Go Ahead, Write Your Memoirs  geroge bush decision
points_post.jpg   It is hardly news that memoirs are a booming
genre in books. Of the top 15 New York Times nonfiction
bestsellers for January 30, seven were memoirs, including
offerings from George W. Bush, Keith Richards, and Jay-Z. One of
the biggest hits of the fall-winter season has been the
Autobiography of Mark Twain, volume 1, which has sold well over
300,000 copies despite being eviscerated by Garrison Keillor in
a front-page Sunday New York Times book review, who called it "a
powerful argument for writers' burning their papers."  Given my
long involvement in journalism and publishing, I tend to get a
lot of memoirs from others with a background in news. At some
point, telling stories from your years of adventures in the
field seems to be irresistible. I've probably received a dozen
of these in recent months. My counsel is always the same: finish
the manuscript even if it has little chance of being
commercially published, let alone becoming a blockbu