- Joined
- Dec 12, 2007
- Messages
- 634
- Reaction score
- 94
- Location
- Cambridge, England
- Website
- www.emilywinslow.com
I'm delighted to share that my memoir has sold to William Morrow!
It's a diary I kept during a recent criminal prosecution with which I was involved. I feel very lucky to have landed at such a great house.
Many thanks to AW for so much good info and encouraging discussion. The Bio/Autobio/Memoir section isn't too busy, but I devoured all of the old threads.
Here are some details that may be of interest, since they come up lots in discussion here:
1) My ms was complete before my agent approached publishers. I did not prepare a formal non-fic proposal, but I did put together a 370-word query-like description with blurbs.
2) I paid for a literary lawyer to look over the situation before we started submitting. I wanted my agent to be able to assure publishers up front that there were no legal stumbling blocks in the overall premise. Of course the publisher's lawyers will now go over every small detail.
3) I don't have much “platform” per se, but the editor and publicist did ask me about my willingness to do publicity before making the offer. They also checked with me if I had already published any parts of the story anywhere (“no” was the good answer), and I have the feeling that some of the more open-ended questions they asked allowed them to gauge how well I might do in interviews.
4) No doubt having a current-events hook helped, but the case I was involved with is not at all famous. My premise is interesting, but the feedback I got through the submission process is that it was the writing that sold it. That should be encouraging to us all.
When my agent emailed with news of the offer and the subject line CALL ME, I was out and about with my young son. We live in England and my UK cell phone can't call New York. I ended up Skyping her from my iPad out in the middle of a busy sidewalk, trying to catch decent data reception ;-)
I'm glad to have AW to share the happy news with. Thanks, all.
It's a diary I kept during a recent criminal prosecution with which I was involved. I feel very lucky to have landed at such a great house.
Many thanks to AW for so much good info and encouraging discussion. The Bio/Autobio/Memoir section isn't too busy, but I devoured all of the old threads.
Here are some details that may be of interest, since they come up lots in discussion here:
1) My ms was complete before my agent approached publishers. I did not prepare a formal non-fic proposal, but I did put together a 370-word query-like description with blurbs.
2) I paid for a literary lawyer to look over the situation before we started submitting. I wanted my agent to be able to assure publishers up front that there were no legal stumbling blocks in the overall premise. Of course the publisher's lawyers will now go over every small detail.
3) I don't have much “platform” per se, but the editor and publicist did ask me about my willingness to do publicity before making the offer. They also checked with me if I had already published any parts of the story anywhere (“no” was the good answer), and I have the feeling that some of the more open-ended questions they asked allowed them to gauge how well I might do in interviews.
4) No doubt having a current-events hook helped, but the case I was involved with is not at all famous. My premise is interesting, but the feedback I got through the submission process is that it was the writing that sold it. That should be encouraging to us all.
When my agent emailed with news of the offer and the subject line CALL ME, I was out and about with my young son. We live in England and my UK cell phone can't call New York. I ended up Skyping her from my iPad out in the middle of a busy sidewalk, trying to catch decent data reception ;-)
I'm glad to have AW to share the happy news with. Thanks, all.
Congrats and may the book sell like gangbusters! 
