Sunday

TIME TO WRITE


THANKS TO GALLEY CAT

Thursday

GET RICH WITH AN E-BOOK

Is it just me, or is the internet overflowing with get rich quick schemes involving writing your own e-book? I seem to be getting about a dozen emails, blog postings and outright spams a day telling me how to make a million dollars with an e-book. Now, the fact that I am currently writing 2 of them may have caused this to happen, but...
Here's the thing that blows me away - obviously people are paying good money to get information on e-book marketing programs, webinars and so on. At the heart of this process is the fact that they actually need to sit down and write one. If they are serious about looking at an e-book to improve their profile or create actual wealth, then I would not so humbly suggest that they write a good book. Write a book that people will get value from and one that shows the writer in the best possible light. Showing themselves in the best possible light - because you only get one chance at this - means a well constructed, organized and edited book. It doesn't matter how long it is, if it has grammar, spelling and other mistakes, the buyer will not buy a second offering from them.
So here's the deal, if you are interested in entering into the e-book marketing push that is going on, begin by learning how to write a book. Of course, I have written a book that helps you do that: if you glance to the left hand side of the screen, you will see a picture of the One Hour Author: Non-Fiction Book Writing For Busy People - clicking on the image will take you to the Amazon site to buy it.
Before you begin marketing a book, you need to have one and this will be the fastest way to get there easily with the most professional results. By all means, if you are talking to others who are thinking about the e-book program to move themselves forward, send this to them and get them off on the right foot.


Tuesday

MARKET YOUR BOOK

Every author eventually hits the point where they need to do some marketing. Yuck! I know, but it is a reality regardless of where and how your book is published. So many writers that I know, and have worked with, fall down when it comes to the actual selling process of their books. It is not good enough to just write and publish, because absolutely no one will know that your title even exists.
Sometimes people wait and hope that they will magically "go viral" like Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. Reality is that they didn't sell millions of books without a lot of hard work on their part.

Patience, persistence and constant promotion - the 3 P's.

Most of you will eventually, if not first, publish your books on Amazon. You might resist, especially if you are listening to legacy publishers but trust me, you will eventually find your book on Amazon. Publishing is easy for both Kindle and paper books, but then what?
Last weekend I ran across an e-book from Shelley Hitz called, "Marketing Your Book On Amazon," and you really do need to get it too. She includes 21 different real-life things that we need to do to make our efforts more visible. Yes, I am in the process of going through her "to-do" list for each of my titles and you should too. Find her book here, on Amazon and download it to your computer if you don't already have a Kindle.
I know that there are other platforms that require your attention like Smashwords, Apple, Kobo, Barnes and Noble and others, but start with the biggest and go through the steps and then move on to the next. You need to do your part in the marketing process, regardless of whether you publish yourself or with a legacy publisher - marketing and sales are your responsibility. Shelley's book takes a lot of the mystery and hard work out of the deal so I very highly recommend that you start here.
And, just to let you know, Shelley did not ask me to post this blog on her behalf - I just think that my readers deserve to have good information when it is available.
I must admit that when I was reading some other blogs yesterday, I came across several authors who write only for the sake of writing and don't really seem to care if readers find them. What a disservice to both potential readers and themselves. If it's worth writing, then it is worth reading - find your readers.

Thursday

PUBLISH A BOOK

Many of you have reached the point in your writing careers where you are close to finishing your own book. What to do next? You realize that conventional publishers are not breaking down your door with six figure cheques in hand and movie deals in their back pockets. You would still like to make your book available to the public and are considering self publishing.

Perhaps you are a bit apprehensive about what to do next. How do you go about publishing all by yourself? There is a hybrid route that will give you the power and control of self publishing, along with the rights and privileges of keeping what belongs to you in terms of money and future income. My friend, Kim Staflund, of Polished Publishing Group, has created an inexpensive webinar explaining an approach to bringing your book to a waiting audience that includes the support and professionalism of the legacy publishers, while you retain all of the rights of a self publisher.

You can access more information about her webinar by going here

I am looking forward to joining you for her webinar.

Tuesday

BOOK WRITING AND PUBLISHING TODAY

Write, Publish and Sell your book - here's how.

Yes, Kim and I are going to present an all new Webinar in January 2013. We are currently working on details but will soon announce that we have decided (just today) that we owe it to our followers, especially those who have been unable to attend in person, this info packed presentation. Here's our original video presentation, but disregard any details about where, when or how long - we will announce that soon.


We are taking the full day workshop and distilling all of the highlights down to two fun and fact-filled hours that will have you ready to move forward. This will be a very focused and fast paced session that is designed to give you all of the steps necessary for becoming the author that lurks inside. If you have been wanting to bring your own book to the world - this will give you the information and inspiration to make it a reality.
Looking forward to seeing you in January 2013. Many more details to follow.

Wednesday

WHAT DOES A BOOK COACH DO?

As a book mentor and coach, I take great pride in guiding clients through the process of organizing, focusing and writing their books. I particularly enjoy working with people who are passionate about their work, project, or mission but are unclear about the writing process.

