how to write a memoir proposal if you're a nobody

Maybe if this is moved to the Memoir/Autobiography section, it'd get a little more attention. Mods, what do you think?

Not every successful memoirist had a platform. Check out Catherine Goldhammer's Still Life with Chickens.

My favorite nobody memoir

"A girl named zippy" by Haven Kimmel, by an ordinary girl about an ordinary childhood. It's a lovely book.

Jerry

Find your niche. Embellish the most mundane events and make the potential reader believe that they'll extract something from your writing other than knowledge about the life of a complete stranger. Good luck.

I can send you a sample proposal an agent sent me if you PM me an e-mail address. It's tailor made for newbie nobodys like us.

When you say proposal... is the memoir already written? Because a proposal is generally for a book that is incomplete.

I learned something today. I didn't know that. My memoir is complete so they won't ask for a proposal? I have no credits either. Will they ask for anything else beforehand? I am also going to query a couple of self help book agents since mine can be considered a crossover.

The writing speaks for the author, not the other way around. So if it's good, it'll be published. If it isn't, work until it's good enough.

Even if the memoir is complete (or close to it) you are often asked for a proposal, once you pass the query stage. That's standard for nonfiction (vs partial manuscript for fiction.) I learned this when I was almost done with my book, so then stopped to write the proposal. Good idea to have the proposal in hand before you query.

I had credentials but I certainly wasn't famous. No real publishing history (I don't count an article in a psychology journal years ago or my dissertation.) A modest platform in a certain "niche market" (Cajun/zydeco music fans) but nothing that would translate into enormous sales. (And it hasn't, for far But I got an agent and a very solid southern university press as a publisher, just got back from a tour in Louisiana. I'm very happy with how it all turned out.

Good luck!

Get Elizabeth Lyon's Nonfiction Book Proposals Anybody Can Write.

Your book should be written/rewritten/rewritten again/edited/polished/rewritten -- you get the idea, before you query agents. Have a synopsis ready to go before you query agents. Have a proposal ready before you query agents. READ AND ABSORB: the Query Shark and Miss Snark stuff. Read agent's web pages (Janet Reid, Nathan Bransford, Bookends, LLC, etc.). Google "literary agent blog."

Be prepared to submit query/proposal/manuscript electronically and by snail mail.

If--IF!!!--you do find a willing publisher, be prepared for a title change.
Check out Behler Publishing's web pages and blog, re: queries, writing
and the publishing business.

It sounds like you need to learn A LOT more about the business. That's not meant to be a snarky comment. No one's born knowing this stuff. Don't expect to be plucked from behind a drugstore counter like Lana Turner.