Should you write your memoir?

A lot of people write or want someone to write their autobiographies and/or memoirs. (No, autobiographies and memoirs are not the same.) They want to publish these personal stories for various reasons, some to to serve as cautionary tales, some to commiserate or help people in similar straits, and others because they led truly interesting lives.

The problem with autobiographies and memoirs is that "[r]eaders are not as enthused about your life story as you are," as succinctly stated by author Milton Trachtenburg. He adds, "They develop short arms and low pockets unless, for some reason, you are important to them. In other words, you need to have celebrity for your story to be important enough for people to pay money to read it. Or your story is so compelling that they need to know more about it. There are a few exceptions, but not enough for publishers to take the financial risk of publishing it."

It's a hard lesson the market delivers that may appear to invalidate the author's hard-won experience and effort. The statistics don't offer encouragement.

Books are a $27.71 billion business. With a current rate of 1 million to 2 million new titles published each year, any book coming out faces overwhelming competition.

According to the Nonfiction Authors Association, "One of the most sobering factors that impacts book sales is the sheer number of books released each year (over 2 million new titles were released worldwide last year) verses how many books people actually read each year.?A report from Statisa?reveals that 22% of Americans read fewer than five books per year, 20% read up to ten books per year, and 17% read up to fifteen books per year."

The pandemic actually meant good news for authors. TonerBuzz reported, "Publisher’s Weekly reports that print book sales?rose?more than 8.9%?since the start of the pandemic in 2020." And as far as book sales are concerned, TonerBuzz notes that according to Query Tracker, Proactive Writer, and Amazon, memoirs come in as the first or second highest selling nonfiction genre.

So, you've got a market for your personal story, but the competition is stiff. Stiff competition means your story must stand out from the multitude of rivals.

If you're convinced that your memoir or autobiography will truly interest other people, then you've got a challenge ahead of you to make it marketable. Interviewing five literary agents about the genre's market, Writer's Digest gets different answers: a solid concept, the writer's voice, the author's platform, and the quality of the writing.

The quality of the writing needs to be stellar to combine with a distinctive voice and a powerful story to attract and hold the reader's attention. If you're not a skilled storyteller, it makes good sense to hire a ghostwriter first to write your story. For those who are contemplating publishing their autobiographies or memoirs, the best way to ensure that is to hire a professional editor who will focus on the multiple facets of content quality and help you polish them until they shine.

That's what I do.

Every word counts.

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