Hi friends,
Short one today because the deadline has arrived, I have a memoir chapter to write and send to my agent, and it has to get done today.
The thing about memoir is that it’s an incredibly hard sell right now. In the US anyway; in the UK memoir sales are the highest they’ve ever been. It pays–literally–to not be a slave to geography. But I digress.
So, memoir is a hard sell. If you want to sell your memoir, you’ll need to consider:
1. What’s new?
Basically, what are you saying that hasn’t been said before? Are you going to take readers into a world they don’t know, an experience they don’t know, or a way of looking at the world they haven’t considered before? Your story doesn’t have to be new (there are no new stories), but it does have to be different.
2. Why you?
No, “because I had the idea and bothered to write it” is not a good answer. Everyone has a story to tell, but not everyone’s story is a memoir. We get why you want to write it, but why will they want to read it?
What about your story will readers identify with? Find fascinating? Want to read about? You don’t want to be “just like” your reader. We don’t want to read about someone just like us, with our same problems. We know enough about that already. We want to read about an idealized version of ourselves, someone who had the guts to do what we didn’t, or who did something cool or exciting to solve the same problem.
3. Do you have a platform?
Having a thousand of your writing friends follow you on Twitter does not a platform make.
First of all, if you’re going to use social media numbers, they need to be in the tens of thousands. But second, and more importantly, agents and editors want to see that you can sell your memoir. Do you know how to reach readers in that particular subject area?
Let’s say your memoir is about how you live with eighty cats (just go with me here). It doesn’t matter how many of your fellow writers are following your Facebook page where you talk about the writing life. What matters is whether you have access to people, publications, and followers who care about cats and who will buy your book.
Of course, you could have a personal brand, like many online influencers, and people follow them for who they are, and that works, too. But think strategically about this. If you’re going to focus on a topic, choose one that reflects your book.
Or, if you plan to write about many different subjects, build a personal brand. Remembering, of course, that personal brands are only relevant if they have a large number of followers–tens of thousands at the very least.
Also, because this question seems to come up a lot: Memoir is sold on proposal.
Sure, you can write your book so that you have confidence going in, especially if it’s your first book, but when you go out to sell, you’ll need a book proposal.
Okay, so this didn’t end up being as short as I thought, but in any case, my deadline beckons and I must go.
I’ll see you again tomorrow.
Cheers,
Natasha