A few weeks ago, we discussed what makes a memoir good. Many writers will assume that if a book is good, then it will surely sell. However, what makes a book marketable is not always the same as what makes a book good. While having a good book is important, a “marketable” book is one that is one that has a clear strategy for finding its audience beyond being well-written and authentic. Having a marketable book requires different elements than having a good book. That does not mean that you should “write to the market” or allow market and audience to influence every decision you make about your narrative. While you will need to consider your audience and how you will help them find your book, it’s important to write the book that only you can write in a way that is genuine and authentic to you. The good news is that the six essential components for a marketable memoir will not require you to compromise the book you want to write, it just takes a bit of consideration and strategy. Watch Amanda outline these components in the video below or scroll down for Emily’s written take.
Reading is essential to improving your writing skills, and reading like a writer means seeing past the glossy end-result into a book’s structure and the author’s choices about how the story is told. Learning to read like a writer doesn’t mean learning how to merely imitate but learning the craft by example. We’re excited to announce the launch of our Memoir Method Book Club! Your first session is free, so sign up to save your seat here.
The difference between “good” and “marketable”
It might seem that this is a distinction without a difference, but it is genuinely a different quality. We all know that many excellent books never get published, or when published somehow don’t find their audience. When considering this distinction, it helps to reflect on how you choose a book to read. Most of us don’t buy books with no idea what it’s about or what kind of book it is. Most of us don’t buy books that don’t seem clearly relevant to our lives. Most of us don’t buy books that seem exactly like something we’ve already read. The tragedy all readers—the devout and casual alike—face is that we don’t have the kind of time needed to read all the books that are probably very good. So we choose to read books that seem to be right for us, or are recommended to us by friends, or tell the story that will help us understand ourselves. We look for these indicators based on word of mouth, the books it appears next to in the bookstore or in ads, and the back cover copy.
To make your own book marketable, we are working this process backwards. We consider your audience and then make deliberate choices on how to make sure the book is in the places that audience looks for books.
#1- An Identifiable Audience
To work the process backwards and get your book in front of its audience, you need to know who that audience is. There are many ways to define audience from the macro—gender, age—to the micro—occupation, local—to the psychological. Psychographics look not only what you could find out in a form or census, but where your audience finds information, political leanings, and social habits. When you think about your audiences with a specific lens, the other parts of marketing strategies tend to reveal themselves naturally.
For example, one common (and varied) psychographic is people who regularly attend book clubs. If you start paying attention to how books are marketed and reviewed, you may hear some referred to as “book club” nonfiction or fiction. Book clubs can get even narrower when defined by celebrity or well-established book clubs. Reese Witherspoon, Oprah, and Book of the Month all have identifiable (if hard to define) tastes and established audiences. Less notorious book clubs have even more clearly defined parameters—from contemporary Christian book clubs, occupational book clubs, social justice book clubs etc.
Your audience can’t be everyone (or just one person)
It might be tempting to say your book is for everyone. We love that you have a story that feels like it has universal appeal—and maybe you’re right! Maybe everyone could get something from it, but when you are marketing your book, that leaves you and your publishing company without a real strategy or even place to start. It’s also probably not strictly true in that there are ways to describe who is going to like your book the most. When you are defining that target audience, after all, that is not the same as limiting your audience. When your target audience finds your book, they will share it with others who also need to experience your story.
The opposite extreme is also not marketable. We often hear that writers want to address people who have experience what they have experienced to help them recover, learn, or even survive it. That is a beautiful and noble reason to be called to write, and we absolutely encourage you to let that guide your drafting. However, to market the book, we’ll want to pull back the scope a little bit. Your experiences are unique to you, and while they might be similar to many, audiences also can learn from reading about experiences far different, even alien, from their own.
#2- Is your book timely, evergreen, or both?
Books often are responsive to very contemporary events and issues, including hot topics that are trending in conversations, so to speak. Other books are evergreen in the sense that they address issues that are constant in our culture, examine a past historical period, and/or have a message that transcends our current time. There are also books that straddle this line, often with messages that are timeless, but with topics that are deeply embedded in a time and place.
All three of these strategies are totally viable—but you need to know which honestly applies to your book because it will inform that marketing strategy. When you can describe your book concisely in these terms, it’s a signal to your publisher and your audience that you’ve thought about its place on readers’ lists.
#3- Comparable titles
One of the essential parts of a proposal and a query are comparable titles. Comp titles are published books—ideally recent—that are similar to yours. They can show where you envision your book living in the book store, being categorized on Amazon, and what other books your readers are already reading. However, you don’t want to be identical or too similar to these extant titles, because then why does the market need both? When you can concisely and clearly describe what your book like and what makes it a little bit new and different, you have an essential piece of your marketing strategy. Both publishers and readers want to know the type of book it is and what new element it has to offer before they dedicate their valuable time to reading the whole thing.
#4- Author Credibility and Expertise
This is a tricky one for so many authors. We absolutely get it—expert feels like such a loaded word. For memoirists, it can be difficult to claim expertise over their subject when their subject is the events of their own lives. We’ve spoken about this issue before, and there are many steps you can take to step confidently into a promotional role even when you don’t feel like an expert,
#5-A Promotion Plan
Speaking of stepping into a promotional role, another essential element of both a proposal to a traditional plan or a viable self-publishing strategies is a promotional plan. This comes as a surprise to many authors seeking traditional publication because they have a misconception that the publisher will take that on for them.
But as our marketing expert friend Susan Friedmann is fond of reminding us, the idea if “build it and they will come” only applies to baseball playing ghosts. To have a marketable memoir, you will also need a clear picture on what you can do to help spread the word. There are many strategies you can adopt—appearing on podcasts, utilizing social media, writing a regular newsletter or blog, local speaking gigs, etc. Whichever strategy you go with, it should be something you enjoy and can sustain for the long-term in order to build that momentum needed for a successful book launch.
#6- It also needs to be good.
While being good and marketable aren’t the same thing, it is important to have all the elements of a good memoir in order to have a marketable one. That includes especially a strong structure, clear and consistent writing, and conflict and movement that pulls your reader from page one to the end. While the other five elements on this list should not be the main consideration with choices of structure and voice, they can help you make decisions in editing, how you define your key message, and who you are aiming that message to.
PS. Searching the internet for writing, publishing, and book marketing advice can be exhausting to say the least! If you’re ready for hands on, one-on-one support for your memoir, check out The Memoir Method. We’d love to welcome you into this nine-month group program specially designed for women writing their first memoirs. And don’t forget, if you’d like to chat with Amanda about the program (or any other services we offer), you can book a free consult any time!
