When I was first pitching Forget Memory to agents, a very successful agent whom I admire a great deal told me that it was a great idea, but that unfortunately, in her experience, “dementia doesn’t sell.” I just got word today that Lisa Genova’s book Still Alice, which she initially self-published, has been picked up by Simon and Schuster for a hefty six figures. It’ll be out in early 09.
There are three books out there right now on midlife memory loss (Carved in Sand, Can’t Remember What I Forgot, and Where Did I Leave My Glasses?) and an elegantly written fictional account of early on-set AD, The Story of Forgetting. I’m sure the film rights for The Story of Forgetting and Still Alice can’t be far behind, if they haven’t already been snapped up.
Dementia is starting to sell. Perhaps this means that we are starting to break the threshold of being able to talk about dementia…and to live with it as human beings rather than be considered vegetables.
There is another big one coming out. The Demetia Book or “Demensboken” in Swedish. Currently being translated to English. It has 4000 presold copies in the little country of sweden, and they have not even started marketing it yet. In fact it doesn’t come out until last week of december 2008. It is put together as an illustration of eight individuals with varying degrees of dementia. The material that is tha base for the book has been used in training of health care professionals. The authors have taken great care in writing it in a way that anyone can read and understand. One of the authors holds seminars all over scandinavia, and has also done it here in the U.S. The other two are Medical Doctors and neuro psychologists.
dementiabook.com