I am putting together a Memoir book proposal for a major publishing house. The book is not done, but they are accepting my book proposal in April. I am sending what I do have to an editor this week to help me in the process of putting together the proposal.
A question about memoir proposals- If the Publisher is not interested, I will then send out the proposals to agents and continue writing. If a memoir is not finished is it appropriate to send out the proposal to agents. The story and topic is very unusual and interesting, which is why this publisher wants to see the proposal.
I have seen some people say it needs to be finished and others say the proposal would be enough to send to some agents. Has anyone had any experience in this area?
A question about memoir proposals- If the Publisher is not interested, I will then send out the proposals to agents and continue writing. If a memoir is not finished is it appropriate to send out the proposal to agents. The story and topic is very unusual and interesting, which is why this publisher wants to see the proposal.
I have seen some people say it needs to be finished and others say the proposal would be enough to send to some agents. Has anyone had any experience in this area?
), and I've seen both. Personally, if I were an agent, I'd prefer to see a whole manuscript, unless the author was "proven" in some other way (i.e. is already famous or has some other major selling point about them). I've seen a lot of memoirs that started off really promising and then got all muddled and disjointed later on, and I'd want to be sure. I've seen the "proposal" method done more for memoirs that already have a selling point--celebrity tell-alls, for example--and the whole manuscript for more unknown entities. 