My coaching process is designed to help the new author become very clear on who they are writing to and what they are writing about. From there we move to finding out what the important sections of the book will be and then move easily to the writing itself.

It really is easier than most people think but the truth is, the process and accountability is what makes it easier. Having a book coach who mentors early stage writers through the pitfalls of unfocused writing can make the difference between a book that is unclear and not very successful and one that has an opportunity to change lives, including that of the writer.

If you are interested in discussing your writing project and mention this blog, I will offer you a half price introductory session - $50.00 for a full hour - skype sessions only.

Saturday

SELLING YOUR BOOK ONLINE

Selling a book online can be a mysterious task for those authors who have not done it before. Many still wish to hand the manuscript over to a publisher and have them do all the legwork for them. That's great but you will pay for the privilege forever as they take their large portion of the proceeds regardless of the fact that they have absolutely no additional costs between book number 2 and book number 2,000.
I'm currently working with a client who has written a wonderful children's book targeted at military families (I'll put up a link when we have everything ready). She is launching the book soon with a first edition of hard copies to a local audience and has asked me to make it available online. I have done this with other books and so, I thought that I should make you aware of some of the changes and differences that you should expect if you decide to do the same.
When you create a hard copy book, you can use any of thousands of font styles, include illustrations in any way you like, and can format your pages just exactly the way you want. This is not the case with e-books. I think this is changing as the devices and software change and evolve but at the moment, there are some restrictions and the best way to understand these is to use an e-reader yourself. For those of you who create books that are reliant upon design and formatting rather than plain text, this will be a challenge. Children's books are a good example of needing to alter your expectations for e-readers. Once again, I am pretty sure that will change drastically as you will be able to embed videos, audio and everything else into your books but for now...for the conventional e-reader, here's some differences:
Fonts: probably best to stick with one font, including chapter titles and headings. Preferable to stay with something like, Times - New Roman, for the time being but you can use a couple of different sizes ( but make the normal text size 12 point) and bold the chapter headings. The eventual reader can change both the font style and the font size on their machine, which is why you need to be consistent in your source document.
Illustrations: At this time, most conventional e-readers are black and white based, but this is changing rapidly so color should be OK. Illustrations don't load particularly easily yet but this is getting better all the time. Quite often the e-reader screen size is rather limiting and can make clarity and readability of the pictures, maps and so on, difficult. Once again, devices like the I-Pad and other tablets have this in control and are much better than the conventional e-reader.
Right-hand justification: forget it! Because the reader controls sizing, right hand justification simply does not translate for e-readers. You still might like it for hard copy books but your source document for electronic books needs to have it removed. The same is true for things like centering and a lot of other formatting - best to keep it as clean as possible.
Page numbers: this process has improved immensely. Initially, e-readers couldn't handle page numbers and used a combination of percentage of book read and some convoluted system of determining book locations. Now, you can use page numbers and the various upload software that is available will guide you through the actual handling for each one.
Table of Contents: don't miss the opportunity to provide an active table of contents for non-fiction books. Most are not read "front to back" and the reader wants to read them out of order or maybe some parts, not at all. I'm thinking cookbooks, travel books and the like. You will normally add the "active table of contents " formatting in your source document - Word, for instance, has a process available for this and it can be found in their help section. Frankly, if you don't include that in most non-fiction books that have many chapters and sub-chapters/headings, you will succeed in ticking off your audience, royally.
ISBN's: I just think that it is best to acquire your own ISBN's from Bowker, or from the source in your own country, however, that is no longer always true. In some instances, you can obtain a free one through CreateSpace, for instance, or Smashwords that will then give you better access to their expanded distribution channels. Read the instructions and guidelines provided by the various outlets carefully BEFORE you make a decision that you cannot reverse. Do what's best, not necessarily most expedient,  for you as the author. Remember that you will need a new ISBN for each book format that you create.
Design: For most fiction writers who create straight forward text based books, the whole process is reasonably simple but for those people who imagine the possibility of adding additional features to their book that will enhance the reader's enjoyment ( and perhaps their sales), it might be an idea to hook up with a good designer. When I say designer, I am thinking of someone who has an excellent understanding of new media and how to create it. Someone who can create graphics, video, photographs and sound that can be embedded in a document for publishing to the Apple, Kindle, Nook,  Android and other stores or retail outlets. The non-fiction market is about to explode as these kinds of books become available. Imagine writing a house renovation book that shows in color and graphic detail exactly how to instal that new hardwood flooring with a combination of sound, video and print instructions. Imagine what this technology is going to do to the textbook market and how it will revolutionize education.
Selling Your Book Online: A few final thoughts about what's possible for you in the future. As the formats and technology change, your opportunity to create a revised edition for your book changes, too. Unlike the traditional bookstore, an electronic bookstore can accept and list an unlimited number of titles so that you can update the text, create videos ( how-to's, travel, cooking, etc.), release an audio version and lots of other things to publish a new edition of your book and still keep the original available for those people who continue to use the older style e-readers. Your costs don't substantially change and you don't need to pay for additional printing, shipping, etc.
If you have added some of this exciting new technology to any of your books, or are thinking about it, please leave a comment and a link so that we can all see how you are doing.

