Maybe it belongs in another section of the bookstore or library.
Today it’s not easy to sell any book, but memoir is a particularly challenging and competitive category. So ask yourself: Is memoir really your book’s genre?
Authors can start out thinking they’re writing about their life, but sometimes a book has a mind of its own. The narrative can be leading the author rather than the other way around, and you can find yourself flowing into another section of the bookstore altogether.
Perhaps your book is more authentically:
- Self-help. Some authors wonder whether it’s okay to devote a chapter or more, usually at the end of the book, to straight advice. While they want to document whatever hardship they experienced, they’re even more determined to offer help to others facing that same situation. If your book ends up at 60% memoir and 40% self-help, you might do yourself a favor and fashion your text to swap those figures, because self-help is an easier book to sell to a publisher and likely to appeal to more readers.
- Fiction. Maybe you’ve changed people’s names, represented them as composite characters, switched story locations and disguised details of events. At what point does memoir cross over into fiction? If you’re that concerned about getting sued or just hurting people’s feelings, it may make more sense to write a novel “based on a true story.” Then it’s not even about you or the people in your life. I think some authors want to have it both ways. They want to write out their life story to have their voice heard, but without risk or retribution. I think that does justice to neither truth nor great, imaginative storytelling. Opting for the latter might make help you write a really good novel.
- Op-ed. Let’s say your book centers on your escape from an abusive marriage. As you share your experiences, you may have a lot of opinions at every turn. Maybe your state’s restraining orders aren’t enforced well enough or the divorce laws favored your spouse or your children’s school failed them in some way—you could have a lot to say, along with research, about how to improve matters to make it easier for people like you. If you find yourself interrupting your personal narrative to share your views on the topic, and if that’s the aspect that is taking your writing energy, perhaps you’d be better off writing a book or magazine article that merely references your own experiences in primarily advocating for the societal improvements you have in mind.
- Travelogue. If you’re writing an “Eat, Pray, Love” type of memoir, obviously this is not an original idea. Maybe your book will benefit if you focus more on the travel than the travail. A book of travels can be informative and helpful to the next traveler who will just skip over the chapters telling one more “finding myself” story. But no judgment!
- History textbook or how-to. Similarly, if your memoir theme is so narrow that you’re educating the reader in-depth, maybe you’re actually writing a textbook for college majors in a particular discipline. Or it’s a nonfiction book about the history of an era, event or location. Maybe it’s lighter reading—a how-to guide in gardening or diet and fitness or following some obscure philosophy. Or you start out with the premise that it’s not quite a cookbook, but it has so many recipes that maybe it turns out to be a cookbook after all.
- Poetry. I’m surprised at how many people want to include poetry or song lyrics in their memoir. In this case, keep the “memoir” label. Poetry is nearly impossible to get published.
Or it could be a memoir
A book stands on its own merits, your memoir is fully yours to cross genres or create your own hybrid if you like, and for general reader enjoyment it doesn’t matter what category the book falls under. But for marketing, sales and just getting published to begin with, you have to identify what you have there. So give it some thought before slapping “memoir” on your cover.
Still, I don’t want this to discourage memoir authors. If I’m the reader, give me a memoir every time. I think they’re cool and fascinating, and they’re always as unique as the individuals who have written them.