What it is & What it isn't

I’ve begun sending out query letters to potential literary agents and publishers. A non-fiction book doesn’t have to be finished before doing this, you just need a clear idea of what you’re doing.

And I have that. So here we go.

The question I have most dreaded in the submission process is this: where does your book sit in the market (or on bookstore shelves) with reference to similar or competing titles?

To do this, I have imagined myself going into a bookstore – perhaps the legendary Shakespeare and Company in Paris. Or, Portugal’s Centésima Página (100th Page), the bookstore with the quirkiest name ever. Or, Livraria Lello, the most beautiful bookstore in the world, also in Portugal. Or, the architecturally stunning Rizzoli in New York City. Where might I find my own book within their nooks and crannies?

And, if I worked inside one of those wonderlands, where would I shelve it?

Of course, I do think there isn’t anything out there quite like A Storyboard Life. But I finally wrapped my head around this question simply by adding a few words about ‘why my book is not like’ the books in whose company I would most like to be – which is on a shelf of hero’s journey memoirs written (mostly) by women:

• It’s Lynsey Addario’s “It’s What I Do” (without the blood)

• It’s “Love is a Mix Tape” by Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield, but framed by a storyboard of films instead of songs (If you haven’t read it, you should. Better yet, listen to Rob read it himself.)

• It’s “A Camera, Two Kids & A Camel: A Journey in Photographs” by National Geographic photographer Annie Griffiths Belt (minus the camel, and with documentary films instead of photographs; but definitely yes to managing a challenging career with two kids in tow)

• It’s Deborah Copaken’s “Shutterbabe” (minus the war zones, and with documentary films instead of photographs)

• It’s Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild” (with thoughtful trauma-healing, but without the Pacific Crest Trail; and while there is hiking involved, it’s not a central theme and I do not swallow anyone’s bones.)

Bottom line, of course, A Storyboard Life is a collection of my own stories in my own writing style, not theirs. So who’s to say?

Now let’s hear what you think!

From what you’ve read so far (admittedly, just an amuse-bouche in words of the adventures yet to come) – on which shelf would you put, or expect to find, A Storyboard Life?

Please share your thoughts & insights below.

[Photo of Kristin atop Istanbul’s Blue Mosque by cinematographer Dennis Boni – 
in a scene from Story Frame #33: “Lights out in Istanbul”]