Fogelman Literary Agency (Evan Fogelman)

Fogelman, Dallas, has requested first 3 chapters and synopsis of my free-wheeling 5-year memoir, done finally. He is very professional, AAR member, prominent in the legal profession, and straightforward. But I have so little experience working with agents that his request for a 12-page synopsis of a 292-page manuscript (1p. per 10,000 words, a 1/25th condensation that will be quite a chore) gives me pause to seek your feedback. I know; it would be good for me to do that exercise in discipline, but well..., are such synopses common? I'm also puzzled that all of his published authors, featured anyway, are women writers of romance and espionage/sinister conspiracy thrillers with women heroes, so far as I can tell. They do sell. To his credit, though, Fogelman says he aspires to broader representation (diversity, as it were). Am I getting Polaroid or what! Any good or bad experiences to share with me here or private e-mail?
Thanks, Kree the Barbarian

Very helpful

Thanks Dave (I always check your P&E, even use your name and recommendation as an intro to agents) for your help. Fogelman asked for the synopsis as "1p. per 10,000 words" and my ms supposedly has 119,600. I almost e-mailed back to ask if that was one page or one paragraph; but the dictionary does say p. means page, and I didn't want to appear "unprofessional!"

Thanks sgtsdaughter for your take and excellent suggestion about checking sales ranking of the authors. I'll do that.

Unless I hear worse, I will go ahead with the submission as he requests. Though I have maybe 75 rejections, I do improve, especially in seeing clearer concept in my ms and making changes that strengthen it.

I made a mistake, by the way, in my current ms page count (12pt, double spaced). It's 392 pp., not 292.

Kree

Thanks All

Your advice and thoughts are all well taken. Now, if I can just do a good job on the synopsis... I woke up today at 4:30 thinking about that and didn't go back to sleep. I've found that deeply rehashing very stressful times, such as in identifying highpoints for a synopsis, is like a bad dream, brings sleepness and old post traumatic stress syndrome back; and I wasn't even in any usual combat! Sounds like Steven King, doesn't it: the writer who goes on a......
Thanks again, Kree Tacious Barbarian