Dear Geist,

Two questions. First, I am writing a memoir and starting to look for an agent or a publisher, and a lot of them want the author to send a full manuscript. I have a significant amount of writing but I haven't put it together as a book. How do I find a publisher or agent if I don't have the experience of creating a manuscript? Second, a press recently rejected my book proposal because it wasn’t a good fit, but they didn't say why, which was more disappointing than the rejection. I read multiple books by that press before submitting, and in my letter I mentioned reasons why my proposal suited them. Besides researching what a press has already published, how can I know if they would be right for me?

Dear Rebecca,

An agent or publisher needs a thorough but succinct book proposal, consistent with the other books and authors they represent, including a writing sample or a full manuscript. As you have found in doing your homework (good for you!), some publishers and agents want to see the whole thing, especially from a first-time book author, because that’s the only way to tell whether you can sustain a narrative (or argument, or whatever shape the work takes) through a book-length work. Many a piece of writing is full of energy and promise at the start, then loses steam through the middle and end. With the wide variety of published memoirs available now, it is riskier to publish new ones (except by celebrities), and it takes months to get even a stellar manuscript ready for production and marketing. So publishers are choosing carefully.

Your instinct is right: when you work with a publisher or agent, you learn a lot about structure, tone, audience and more. Until a generation ago many publishers put in months or years collaborating with a writer to develop a book idea. That still happens, but publishers are looking for more evolved, less labour-intensive projects, and agents do more and more of the developmental editing. A new writer is expected to complete a good full draft, unless the book idea is so fresh and timely that an agent or publisher sees sales potential that justifies some groundwork.

As for the common “Not for us” response, first we congratulate you for studying publishers’ and agents’ booklists to establish compatibility with your work. Beyond that, there’s no secret—and no error on your part. You cannot know what the publisher will respond to. Even agents get turned down, and they know more than the rest of us ever will. That’s because the decision-making process is not mechanical: publishers describe their selection criteria as best they can, and the rest is a matter of love at first sight, or not. “We just didn’t click with it” is an honest response, and if that is what they say, you don’t want them anyway. You want someone who is excited about your work.