WHAT to send the agent - Query or Full Proposal??

Proposals are for non-fiction, like memoirs. Queries are for fiction, like novels and novellas.

If the agent accepts email, then email it - IN THE BODY OF THE EMAIL, not as an attachment.

Actually memoirs are treated like fiction. They have to be complete. Write a query letter and follow the guidelines that each agent has. Usually you can include the first five pages or so with your query.

The most important thing is that you follow the guidelines posted by each agent. If none are posted, which would be unusual, send an email and request same (be sure to state the genre).

Most often, as Orion said, you'll be sending a query letter. I'm sure I don't have to remind you that the query, that one page, is the most critical piece of writing you'll have ever done. Bad, poor, cliche, poorly written, boring, lacking info, etc., etc., and you'll never get the opportunity to send your 70,000 words to an agent or publisher. It behooves all of us who send out queries to not only make them great, but to try and make them stand out from the crowd -- easier said than done.

yonasmichael said:

Thanks so much for all of your feedback, guys! So if I send the 1-paged query, by email (to the ones that allowed email), stating that I had a manuscript and full proposal prepared by request, that is sufficient?

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Check the agent's submission guidelines to see what else, if anything, the agent will accept. Often they will accept pages pasted into the email, too. If they do, definitely paste whatever amount is allowed.

And make sure the agent accepts memoirs - even though you use a query, like fiction (unless directed otherwise by the specific agent), it is still it's own genre and part of nonfiction.

~suki

ORION said:

Actually memoirs are treated like fiction. They have to be complete..

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I've read more than once that you don't need a complete ms. Do you have a source for this?

m

Yeah...my source is my agent lol (and others!)

A proposal is for non-fiction. If you are an unpublished UNFAMOUS individual you will have to have a great query and a finished manuscript...
Yes there are rare exceptions but in this economic climate they are few and far between.

Like brutus says...

Wayne K said:

I've read more than once that you don't need a complete ms. Do you have a source for this?

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You can query an incomplete memoir if you're a) a famous person, or b) an ordinary citizen who was part of a hugely famous event. (Or, I suppose, c) if you're someone who has already made a splash with short-form memoir in print or on radio.)

Other than that, you need to have a completed manuscript to query the signficant majority of US agents. Memoir is an unusual form of non-fiction in that regard.

See here and here for two discussions of why.

IceCreamEmpress said:

You can query an incomplete memoir if you're b) an ordinary citizen who was part of a hugely famous event.y.

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This would be the one then.

I posted this in another thread, but perhaps it'll add to this discussion.

From today's blog entry by Bookends, LLC:

Can memoirs be sold on proposal or do I need to finish the entire manuscript?

Memoirs fall in the area of narrative nonfiction and any time you’re doing research on how to submit your book you should treat narrative nonfiction as if it were fiction. In other words, debut writers always need to write, rewrite, edit, and proof the book before even querying. Once you’ve established yourself (sold) as a fiction or narrative nonfiction writer, you’ll have the luxury of being able to sell on proposal.

http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/08/random-questions.html