Subject of My Non-Fiction Book
My book is largely memoir, partly how-to and survival, partly cultural-political-economic criticism. I started it 1999 as a guide to economical and interesting travel and retirement in Third World Countries, expanded it the next year as I entered treatment and clinical trials for Stage 4 Metastatic Melanoma, describing it all, expanded it again following 9/11, and expanded it finally after returning in Oct., 2003, from a 9-months round the world trip. I've used at least a dozen titles, from RE-INVENTING LIFE to the current WHISTLING MARCHES. It now totals about 120,000 words, 400 double-spaced pages.
I've never interested a bonafide publisher, agent, friend, or stranger in my tales, except for the few Melanoma patients and caregivers who responded to my announcement in the Summer of 2002 on a Melanoma bulletin board about excerpts posted in iPublish dot com. I guess the reasons for my failure to find an agent or publisher could include my advanced age (1-book wonder), lack of a central focus in the book, unpleasant and boring subjects, perception of self-pity, my critical and politically incorrect views, and/or bad writing. I'm now just sitting on it and waiting, now into the third month, for responses to a half-dozen mailed or e-mailed agent queries. I'm now reading other memoirs and thinking about new moves to re-kindle my life. I doubt that I will send out anymore queries until Fall. They're all involved with Summer recreation, I fear.
If I do re-activate my agent search, I'm thinking about breaking it into three or four books. Has anybody out there tried that? Did it help? I would appreciate your views.
Thanks, Kree