Already Toast: Caregiving and Burnout in America
BY Kate washingtonbeacon press2021Query Letter
I’m writing in hopes you may be interested in my project ALREADY TOAST: CAREGIVING UNDER PROTEST, a 75,000-word nonfiction manuscript. A feminist critique of modern caregiving, ALREADY TOAST is like THE EMPATHY EXAMS meets Rebecca Mead’s MY LIFE IN MIDDLEMARCH.
ALREADY TOAST offers a timely, often raw investigation of how all-consuming caregiving can be, how difficult it is to find relief, and how unthinkingly our culture assumes women will step into unpaid caregiving roles. When we found out my husband had aggressive lymphoma, we knew it would take a heavy toll on him, but no one, even me, thought about what it would do to me. Through three years and two cancer diagnoses, I ran the kids to school, took homemade broth to the hospital, and sobbed in my car because it was the only time I was alone. The medical team simply assumed I would handle everything—even when they sent him home from the hospital so fragile they warned me not to leave him alone even for a minute. They had no suggestions on how I was also supposed to get groceries or take myself and the kids to sorely needed therapy. Neither the breaks glibly recommended as self-care nor the stay-positive culture surrounding cancer offered real relief.
In the few spare moments I had, I turned to classic books I’d loved all my life for comfort. I found them full of forgotten caregivers, many of whose challenges looked surprisingly familiar to my modern eyes: Jo cutting off her hair in desperation in Little Women evoked charities like Locks of Love, and I sympathized with Jane Eyre’s Grace Poole, who drinks to forget the drudgery of tending the mad Bertha Mason. I use these examples to structure ALREADY TOAST’s exploration of issues around the crucial but hidden labor of caregiving.
ALREADY TOAST is the story of how hard and fast the burden of caregiving fell on me. But it also uncovers the invisibility of caregiving and how the modern health care system’s dependence on the free or underpaid labor of caregiving shortchanges caregivers and patients alike. Revaluing this disproportionately female labor appropriately is especially urgent in light of the misogynist backlash of the past year. As the baby-boom generation ages and sickens, as American health care becomes more precarious, and as disease afflicts more and younger people, the number of unpaid family caregivers will unfortunately continue to increase, adding to ALREADY TOAST’s already wide audience.
I see the market for ALREADY TOAST as primarily women over 30, especially dedicated readers. Because of its emotional resonance and relevance to the American health care debate, I believe ALREADY TOAST has significant potential for marketing to book clubs, caregiving associations and support groups, and similar outlets. I have strong contacts to media outlets, including the McClatchy Newspaper Group, which has expressed interest in featuring the published book as a book club selection. Currently, most available literature for caregivers focuses on older adults or takes a how-to approach, with a wealth of faith-based titles. My book, by contrast, will appeal to younger readers who increasingly find themselves caring for older relatives, spouses, or children, and its pointed critiques and intimate look at my own life bring fresh angles to the available literature.
I am a freelance writer and essayist and the dining critic at The Sacramento Bee. My work has appeared in The Washington Post, Sunset Magazine, The Sacramento Bee, Yoga Journal, McSweeney’s, Avidly, The Toast, Brain, Child, and many more outlets. Links to my portfolios—including “Leslie's House of Nightmares,” an excerpt from the book that appeared recently on Avidly and garnered a significant response—are available at my website.
Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
About
Age Range
Adult
Genre
Nonfiction
Word Count
75,000
Book Link
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/659447/already-toast-by-kate-washington/
Query Stats
Year Queried
2018
Number of Offers of Representation
1
Number of Manuscripts Queried Before This One
0
Publication Status of The Book Queried
Published (Independent /Boutique / Indy Publisher)
Years Spent Writing Before This Book was Published
15
Note to Querying Writers:
While I had requests for the full proposal from agents based on this query letter, in the end my agent reached out to me after an essay of mine appeared in a high-profile venue.