For self-published authors, sharing the story of your life in a book can be very rewarding as well as therapeutic. And if you have had a difficult past, it can certainly help your healing process.
Unfortunately, unless you are a well-known celebrity, the chances of readers being attracted to your book, as an unknown author’s autobiography, are low. The reasons for this are that, firstly, you are simply not yet recognised as a prominent writer, and secondly, readers may not be able to identify with your own personal experiences.
One way of getting around this obstacle of readership interest is to frame your own life-story within a larger, more contemporary, non-fiction social commentary that everyone recognises and acknowledges as a relevant issue in society today. Something with which they can identify.
Examples would be drug or alcohol addiction, prejudice and discrimination, child abuse, gender-based violence and undiagnosed mental illness. I am sure there are others you could use as well.
Your title should also refer to this general social issue and your manuscript should not be listed as an autobiography.
The idea is then to list your own experiences as examples or case studies, linking them up with the broader narrative. Obviously, you will not openly take ownership of these experiences but present them under assumed names in the interest of confidentiality.
You will find that you will derive the same therapeutic effect as if you were telling your story as it took place, but it has now been presented in a more acceptable format which will allow readers to reflect on the general social issue and not just one person’s subjective experiences.
Obviously, you will have to do quite a bit of work on your own in order to present the research framework for your case studies, but you will find that simply using keywords and a search engine on the internet will give you plenty of material for your manuscript. And, of course, remember to always list your sources.