I completed a memoir of my life from the beginning of the Vietnam War to the death of my father ten years later. I had been asked to write it by an editor in London about the time "Albert of Adelaide" was published in England.

I received the following response from my agent a few days ago:
___________________________________________
Dear Howard,

I feel I know you so much better now (Howdy doesn’t suit you at all as a nickname I hope you shook it in the end). But, but, but, and I really hate to say this, I just don’t see that I could place The Body of John Oakhurst with a publisher, not these days. Of all categories memoirs seem to follow the most distinct trends, at one point addiction stories were the thing, then family or sexual abuse (Hunger; You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me), now it seems to be either race and health (like The Bright Hour) or memoirs that twist around an unusual subject (like H Is for Hawk or Priestdaddy). Regardless the books are almost invariably issue driven, not accounts of life experiences.

I really enjoyed The Body of John Oakhurst but I just can’t think of an editor I could plausibly send it to. I hate saying this, particularly as it’s is such a personal book and saying I can’t help feels, well, personal. And I hate even more having to say I think you might want to take the self-publishing route again. But at least then the book will be out in the world should the trends (god how I hate that word) shift back to more straightforwardly narrative accounts.

Huge regrets, but also thank you for sharing your stories with me, you’ve had quite the life!

Nicole
_________________________________________

Nicole is one of the best agents in the business and knows the publishing industry as well or better than anyone. Her response has convinced me that, regardless of its pretensions, the New York literary scene is pretty much the same as Hollywood. "What's hot is hot and what's not is not."

At this stage of my life, I am not very excited about acquiring a drug addiction or being sexually abused so I will take the easy way out and put my four unpublished books on Kindle one at a time. More later