The Road to Publication for a Writer of a Certain Age

By Carole Duff

“Memoir is hard to sell,” the webinar presenter said. “The market is glutted. Does anyone want to read another story about loss, trauma, mental illness, mother, father, son, daughter, spouse, friend, lover, rejection, or failure?”

I nodded at her image on my computer screen. Having heard this message many times before, I expected to come away feeling disheartened. But not this time.

“Being passed over by agents and the Big Five Publishers is an opportunity to leverage ...