IMO memoir is a genre that is always relevant. But the majority of the industry and market appears to be women. Look at any agency contact page and it is likely 85% women. Look at market trends and it also appears to be driven largely by women.
I guess what I'm getting at is -I'm starting to wonder if women have a difficult time identifying with a male protagonist (I'm classifying the subject of a memoir as the protagonist) and if this affects the marketability of a male oriented memoir. I know the general rule is: If the writing is really strong, nothing else matters. But it's hard to get past the query stage if your manuscript is perceived to have three strikes against it (first time author, no platform, male oriented memoir).
The business of publishing does have a lot of women working in it. But this doesn't mean only books for women are published. Don't worry about this: worry about writing the best book you can.
Being male, as a writer, is most definitely not a problem.
I'm not writing this for money. The reason I want to publish through traditional channels is because I don't have the cash to pay upfront costs that are typically associated with POD, professional editing services, etc. If no agents, editors, etc, are interested in my manuscript (admittedly, I have only sent a handful of queries but I did get a request for a full) I will assume no one else would be interested either and self-publishing would seem moot at that point. After all, this isn't a diary. My hope is that other people will be entertained and maybe even learn from my experiences.
Stop sending out queries for now. Wait until you've had feedback on your work, and on your query.
Thanks for the insight. I realize platform is a big problem and I wish I had the time to create a blog, develop a Twitter following, set up a Facebook page, etc.
That's not what is meant by "platform".
A writer's platform is what qualifies them to write about their subject. If you're writing a book about car design, you would have a platform if you were a well-known car designer. If you're writing a memoir then your platform is your notoriety, your fame, your expertise. If you don't have those things then you have to write a very compelling memoir which, if possible, has some big issue connected to it--for example, a memoir written by someone who worked behind the scenes on a major event in history, something like that.
I hate the idea that writers are now expected to promise built-in sales before a manuscript is even reviewed. Seems like a complete waste of good manuscripts written by normal, every day people and I thought part of the responsibility of agents and publishers was to promote their clients. I am friends with someone who could get my book in front of tens of thousands of people, but I really don't want to pitch based on that.
Writers aren't expected to guarantee sales. It helps, for sure, but if a book is good enough and compelling enough, the publisher will get those sales.
Don't pitch your book based on your friend. Your book should stand on its own. But once it's published (or at least in the process of being published) your friend's attention wouldn't hurt.
Part of this discussion comes from interviews I've read with agents who claim male memoir doesn't sell. That made me wonder how strong that perception is. I can believe that platform is a bigger problem than gender bias though. Thanks again.
Male memoir sells. Ignore those agents.
It's a memoir. I ran away from home at the age of sixteen and was a homeless teenager for a while before being taken in by the Dalai Lama's family. My manuscript is about that time period in my life.
And there's your platform.
If your story is interesting, and your book is beautifully written you have a very good chance of it doing very well.
This is starting to veer off topic but I must admit, part of my motivation behind creating this thread was to help reach 50 posts so I can post in SYW. It seems YA is extremely popular in the beta reading forum and I would make a terrible YA crit partner.
Build up to fifty posts by giving critiques to others. Then when your work goes up, you'll have people who will remember the help you gave and are likely to reciprocate.
And there's a lot more to AW than YA. Look around a bit more!