The Personal to the Universal, and Other Priorities in Contemporary Memoir

Have you browsed the narrative nonfiction shelves lately and thought, “Oh man, I don’t have it in me to read another grief memoir”?

Here are a few thoughts on the memoir market as it stands, a few things you might prioritize inside and out of your own work. A note before we get started: This blog post should be seen as a primer. It contains observations I’ve made in the recent past, while working with memoirists who have attained agent interest, that I feel will help improve memoirists chances of trade publication, but it is certainly not the be all, end all of advice.

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6 Tips for Finding and Using "Comp" Titles

If you've been querying agents for more than five minutes, you've likely heard of comps.

"Comp" or comparative titles are exactly that: books—and in some cases TV shows and movies!—that your book's plot, characters, and/or theme can draw a direct line of comparison to.

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Four Resources for Authors Aspiring to Trade Publication

The same manuscript can sometimes get different feedback when it’s presented from the place of face time and mentorship rather than from the slush pile. So, without further ado, here are several resources meant to give you a leg up over your competition: two for those who are reaching the end of their inbox-based querying tether and two for those who might need basic querying assistance.

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