Afghanistan as I knew it.

by Elizabeth Lee
10th October 2012

I have written 35,500 words about my life and experiences while living in Afghanistan for nine and a half years (2003 - 2012). I think this is a unique and topical issue and my work brings a new and personal perspective to readers interested in the daily lives of ordinary Afghan people.

I would ideally like a literary agent to take it and interest a publisher to publish it in both physical and e-book format. Can anyone suggest who or how I can move forward with this?

Replies

Who was the agent/publisher for 'The Bookseller of Kabul'...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bookseller_of_Kabul

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Katie-Ellen
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Katie-Ellen Hazeldine
13/10/2012

The immediate problem I see with this is the length - for a commercial publishing deal, 35K is far too short. Word-counts vary with genre, from 50K (although this is very short and some won't accept it at that length) all the way up to 120K for something like Epic Fantasy.

For what it's worth, this sounds like it might be narrative non-fiction, or a memoir.

Remember that all books (even memoirs) must have a narrative arc - there is a problem, it is overcome; a goal is made, the subject works towards it; the experience is for a finite time. (That said, as with everything, there are exceptions).

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Dor
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Dor Armitage
11/10/2012

A memoir, perhaps?

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Adrian
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Adrian Sroka
10/10/2012