Wow, I haven’t posted since January??!! Shame on me! But I’ve been busy writing, and I now have a completed draft of Talking to My Tatas: A Breast Cancer Researcher’s Adventure With The Disease and What You Can Learn From It.

It feels pretty freakin’ AWESOME! I learned so much through the research, especially about the clinical aspects and how my own experience fits with breast cancer care in the United States. I also learned more about emerging therapies, disparities, and mental health related to breast cancer.

When I started this process, I had been writing fiction for about 10 years and understood more or less how to construct a story in my genre, how to query agents and small presses, how to self-publish when a particular book or story doesn’t fit with traditional publishing, and how to write blurbs (it’s HARD), synopses (it’s TORTURE), and other things that go along with the fiction universe.

When it came to nonfiction, aside from my scientific manuscripts, I had no clue where or how to start. Fortunately, I had the amazing Alice Sullivan in my corner to coach me through the process. A long time ago in a pre-COVID galaxy far, far away, I became friends with Alice, and she sent me a guide to writing nonfiction proposals. That proved to be one of the BEST tools I had in hand when I started the process for Talking Tatas.

Unlike fiction, which requires a full, complete, polished manuscript (for the most part) prior to querying agents/publishers, nonfiction requires a proposal rather than a completed manuscript. Memoirs are sometimes the exception. What is a proposal? It’s basically a plan for your nonfiction project. It includes a working blurb, detailed outline of each chapter, what makes your book stand out from other comparable titles in the market, unique selling points, a marketing plan, your credentials (or reasons for writing the book, like personal experience), and sample chapters.

A tight, well-written, carefully crafted proposal is the key to getting an agent and a publisher if you’re going the traditional publishing route. Even if you’re not, it’s a great way to map out and organize your thoughts and to be thinking about defining your target market and how you’ll reach readers in that market. If you’re planning a nonfiction project, check out these sites for proposal essentials/how to, templates, and examples of successful proposals: Nonfiction Authors Association, Reedsy Blog, Scribe Media.

Once you write the proposal and craft a killer query letter, you start the long and arduous task of sending these items to literary agents (whom you’ve selected based on research and matching interests) and hope to get some interest. It’s not speed dating, but you’re definitely looking for a connection. Be prepared for LOTS of rejections with the understanding that it’s not personal. I repeat. IT’S NOT PERSONAL. If you take rejections personally, you’re going to have a tough time in the publishing biz. That being said, if you’re lucky enough to get feedback with a rejection, put it to good use by revising your proposal. For example, I received a lot of rejections based on the fact that my proposal was cross-genre (story of my writing life/same issue with my fiction). In Tatas, I’m blending elements of memoir with the personal story and prescriptive, which is the informational component.

Ultimately, I restructured my proposal to focus more on prescriptive and less on memoir (about 80/20), and that worked!

Once you get an agent, you’ll most likely tweak your proposal again for submission to editors, perhaps having a few drafts tailored for different editors. The submission process can also be a long, arduous process, and remember, rejections are NOT PERSONAL.

Trust me – you want an agent and editor who are super enthusiastic about your work. Someone who’s lukewarm won’t be as likely to champion you, and in this very competitive business, you need champions.

While you’re querying/submitting, you should be working to build or expand your platform. This blog is part of my platform. It gives readers information to supplement what I include in the book, to showcase my style and strengths, and to hopefully connect with readers who are likely to be interested in my book. It’s also great to network with other folks who have platforms with interests that match yours. I LOVE The Bloggess and have been lucky enough to connect with her by advertising on her blog and cultivating a relationship based on fangirling and promoting her stuff. It wasn’t so much strategic as it was OMG-I-LOVE-HER-AND-EVERYONE-NEEDS-TO-KNOW-ABOUT-HER! I also adore SciBabe, A Science Enthusiast, and Sana Goldberg, so I’ve been connecting with them.

Thanks to my day job, I’ve cultivated relationships with a lot of influential people and organizations in the cancer research field and I’m forging relationships in the patient/survivor advocacy community – of which I am now a part. All of this will help me spread the word about my book, get endorsements, and hopefully make the book a success.

It’s been one hell of an adventure! Stay tuned for more. In the meantime, I’m working on a new Screw the Woo Woo post on a “spell caster” who was recommended to me on Facebook. That one’s going to be wacky and fun. Mwahahahahahaha!