You might have grown up thinking that there are about 50 genres of books, but really, there are 3. We’ll call the rest of the genres, like sci-fi and mystery, sub-genres. So what are the three types?
You’re probably staring at the screen reading this and thinking, “Duh, fiction and non-fiction…” I get it. But these three genres have different rules when querying agents, so it’s really important to get your genre correct. What I come across in working with first-time writers of creative non-fiction, is that they often don’t know that they are writing creative non-fiction. So, what is creative non-fiction? Simply: It's non-fiction that uses the mechanics and devices of fiction. Here’s the best example I can give you: Have you ever wondered what’s the difference between a memoir and an autobiography? Did you maybe think that "memoir" is the new hip word for autobiography? You’d be wrong, but you’d also be in good company with many other talented, intelligent readers and writers. Autobiography is non-fiction, while memoir is creative non-fiction. In an autobiography, the story isn’t the point. The facts are the point. There are tons of research, footnotes, letters referenced, and a cadre of fact-checkers. If your dress was yellow at your husband’s presidential coronation, you can’t say it was pink. You don’t often see the average Joe writing an autobiography. Presidents, kings, and Ben Franklin write autobiographies. The rest of us write memoirs. In a memoir, you are telling your story. You are trying to evoke feelings in the reader and lead them on a journey through a well-thought-out plot. Because life rarely follows a coherent plot line, you have to bend the facts slightly, rearrange them here and there, and maybe leave really important things out. You can wear a pink dress in a memoir even if it was yellow in real life. You can even wear a black pantsuit if you need to. The story and the feelings it evokes need to be true, but the details can be fuzzy or a little wrong. It’s about how you remember things. And our memories are tainted by our beliefs, worldview, how many times we’ve accessed those memories, other people retelling stories, and the passage of time. If you are querying an agent, you may notice that they usually only have submission protocol for fiction and non-fiction. And since most writers I work with aren’t aware that memoir is not non-fiction, they follow the protocol for non-fiction. Here’s the problem: You’re going to see you don’t have to write the whole book and instead need to write a book proposal. Agents are going to pass right over your memoir proposal because:
I get a couple of requests for help with book proposals for memoirs every month. This is a costly and time-consuming mistake. Book proposals are between 25 and 50 pages, with extensive marketing and promotions sections, your industry contacts, dozens of hard numbers on your platform (which should number in the 100,000s), and competing titles. You only need a couple of chapters to show your writing ability (if you can’t write up to their standards, they’ll pair you with a ghostwriter). On the other hand, fiction and creative non-fiction are all about your writing ability.* There are always exceptions, partly because the lines between non-fiction and creative non-fiction and between fiction and creative non-fiction are blurry. How much of it has to be based in fact before it's labeled as fiction "based on a true story"? And is your personal story just supporting the premise for your non-fiction self-help book? Or maybe you're a talented and published non-fiction business writer and want to write your memoir. For many reasons, especially because platform is becoming more important for all writers, I like to add a third type of agent contact letter. I call it the narrative book proposal. It's shorter and geared specifically for books that use a narrative structure. To the traditional book proposal, the narrative proposal adds the back-cover blurb and author bio, with a photo, but simplifies the marketing and platform areas, keeps the comparable titles and sample chapters, and replaces the detailed outline and chapter summaries with a standard 3-page plot synopsis. If you need help deciding because you're in a gray area, reach out to me, another published and successful author, an agent at a writer's conference, or find a writing professor. But please don't ask your writer's group with all unpublished writers, and especially don't ask your mother or significant other. *This is becoming less and less true. As the publishing industry changes to keep up with self-publishing, they have started to cut their marketing budgets, putting more of the burden on writers. So having a strong platform or already established readership will help you as a fiction writer, but if you don’t it’s not a death blow to your dreams.
1 Comment
Christopher Wheat
8/31/2018 07:32:37 pm
I first want to tell how helpful this article was to me. I thought I was writing my memoir because I had looked up the definition but, I guess that was wrong. So, I suppose I'm actually writing an autobiography. I've been a secondary teacher for a little over 20 years and I decided to write what happened to me with my former school district. I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome in the summer of 2004. To make this really long story short, in 2013-14 school year I had a meeting with my superintendent and after the meeting was over he had commanded the administrators and HR to "Get rid of the weirdo". They tried every bulling tactic to get me to quit but, I stayed on all the way up till I was put on leave. I feel very strongly about writing this story. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Christopher Wheat
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AuthorI live in Athens, Georgia, with my son, my husband, and an ever-revolving list of exchange students, who are a never-ending source of entertainment and writing material. Archives
June 2019
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