Twenty-five memoirs made the New York Times bestseller list
the week ending August 17, of this year
(2013), (http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/combined-print-and-e-book-nonfiction/list.html
, with many of these memoirs having led the market as bestsellers for many
weeks in a row. This count does not include the many self-published memoirists
who have had success with child abuse memoirs such as Why Me by Sarah Burleton and Empty
Chairs by Stacey Danson. The reading public is discovering that the stories
of ordinary people who have lived extraordinary lives, or who have survived
unusual experiences, provide the material for memorable memoirs, that is, when
they are well written. The big publishing houses are beginning to see the light
as they accept more memoirs into their elite collection of promoted authors,
such as Brain On Fire by Susannah Cahalan, a story of a woman whose diagnoses
of a rare brain disease mesmerized the medical profession. The landscape of the
publishing industry has really changed, and so has the image of the simple
memoir, since the early days of book publishing.
When I was young (never mind my age), only memoirs about
mega stars like Elizabeth Taylor would gain enough interest to win a place on
the New York Times bestseller list; and then many celebrities began to write
memoirs about the mundane aspects of their daily lives, bringing their huge
following of admirers into the book market. The publishing houses could get a
two for one deal when they signed a big name star who came prepackaged for
instant success, and the unknown memoirist did not stand a chance at that
time…then the technological advances of our new cyber age, catapulted us into a
raging eBook revolution in which many indie authors became overnight successes,
and being an ‘unknown’ author no longer mattered. What did this mean for the
memoir author?
Perhaps it was about that time, the idea began to grow in the minds of those
less well known, or even totally unknown, that their own lives of tragedy and chaos,
disaster and suspense, might actually hold some value in the trained eye of the
reading public. There are countless stories in life that are truly stranger
than fiction, and some of these stories began to be told by talented authors,
many of whom were unknowns, that is, until their lives were plastered all over
the world in multiple languages.
So what is it that makes a memoir an appealing read?
The age old literary advice given by most writing
instructors, is to “write what you know”, and the second piece of advice is to
write it well. When the elements of a good story occur naturally in life, and
the conflict, plot and timing is just right, you have more than a personal
narrative, you have a ‘memoir’. A well
written memoir concentrates an entire life, with all of its obstacles, secret heartaches
and successes into a literary capsule, gift-wrapped in a neat cover, and ready
to open and read.
Sara Niles Author of Torn From the Inside Out (A Memoir)
