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What It Takes to Sell Your Memoir (or Hybrid Memoir)

 

— with Jane Friedman —

What It Takes to Sell Your Memoir (or Hybrid Memoir)

— with Jane Friedman—

$89.99

June 25, 2026
1:00 - 2:30 PM ET

Each registration comes with access to the archived version of the program and the materials for one year. You do not have to attend the live event to get a recording of the presentation.  Attendees have the ability to chat with the instructor during the live event and ask questions. This webinar is 90-minutes.

A copy of the webinar presentation recording will be added to your Writer's Digest University account as soon as possible after the live webinar. It may take 24-48 hours to process and post in your Writer's Digest University account.

Enroll Now

$89.99

June 25, 2026
1:00 - 2:30 PM ET

Each registration comes with access to the archived version of the program and the materials for one year. You do not have to attend the live event to get a recording of the presentation.  Attendees have the ability to chat with the instructor during the live event and ask questions. This webinar is 90-minutes.

A copy of the webinar presentation recording will be added to your Writer's Digest University account as soon as possible after the live webinar. It may take 24-48 hours to process and post to your Writer's Digest University account.

Enroll Now

About the webinar

About the webinar

Of all the projects that get pitched to literary agents and traditional publishers, memoir is the category with the most intractable, hard-to-solve problems. Partly this is a function of what memoir is: something intensely personal. Writers often have a hard time achieving distance between the meaning and importance of their life's events and the commercial market that might actually exist for the work.

This live webinar addresses that gap directly. Memoir occupies a gray area in publishing: some agents and publishers want you to pitch it like any other nonfiction book—with discussion of platform, market, and media potential—while others want you to pitch it like a novel, with the focus squarely on story and voice. Ideally, you have both to offer.

Knowing how to position your memoir—and understanding what the market actually requires—is where most writers get into trouble. In this class, we’ll walk through the real-world factors that determine whether a memoir can find a traditional publishing home, drawing on what recently announced book deals (and their authors) tell us about the current market. You’ll learn the common reasons memoirs don't sell—not to discourage, but because an honest reality check is what memoirists need to avoid frustration and lots of wasted time.

While it is possible to sell a memoir today without being a celebrity or having a large platform, your work will mostly likely sell based on the appeal and marketability of its story or premise, which we’ll look at from multiple angles. We’ll also look at the importance of small and independent publishers, including university presses, because they represent the most likely home for memoirists without a sizable platform or known name.

Meet the instructor

Jane Friedman

Jane Friedman has spent her entire career in the book publishing industry, with a focus on author education and trend reporting. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry. Her latest book is THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WRITER, SECOND EDITION (University of Chicago Press), which received a starred review from Library Journal. In addition to serving on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, she works with organizations such as The Authors Guild to bring transparency to the business of publishing. Learn more at JaneFriedman.com.

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