Apr 15


It looks like I’m too late again

by Terry 15 April 2008


Just when I have a solid idea for a non-fiction project, CNN says the memoir is just vanity and has been done to death.

Now I have to decide if I have anything to say that means something to anyone besides me.

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2 Responses to “It looks like I’m too late again”

  1. Ahistoricality on April 15th, 2008 12:39 pm

    CNN’s grasp on popular culture is tenuous at best. It’s grasp on the business of popular culture is only a little bit better. Most of this reporting has to do with a reporter calling a contact or two and getting a quote, then claiming that it represents some kind of trend or definitive verdict, when the people being interviewed are themselves shooting from the hip and no better positioned to answer the question than the reporter. Or you, for that matter.

    Interesting stories will never go out of style, and real-life drama will never go out of style. It may wax and wane a bit, but well-written and distinctive memoirs are never going to disappear.

    The only thing you have to worry about, really, is the short attention span of people in the book business: if there’s a spate of books which seem to cover the same topic as yours before yours is ready, they can lose interest; if yours is the first, or there’s a good celebrity lead in, you’re in good shape.

    It’s silly, because your memoir wouldn’t be a single-themed work, but that’s how these business sorts understand them, usually….

  2. Terry on April 16th, 2008 11:22 am

    Thanks, A. This is a project very close to my heart, about living with bipolar, and I’m extra sensitive to become discouraged about it. There are several good books on the subject out there, but they’re all by doctors or PhDs of psychology - nothing from the average person finding her own way to get by.

    You’re right that I don’t want it to be single-themed; there’s been a fair amount of humor to the situation, too. I’m at least going to be a proposal and sample chapters together to send out - we’ll see if there’s any interest.

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