The Memoir Market

A few weeks ago, USA Today ran an article about the memoir business. It quoted Michael Cader, who produces the newsletter Publishers Lunch and the site Publishers Marketplace, as saying that memoir sales were actually up last year:

Michael Cader, who tracks book deals for his electronic newsletter, Publishers Lunch, counts 295 memoirs signed by publishers last year, compared with 227 debut novels and 214 memoirs in 2006.

Memoirs accounted for 12.5% of non-fiction deals, up from 10% in 2006 and 9% in 2005.

Cader tracks deals, so while this may not be complete representative, I would look at that data as important and informative. The article also mentions, without providing the source, that "most memoirs sell modestly with first printings between 10,000 and 30,000." That number seems pretty damned high for an average.