Book sale research

[GJF]

Hey Brandon,
Thanks for the forum; very generous of you. After reading most of the post, it has been very helpful.
I am about to put together a proposal of my memoirs and have a question. Having broken my neck and became a quadriplegic, I was told by all the 'professionals' I would never walk again. After a few months of their relentless pessimism, I fired them all and set off on my own to attack the injury and symptoms my way and holistically. Through extreme perseverance, research and hard work (along with a lot of luck), I put together my own team of believers and true health seekers and now I am the most successful recovered quadriplegic in the world (to the best of my knowledge). It is a great journey and I've been told to write a book by several people over the years. I have the rough draft of roughly 75 percent of the story written; that is when I started doing research on how to get a book deal. I went back and refined (to the best of my questionable abilities) the first 2 chapters (55ish pages).
Your proposal page informs about presenting market analysis. There are a few market segments that I am targeting in the writing but the main would be the heart felt story similar to 'The Last Lecture', '127 Hours' and 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'. I am looking to find the number of books sold to propose the potential sales with the right kind of marketing and hype similar to those titles. On wikipedia the numbers are referenced for a couple of these titles; I'm wondering if there is a place to find accurate data in case I want to add a few more referenced titles (suggestions welcomed) and was hoping for a respected resource?
If you could also tell me if you think I'm heading in the right direction with the proposal and market analysis, that would be great. Thanks in advance for your response.

[Nathan Bransford]

Hey Brandon,
Thanks for the forum; very generous of you. After reading most of the post, it has been very helpful.
I am about to put together a proposal of my memoirs and have a question. Having broken my neck and became a quadriplegic, I was told by all the 'professionals' I would never walk again. After a few months of their relentless pessimism, I fired them all and set off on my own to attack the injury and symptoms my way and holistically. Through extreme perseverance, research and hard work (along with a lot of luck), I put together my own team of believers and true health seekers and now I am the most successful recovered quadriplegic in the world (to the best of my knowledge). It is a great journey and I've been told to write a book by several people over the years. I have the rough draft of roughly 75 percent of the story written; that is when I started doing research on how to get a book deal. I went back and refined (to the best of my questionable abilities) the first 2 chapters (55ish pages).
Your proposal page informs about presenting market analysis. There are a few market segments that I am targeting in the writing but the main would be the heart felt story similar to 'The Last Lecture', '127 Hours' and 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'. I am looking to find the number of books sold to propose the potential sales with the right kind of marketing and hype similar to those titles. On wikipedia the numbers are referenced for a couple of these titles; I'm wondering if there is a place to find accurate data in case I want to add a few more referenced titles (suggestions welcomed) and was hoping for a respected resource?
If you could also tell me if you think I'm heading in the right direction with the proposal and market analysis, that would be great. Thanks in advance for your response.

If you know someone with access to Bookscan that would likely give you the most accurate info. But if not, I don't know that you actually have to have book sales in the proposal.