Stop With the Prescriptive Memoirs

Back in May, I got a referral from a fellow editor friend. She had a client who was looking to write a book proposal and thought we could be a great fit.

Then I saw two dreaded words in a sentence that always makes me shake my head.

I’m writing a prescriptive memoir . . . 

No. Just no. You’re not writing a prescriptive memoir — and neither is anyone else.

That’s because there is no such thing. 

Your book is either prescriptive — meaning how to, as in the prescription you get from a doctor —

Or it is a memoir, a historical account or biography written from personal knowledge or special sources. (And yes, I took that from the dictionary.)

Why this gets twisted is the result of a short-lived fad within traditional book publishing where prescriptive memoirs were briefly (and in my opinion, terribly) a thing. What you need to know about that incorrigible trend was that it’s not happening anymore because it didn’t work.

And it didn’t work because of a little thing we call category. 

Meaning, when I walk into a bookstore or peruse a website like Bookshop.org (or Amazon) I’m typically looking for something. As a reader, I’ve got a book in mind. I want to read a personal story, or maybe a novel, or perhaps buy a book to solve a problem.

But I’m usually not looking to do all three of those things. 

And that’s what you’re asking someone to do when you are writing a prescriptive memoir. 

Think about it this way. When you have a book that tells a story and also gives advice on a specific problem — where would that book be shelved? 

Where does someone go to look for it? 

Where does someone find it?

If you are thinking, wow, Meghan, I wouldn’t know where to look — you would be right. 

And you have single handedly, on your own, uncovered both why the appetite for prescriptive memoirs did not last in traditional publishing as well as why those two words make me cringe today.

As for my potential client, she wasn’t writing a prescriptive memoir. Instead, like most of my clients, she was writing a how-to book that had stories from her life. 

Which — to be absolutely, 100% clear — is still a how-to book. 

Knowing what type of book you’re writing is important, because most folks in traditional publishing specialize. My team and I only work on prescriptive (how-to) books, which is why we ask you what type of book you’re writing on our free quiz. 

(Which, spoiler alert: also helps you figure out where you are on your journey. So you should take it now if you haven’t already.)