Personally, I buy a lot of self-published memoirs. Few of them books that publishers would have 'seen a way to market', but all interesting nonetheless.
And I bet they all have something in them which grabs you - something interesting or 'juicy'. I should add that to my post, Unless you are famous, got over some big obstacle or have something scandalous to say, you don;t have much chance of a publisher taking you on because you won;t be seen as marketable. Self-publishing is another thing altogether. Anyone can do it and as you yourself said, "I buy a lot of self-published memoirs"
Hey what a great rejection letter! I got about 40 pink slips for my debut and another 60 that didn't even bother sending the usual tick-box template, "Go and annoy someone else with your piece of crap" letter. The main reason the publisher/agent didn't take you on is because you're not famous enough for punters to care - you're writing is good - write a novel, get famous and come back to your memoir when people know who you are!
Hi Turnip, Just read your OP and the letter. My advice is don't bother with the rewrite - that's not the problem. The mere fact that you got a rejection letter instead of a note or nothing at all suggests your book / writing has something. Read what the agent said - it lacks a hook. Translation - either you aren't famous or your story isn't unusual or interesting enough for them to take a commercial risk on. You can't rewrite it to make yourself famous. And if you do rewrite it to make it more unusual or interesting it's no longer a memoire - it's fiction. Sorry, that's just the guts of it. Your choices are to keep submitting, and given that you have a letter - and a complimentary one at that - after only four submissions, there is hope. Or you can self publish. My thought would be to set yourself a limit. So many submissions written or so many months spent submitting, and then if you've got nothing positive back - self publish. If you do go indie get a good cover artist and a good final edit and put it out there not in the hopes that you'll make a mega seller, but that you'll get some readership and some feedback. That may in turn guide you as you decide where to continue in your writing carreer. The one thing that won't help you is rewriting endlessly - especially when the agents already consider it well enough written. Best of luck, Greg.
