| I tried writing my memoir last summer and produced a tome titled "Nice Work," in which I rambled about odd jobs I had early in my career. "I found your book charming," a respected agent named Vicky Bijur emailed. Ah, but then: "Because the book is so specific to your experiences it lacks the universality that many memoirs have. As you know, most memoirs these days follow a particular arc: they tell a story of transcendence over troubling and often horrifying circumstances. Obviously, this is not your life!"
She nailed it. My life has zero universality. But that hasn't stopped me and others from banging out our stories. The National Association of Memoir Writers (yes, there is such a group, formed in 2007) has seen its membership bulge.
According to Publishers Marketplace, which tracks book deals, memoir acquisitions were up about 9% in 2020, many involving celebrities who caught the writing virus. Among the first to land contracts were actors Michael J. Fox, Billy Dee Williams and Hayley Mills. By summer, PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor and retired Nascar driver Bill Lester had sold their stories, as had country music superstar Dolly Parton. Willie Nelson got deals for two memoirs.
As the pandemic wore on, former National Football League coach Bill Cowher signed a memoir deal, as did actors Stanley Tucci and Julianna Margulies. Karen Knotts, the daughter of television comic Don Knotts, came up with a memoir appropriately titled "Tied Up in Knotts."
But when it comes to rumination by less famous folks, publishers can't handle the surge. This has created an unexpected opportunity for companies offering self-publishing, the biggest of which are Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and IngramSpark. Not long ago this field was known as vanity publishing, a process by which people with limited talent but unlimited finances would pay to have their books professionally printed.
Today, anyone with a computer, free time, and a few bucks can upload a manuscript and have it printed on-demand. With luck, it might sell tens of copies.
There's also a robust market for what could be called memoir-middle-men. Life Chronicles Publishing, a small operation near Seattle, says business is up 90% during the pandemic. The company charges an average of $2,000 to whip a memoir into shape—then has it printed by Amazon.
Andy Ross, an Oakland, Calif., agent, says, "I get multiple proposals for memoirs every day of the year, including Christmas. Most of the stuff is terrible, so it ends up with Kindle."
I suspect a side effect of the Covid vaccines will be suppression of the memoir bug.
(c) Peter Funt. This column originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal.
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