Help finding similar books (going crazy here!)

Searching for memoirs is probably too broad. I'm thinking you may have better success if you search by topic.

For example, let's say your general topic is "saving money." I just went to Google's Book Search (at the top of the Google page, if you click on "more" and then "books," your search will be restricted to books about the topic). I typed "saving money" in the search line, and learned that Google references 30,300 books about saving money.

Of course, the more narrowly you can define your topic, the closer you'll come to comparative books. When I typed "saving money memoir," the search yielded 2,140 reseults.

Hi Veggie Chick! You might want to take a peek at this list:

Travel memoirs are sometimes like this

Doreen Orion's "Queen of the Road" is about two psychiatrists taking a year off from work to visit almost all 50 states in an RV.

Tom Coyne's "A course called ireland" is about him walking to and playing the golf courses in Ireland.

Matt Polly's "American Shaolin" is about a Princeton student who drops out and studies Kung Fu in Shaolin China for 2 years.

Mark Richardson's "Zen and Now" is about a guy who rides his motorcycle along the trail of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

So let's see. Is the category you are looking for a sort of "immersion journalism experiment?" I googled this phrase and came up with someone who wore blue jeans for 7 days. That kind of thing?

Jerry

Maybe they don't have a name for it

Figuring how what publishers call things is often quite frustrating. They seem to have very little imagination about categorizing books, and seem to avoid new categories altogether, for fear of confusing the buying public.

Writers are the ones who have to do all this research, and it sounds like you are on the right track. The thing you are trying to figure out has been called

Participatory journalism, immersion journalism, new journalism, and in creative writing schools "Creative Non Fiction" - CNF.

Check out books by the master's of the form - Tracy Kidder made the genre famous with a book about the invention of a particular computer - "Soul of a New Machine" - Tom Wolfe created practically a revolution in journalism with Electric Cool Aid Acid Test, and of course George Plimpton created an industry from participatory journalism.

You're right about needing to use the right words in your book proposal but don't expect any easy answers.

Jerry

P.S. All memoirs are participatory journalism

Just wanted to point out this is an important topic because all memoir writers are participating in the topic of their non-fiction book.

jerry

Scott Timberg refers to them as "gimmick books" and mentions a book reviewer who calls them "schtick lit." In this article, Timberg wonders if novelty-based memoirs are on the way out:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-et-gimmick-books5-2009sep05,0,4104835.story

These books are on their way out

I regularly see articles and commentators who say memoirs are on their way out.

I'd like to write an article about how these articles about "memoirs are on their way out" are on their way out. LOL

Jerry

Jerry--

I understand what you're saying, but I don't think that's the point of this article. The author's intent here is to share industry insiders' perspectives on the future of novelty memoirs, not to sound the death knell for the entire genre/category.

Interesting article, Newport. I think the following quotation sums up the concern:

"The difference between an organizing principle and a gimmick is a very thin line," says veteran publishing observer Sara Nelson. "Most books need an organizing principle -- memoirs, especially: It makes the writing and reading of the book easier and more enjoyable. When that principle is so rigidly constructed, the reader can feel it's not authentic."

Situations that are contrived just so the person can write a book about it feel like faux memoirs.