This is a place for writers to ask literary agents about writing, queries and more!
Welcome to Ask a Literary Agent
Let me know if you have any questions!

This is a place for writers to ask literary agents about writing, queries and more!
Let me know if you have any questions!
This is a place for writers to ask literary agents about writing, queries and more!
Hi Caitie, I'm a Chemical Engineer from Albuquerque, NM, and I'm currently working on a narrative, non-fictional account of my experience as a survivor of a multi-attacker, day-long sexual and physical assault that the police now believe was orchestrated by a colleague of mine at Sandia National Laboratories to stop me from reporting him for committing fraud on a research grant from the Department of Defense.
My first draft primarily focuses on my path to recovery but contains a section that describes my attack in detail and includes photos that were taken as part of my rape kit.
My question for you is about how to end my story. At one of my darkest moments, I decided to start focusing on helping other victims in an attempt to stay positive. The result is a non-profit organization, called Victim 2 Survivor, that I'm working to establish to provide financial, emotional, and logistical support to survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse, starting with the poorest states (New Mexico is one) and expanding outward from there. Over the past few months, I've spoken to numerous survivors around NM, and I've made several shocking discoveries, including that a disproportionately large number of sexual assualt survivors in this state are LGBTQ+.
To get to my question: should I include other victims' accounts in my story, along with a discussion of why I (and two respected New Mexico historians) believe this state has an especially troubling rape culture that targets the LGBTQ+ community? My ultimate goals are to provide readers with an honest, tangible, disturbing account of what victims of sexual violence experience during and after their attacks and to give victims hope that, not only can they survive, but they can turn the worst days of their lives into something positive and impactful. I would really like to expand the focus from just myself, though, if doing so won't be a distraction.
Anyway, thank you for reading this obnoxiously long post. I appreciate any advice you're able to give me.
Regards, Carlee
Hi Carlee,
First of all, please remember this is just one opinion, so take it as you will!
This is a really great question! You mentioned that you are writing a narrative, non-fictional account.When you say that, it sounds like it is more narrative non-fiction than memoir, which are two different things.
If your goal is o go beyond only your story, then narrative nonfiction is the best way to do that. In narrative nonfiction, you will be using your story as a way to talk about the issue as a whole, which can include other accounts, statistics and resources. Structuring it more like that will help you feel where the right ending is.
I hope that helps.
Yes, that helps. Thank you for your quick response!
I’ve been meaning to research this a bit more on my own (but I’m too busy writing!). Generally speaking, is there any potential conflict between putting my books up on Amazon while simultaneously looking for an agent who will have me? My hope would be that making a book available wouldn’t somehow disqualify it/me from being scooped up, once I’m finally discovered and turned into a proper butterfly.
Good question! That is completely a conflict. If you want an agent to send your book out to publishers as a new book you cannot self publish it first.
You need to decide if you want it up on Amazon or if you want to go the agent route. There are hybrid authors, but they have different projects on Amazon than what they have with agents.
Does that make sense?
Yes, very clear, thanks for your insight! I can imagine making a game out of it, taking a year (or amassing 100 rejections) just to try the traditional route. If it didn’t pan out, there’d always be the cyber route. ;)