Question for the authors among us!

Find the Writers and Artists Yearbook in the library and sent appropriate agent the first three chapters with an overview of the rest of the book, all details should be in there.

However there is prob a more techy version of that process these days via online but I'm not sure

Thanks, Menopaws!

The market for memoirs kind of peaked with Call the Midwfe so she may have missed the boat.

Agents and publishers are generally not interested in “ one offs”. If they think it is marketable they will also want to know what plans are for future books. It costs a lot to launch so they will want something that keeps on earning.

Also an agent will want a commitment to other things that earn like book signings, talks, an online presence though twitter etc. It’s the reason I stopped writing my short stories. It needs thinking about.

She could try going direct to publishers that take a slush pile and do memoirs. Artists and Writers Yearbook as Menopaws says.

But I would advise her to get up to speed with self publishing on line,

I’m curious, how can a Doctor write their memoirs without betraying confidences?

I've just finished 'This is going to hurt' by Adam Kay, which I would recommend to anyone, reveals what it is really like to work as an Obs and Gynae surgeon in the understaffed NHS. It is published by Picador, www.picador.com , might be worth contacting them?

Adam Kay's book hits the spot because he combines humour with humanity in a very striking way. Any book of similar ilk has to have something that makes it stand out.

With all the funny things that I see at work,and I mean that with full compassion and respect for the elderly, I am often told..you could write a book.., if I did you obviously don't use names and add or take away from the story to not make it obvious to any relatives, although they would not be aware of 90% of things I see. I'm sure if respect is given at all times and it all kept light, memoirs can be good to read.
I'm doing one at the moment for us sandwich generation with children and elderly parents, any stories involving my mum I tread carefully round but the gist of the event is still there. I might try Picador myself

They only go through agents and as I said, look up writers and artists Yearbook online as I just have and seems to have all you need Grannyknot

Getting an agent might look easy but it isn't. Some will not even look at unsolicited manuscripts. And memoir writing is a really specialised area that few deal in. If you live in an area with a support organisation for writers (Ours is called New Writing North) they re great people to contact. They give advice, hold receptions where writers meet influential people like agents and award prizes for writing. They would certainly help.

Exactly what Eglantine says.

If she does decide to go down the route of self- publishing (and some writers are very succesful at this) she should also look at ways of publising herself and her book. Giving talks to local organisations like the WI provides a ready market.

Thanks everyone!

In response to Peep she's writing about her life, not her patients' lives...

The trouble with self-publishing is the covers always seem to be absolutely dreadful! I can usually spot a self-published book by its cover.

're memoirs having "peaked" sorry, I disagree. I've read some cracking memoirs in recent years, on the best selling lists. I believe there will always be a market for people's own stories. Having read the first few chapters of her book, I shall be encouraging her to continue.

Not me saying they’ve peaked Grannyknot. It’s what publishers are saying. The money has gone out of them and into the next popularity wave.

Publishers are interested in what will make money. Most of them anyway....

Of course she should continue. We write for our own pleasure (compulsion!) but we also have to accept that very, very few manuscripts get published. You only have to see the office “slush” pile to know that. And most of that doesn’t even get read.

It’s a tough business.

Trisher - Yes, a regional writers’ organisation can be very helpful in several ways. Plenty of informed advice available as well as writers willing to share their experience of publishing

No need for covers to look amateurish. There are lots of good cover designers around.

Grannyknot I hate to be brutal but the reality is that it is desperately hard to get an agent. Agents and publishers need to be making money and will say what would you write for your second book ? Can you write to a deadline ?

If your friend does go ahead she needs to find an agent who publishes books similar to her own. Then go on their website and see how they want the manuscript presented.

Never send in unsolicited work to publishers or agents.

My advice would be to self publish.

My DS is a full time children’s author and it is hard work and they want more than a one off.

If I can help further please PM me.

Sorry to be so negative. But we have lived with publishers for over 10 years and it is a tough business. Also they expect you to do 90% of your own promotional work !

Eglantine I did read somewhere that celebrity memoirs have peaked, according to publishers (thankfully, because most of them are pretty boring).

What's the next popularity wave, does anyone know?

It’s worth also writing a blog. Publishers like it if you already have an online presence

Mystery thrillers with a twist as in Girl on a Train.

Novels about disability narrated by the disabled or an onlooker like Elizabeth is Missing

Game of Thrones type stuff.

Holiday reads like Little Cornish Cafe or whatever. Always a seasonal market for those. Likewise Christmas stories.

However once it’s being sold on the shelves, it’s probably too late to write in any of those genres. Unless you can churn one out in a few weeks.

If Grannyknotsfriend keeps going memoirs might be back in by the time she finishes.

Timing is everything!

And the online presence. OldMeg is right!