]

Memoir?

;)

[Sheila Muirenn]

Just glanced through the 'specialties' index of my copy of 2009 Guide to Literary Agents. You can find a new copy on Amazon.

Possibilities:

Americana
Anthropology
bio/autobio
child guidance/parenting
education
ethnic/cultural interests
juvenile nonfiction
memoirs
sociology
young adult non-fiction (is there such a thing?)

Each category gives lists of agents who are interested in the various genres. The agents are also listed in more depth earlier in the book, and the types of books they are looking for. A lot of them are interested in a variety. You can narrow it down to someone that appears to have an interest in the genres that describe yours.

Anyway. A good place to start.

Have you received input for your MS? If you haven't, it is probably better to do that before beginning the query process.

Good luck.

[Lenny Jennison]

Have you received input for your MS? If you haven't, it is probably better to do that before beginning the query process. Good luck.

I have had one person read it for fun. He liked it.

Another person read it all the way and edited it.

A third person is to read it thoroughly tomm/the next day. After that we are sitting down to break it into chapters.

From what i have read, non fiction normally is queried before completion. I do not want to risk it, so i am finishing it before. I have some ideas on the query itself, but nothing finalized as of yet.

[Nita]

I don't know. Mmm...
If you want to publish a non-fiction book, maybe it is not so easy to appeal readers.
Good luck and have it an attractive title.

[Stacia Kane]

Plenty of readers like non-fiction. :)

And just as an FYI, odds are the title will be changed at some point. It doesn't always happen but it's certainly not uncommon.

[Old Hack]

Having read your breakdown I'd say it's memoir or autobiography, and possibly narrative non-fiction: but it's not self-help, or a parenting guide; and as you don't have the required platform to market a book of those genres, that's not a problem.

[Old Hack]

Apologies for the duplicate post. I blame Dawno.

[kaitie]

Memoir is actually queried like a novel, so in that case you would need to have it finished before it was queried anyway.

[Lenny Jennison]

Update:

I got the second half of the book back today. I will have to rework the formatting and add some more detail. Sadly, this part of the book only came out at 55 pages in courier font.

Not bad, seeing as this was not initially intended to be it's own book.

I will have to see what i can do with it.

I am thinking of naming this part:

"fostering the care system" not sure if i should add the name foster care system after already mentioning the "fostering part".

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[quicklime]

memoir....look at a few that are in a similar vein..."The Glass Castle" is the only one I've read, but similar--she didn't try to present it as self-help for kids, or anything, it was just a "read this; bet my fucked-up life beats your fucked-up life, and here's the whole tale".

you seem to have a memoir, mostly about your childhood, with a bit of afterword on how you got out/made it.

[ArtsyAmy]

I think quicklime may be on to something: a memoir with an afterword. But if you have a whole lot of material that goes beyond what happened to you and ventures into advice, you may want to consider that you have two books here--a memoir and something else. I suppose a lot has to do with how you wrote about things. Did you jump from "this is what happened to me while in the foster care system" in the first part of the book to "now that I'm working in this field, here's what I recommend that social workers, foster parents, etc. do" in the second part of the book? That second part doesn't seem to me to belong in a memoir, unless you took the approach of saying from the very beginning that you spent a portion of your childhood living in the foster care system, and now that you've studied the system as an adult, you can see how things that happened to you as a child could have ben handled differently/better--then you went through and told your story, and as you went along you told what could have been done better in various situations. It might be pretty tricky to pull off writing a memoir like that (smoothly inserting insights you've gained as an adult), but if you've managed to do that, I think your memoir could be quite effective and helpful (written from the perspective of a former social worker in children's services).

[ArtsyAmy]

Lenny, Just saw from your most recent post that you did go with two separate parts for your book, rather than integrating the "what happened" to the "what I've learned/advice." Hmm, I'm thinking that for your story to be a memoir, you'll need to chop that second part. But then your readers would miss out on valuable information. I'm hoping you'll decide to do some reworking and smoothly integrate the advice with the memoir--could produce a work that would be very useful/meaningful for readers.

[rachelmachelsmachel]

oooh I might have an idea but it's hard to explain and not sure if it should be said in public. PM if you want..

[Stacia Kane]

Since the OP has been banned, I'm going to go ahead and lock this thread so it stops getting replies. :)