Memoirists are more or less off the hook for this one in the query (you are better off focusing on the story), but other nonfiction authors would do well to mention target audience in their query. Unfortunately, most authors have trouble identifying their target audience; the most common sin is to go way too broad. Here are two examples that miss the point entirely:

• “Anyone who has children will be interested in this parenting book.” Really? Will parents of two-year-olds and parents of twenty-year-olds both be interested? Will rich parents and lower-class parents both be interested? Will urban and rural parents both be interested?
• “Anyone who’s had a friend or family member with cancer will be interested in this book.” That probably describes nearly every person in the United States—this is not a meaningful target audience.

You should also avoid citing meaningless statistics, such as “Google returns more than 152 million search results for the term climate change” or “Amazon lists more than 10,000 titles in the environmental science category.” Neither of these figures indicate or describe the target audience for your work.

Here are examples of a meaningful target audience:

• This book targets the 2 million corporate employees who quit their jobs every month.
• This book targets degree-seeking students in the more than 500 creative writing programs in the United States, as well as those who have graduated within the last five years.

If you’re wondering if this is like a case of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, yes. Even inside publishing houses, there’s always disagreement about the ideal target audience for a book and its size. Sometimes it can be helpful to point to other titles similar to your own, or competitive titles, to give an idea of the target audience you’re after. Just be careful when comparing yourself to books authored by celebrities or huge New York Times bestsellers. If you don’t have much of a platform or the same experience as comparable authors, the comparison may look unrealistic.

Why shouldn’t memoirists talk about target audience in their query?

The truth is that most memoirs get read by people who are already avid readers of creative nonfiction/memoir—or they are read because the person is a name (celebrity), has a following, or has experienced something incredible that very few have ever experienced (e.g., landing a plane in the Hudson and becoming a hero). Obviously each life is unique and is not experienced any other person, but most people are convinced to buy or read memoir because of a fascinating premise or desire to experience something vicariously. (Orange Is the New Black: experience what it’s like to be a female prisoner.) We just have to know what that was like. Voyeurism.

Pretty much every memoir ever written has a generational theme to it and has potential to appeal to that generation. Baby Boomers writing memoirs tell me that Baby Boomers will buy their memoirs, for example—but pointing that out is belaboring the obvious, and not all Baby Boomers are avid book readers. Similarly, we all know that memoirs about a specific problem or interest area may appeal more to people who want to learn more about that—whether it’s addiction, aging, gambling, mental illness, parenting, racing—you name it.

All that to say: I don’t suggest adding target market information to your query as you're likely discussing what is already clear to any agent or editor, or grasping at straws. The story and the writing is all important. Obviously your platform can matter, but if you don’t have a big one, you have to base your pitch on the story/writing.