We have snow ... and the usual panic. silly people.

Try a 35 yard long driveway sloping steeply upward. Leading to a street that never gets plowed. You won't have much love for snow either. (Mind you if it only lasts a day or two, no problem. Past that I'm pretty much trapped even if I keep the drive shoveled. )

oh, no comment on you - just the people who when the first flakes show up get all panic-y.

I miss the snow. I grew up on a cul-de-sac and the snow plow would sweep everything into a giant heap in the center and we would carve tunnels and play King of the Mountain until our toes went numb.

oh, no comment on you - just the people who when the first flakes show up get all panic-y.

No offense taken. Unfortunately at the moment those people are me. I felt pretty panicked at the first flakes this morning. "Will I be trapped for another five days. Will I be able to get back into my garage when I come back." Forturnately by the time I returned it had melted away. But at the moment, I have a visceral reaction to snow. I'm not scared of snow per se, but of the fact that this town is not really prepared for much of it.

All right, say you've got a handful of material for a book about, say...customer service.

What do you have to have ready for an agent to approach them? An outline and a chapter or three? Or the whole damn book?

You approach an agent with a query letter. If an agent is interested, you'll need to send the following for non-fic, which is what I assume this is:

A proposal, which includes a bit about why you are qualified to write this, market analysis (how your book is like successful books/what makes it unique), an annotated bibliography, and a sample chapter.

I think I have the vampire people proposal on a flash drive somewhere, if I find it I'll be happy to send.

From what I understand the whole damn book is a mistake [edit: I mean having it finished before approaching the agent]. The agent wants to shape it. But they do want an outline and indication that you can finish the book. There are books out there on that, but I suspect our published authors can give you more on this than I can. Basically what you need is a good proposal.

Or What Allyson said.

Allyson if I could take a look at that proposal it would be a godsend.

The downside is, of course, that you already rock so much that this may tip you into critical rockage mass and then you'd explode.

Okey doke, I just sent the query letter and proposal. Hope it helps!