I leave early tomorrow for the Mount Hermon Christian Writer’s Conference. I’m taking a vacation day and will arrive a day early to relax at one of my favorite places on planet Earth.

Read more here.

One of the workshops I’ll be teaching will be a look at the popularity of the Amish fiction genre. At the end of the workshop I will be revealing my guess as to the next genre to enjoy a similar wave of popularity. Perhaps not the tidal wave of Amish fiction, but a wave nonetheless. Take a guess if you want to. If you’re right, I’ll find a nice prize for you. I’ll be back late Tuesday night and will try to post Wednesday or Thursday.

First a note to fiction writers. Even though I’m blogging about a non-fiction topic this time, you really do need to pay attention to what’s happening in the publishing world, regardless of whether it’s fiction or non-fiction. As I teach in my workshops, I fully believe that at least 40% of an author’s success will be based on factors other than his or her writing ability. Largely, those factors involve a willingness to learn about publishing as an industry.

So today, as promised, I want to blog a bit about the memoir/autobiography/personal experience genre. In the world of secular publishing, this genre is extremely successful. Books like Angela’s Ashes, All Over But the Shouting, and the more recent bestseller The Glass Castle have all found a wide audience. But in the world of Christian publishing, that’s far less true. Memoirs or personal experience stories that do well are extremely rare. And some that do succeed must appeal to the secular book buyers as well. A perfect example is the current Tyndale House bestseller Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices by Mosab Hassan Yousef. That book, about the conversion of a Muslim, is in the Amazon top 100 and on the Publisher’s Weekly bestsellers list. Not only does it appeal to readers beyond the Christian community, it also affords the author a great opportunity to speak about his book. I’ve seen him at least once on a major TV program and no doubt he’s been on several others.

This genre has not always been so dead among Christian readers. Some of us remember books like The Hiding Place, God’s Smuggler, The Cross and the Switchblade, Run Baby Run, and others. Where are their counterparts today? It’s certainly not because editors want to say no to this genre. Most editors I know at Christian publishing houses are eager for this genre to pick up steam. We get excited at the occasional successes such as Don Miller’s Blue Like Jazz or Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner. The latter, though, was published by a secular publisher. Why? Would it have sold as well if a Christian publisher had published it? Likely not.

Another current personal story that’s selling well—due to the movie of the same name—is The Blind Side by Michael Lewis, published by….you guessed it…a secular publisher, W.W. Norton. There again, what if that book had been published by a Christian publisher? Would it have been as popular? Would Sandra Bullock have an Oscar on her mantle tonight?

Sports books as memoirs can do well. Tony Dungy’s books have been bestsellers. So was Kurt Warner’s. I see that Tyndale will be coming out with Superbowl winning Saints quarterback, Drew Brees’ autobiography. I hope it does well….but I hope we eventually see the breakthrough of other, non-sports related personal stories.

Will we? I just don’t know the answer. To be honest, the questions surrounding this genre baffle and frustrate me no end. I’ve had to pass up some very good book proposals because, even I’m convinced they won’t sell—unless like the Mosab Hassan Yousef book or a sports story, they can reach out to that part of the market that DOES read memoirs.

Right now in my role as a writer, I’m working on a memoir with an actress from Hollywood’s Golden Age and we are expecting it will take a secular publisher to see the potential in her book, even though it is a solid Christian testimony. Go figure.

Next week I’m going to be at the Mount Hermon Christian Writer’s conference. I hope to see some of you there. GO if you can! At this conference, I will likely buy the newest memoir that I’m aware of published by a Christian publisher. That will be Mary de Muth’s Thin Places. I hope it does very, very well. I hope, in fact, it opens the floodgate for more memoirs. Hats off to Mary–and to Zondervan–her publisher, if it does.

Finally, let me add that presently the best way to have your memoir/autobiography/personal experience book published is to self publish it and promote it like crazy. When it sells well, publishers will be interested.

If you have comments on why you think this genre fares poorly among Christian readers, I’m all ears. All the more ears if you have a solution.

Next time: back to fiction—and one of my pet peeves. Don’t miss it.

Here is an article from the current Publisher’s Weekly that is mandatory reading.

Having just returned from the Florida Christian Writer’s conference, I’m primed to blog about a topic that comes up again and again as I meet with aspiring writers. Many people go through extraordinary adversity and, understandably, want to write about how they came through it. But, sorry to say, these “personal experience” book proposals almost never find a home with publishers. The reason is, of course, that few people buy such books. I often ask the writer of such a book proposal how many books of this type did he or she read when undergoing their own trial. Usually they will admit to having read “none.” And yet they seem to think if they write a book, others will want to read it. That’s nice in theory, but it just doesn’t seem to work that way.

There are some exceptions, of course. An example is Kent Whitaker’s Murder by Family. I had to reject it, but it went to be successfully published by Howard Books.

Despite the difficulties, some writers are determined to write their story anyway. That being the case, here are a few hints for writers of all types of books, but especially those who are determined to write about a specific experience (usually bad, but not always) they went through.

1. Make sure your writing is absolutely stellar. Excellent writing will cause your book to appeal to a wider audience.

2. Plan your promotional efforts. Perhaps even more than other non-fiction authors, you will need to convince a publisher that you can generate sales through speaking engagements and/or other venues.

3. Consider aiming your book at the reading population at large, not just the smaller Christian audience. Secular publishers have taken note at how well books with Christian content sell, so while you may have to tone your message down a tad, you can certainly still weave it into your book.

4. Rather than seeking a large publishing company, you may want to consider a smaller company that isn’t as dependent on mass sales as are larger publishers. One of my favorite proposals that I had to reject went on to be published successfully at another house. It deals with the author’s father and his sometimes humorous and always poignant experience with Alzheimer’s. I love The Hedge People by Louise Carey and wish it could reach a large audience.

5. Don’t rule out self-publishing. If you believe in your story and are determined to see it published, you might save yourself a lot of time by simply going straight to a company like Winepress. They do a great job. And, if your self-published book sells well, a larger company may eventually offer to pick it up. At Harvest House we occasionally publish a self-published book that has done well.

Akin to personal experience books is the memoir or autobiography genre. I’ll blog about that next time. Stay tuned.

I’m preparing to leave for my second writer’s conference this year. I’ll be on my way to Florida on Thursday, hoping for warm sunny weather. But before I go, I want to give you something fun to read. Take a look at this article.

I love lists like this. I’ve seen Elmore Leonard’s list of rules before and some of his are also mine. Particularly the obnoxious offering up a weather report on page one. I hate that. I do not favor prologues either, mainly because they’re so overdone.

Some of the other writers in this article have some great “rules,” that would be good for discussion in a later blog. Do you see something here that strikes you as very wise….or perhaps one you disagree with?

I disagree with several. One obvious one is Richard Ford’s second point:

2. Don’t have children.

I’m hopeful he’s joking, but I have to say that over the years I’ve gotten a lot of material from my kids and now my grandkids.