Sunday

MORE ABOUT BOOK PRICING

I don't know if this is right or wrong - only time, or sales, will tell. I've been thinking about the pricing of my books for awhile and wondering if they should change to reflect changing times. Originally, pricing was based on production and distribution costs combined with the amount of effort, research, writing time and other stuff to determine how much I thought I should make per copy. All of that has changed.

I do agree with some friends in the industry that price should reflect the content and value to the reader to some extent, after all, how much is it worth to a reader to change their life? On the other hand, e-books are beginning to become commodities and after the initial costs of time for research and writing and the costs of design, editing and set up, there are no further costs for printing, distribution, returns, marketing, and so on. In other words, once the initial costs are covered, the author or publisher can sell unlimited copies without incurring further costs.

To some extent, the same is true for print-on-demand copies. The printer or supplier has a fixed cost for providing each additional printed book but the author has no extra costs over and above his original "inputs." It began to dawn on me that I don't care whether a reader wants a digital copy or a printed one. If I set my pricing so that my royalty works out to pretty much the same thing, regardless of format, then I could lower my prices and pass the benefit to the purchaser...so, I did. My net royalty on an e-book priced at $4.99 is almost the same for the printed version priced at $9.99. The extra cost to the buyer for the printed version goes to the printer who has to provide paper, ink, technology, labor and printing presses to produce it, but I end up with the same amount, which is perfectly alright with me.

Anyway - pretty unscientific and I'm sure there will be disagreement from traditional publishers but that's my logic on the reason for changing the prices of my books. It's nice to have the right to do so.

WORLDREADER.ORG

I have long held that the cure for most of the world's ills lies in literacy and access to information. If we teach the disenfranchised to read and then provide them with the opportunity to access books and ideas, they will throw off the yoke of oppression, poverty, hunger, addiction and violence. We have seen the results of some of this in recent months in many places around the world. I suspect that we will see much more in years to come thanks to a project that I am privileged to be participating in.

THE STORY

As many of you might know, I am a big fan of Seth Godin and especially his commitment to making ideas available on a large scale basis and his willingness to share his own. He recently offered some thoughts on an organization called Worldreaders.org that you can read here. The ideas and efforts of this organization make so much sense in my mind that I just had to contact them and offer my own humble writing attempts for their program. I have just signed the agreement and sent it off to them. I don't know how many kids in Africa, Asia and South America will be interested in my books but that is not the point. The point is to give them the opportunity to read about the world and its possibilities. This project truly is about "teaching them to fish" rather than giving them a loaf of bread.

THE IDEA

In a nutshell, Worldreader is providing Kindles to students in developing countries, where paper based books are almost non-existent, and they are asking authors and publishers to make their books - the ones that are already part of the Kindle program - available at no charge. They will pre-load any books onto the devices before giving them to the students. They have made an agreement with Amazon and it really is possible for anyone who has written a book to make a difference in the world, in a very real sense. Simple, easy and brilliant - ideas, information and access, all in one package.

IF YOU ARE A READER

As a reader, there are three ways that I can suggest for you to participate:
  1. send an email to your favorite authors asking them to make their books available to this program - you can send the link to this blog if that makes it easier.
  2. send a message of support to info@worldreader.org and tell them how important their work is in transforming the world - I'm sure they would accept any donations, too!
  3. forward this blog post to your friends on Twitter and Facebook and encourage them to do the same - let's make this a movement for change.
IF YOU ARE AN AUTHOR

Assuming your book is already listed on Kindle, it is a very simple process to contact Elizabeth Wood, Director of Digital Publishing for Worldreader and request their information package. There is a simple one page contract wherein you can direct Amazon to make your book available to this program. Yes, you will give up any income from potential sales to this group of potential readers. Kids learning to read in third world countries may not be that big a potential market for you, so, perhaps you will be willing to give up the royalties from sales in Ghana - think about it.
If your publisher holds the worldwide digital rights to your books, please consider talking to them about this program. Some are participating but others are requiring that the charity pay for the e-books. As you know, there is NO cost involved in making e-books available.
Send this post to your editors, designers, author-friends, distributors, and anyone else connected to making books available so that they can learn about this possibility for creating real change in the world.


AND FINALLY

A big thanks, once again, to Seth Godin for bringing this to our attention and big, big props to Worldreader.org for creating a project in which readers and authors can combine our talents, expertise, and need to make a difference into a program that will create so much good for so many people. Education will change the world and you can be a part of it.

Once again, please pass this message on to your social networks like Twitter and Facebook and let's get more people involved in this life-changing, world-building project.






Friday

1 REASON WHY A SALES PROFESSIONAL SHOULD WRITE A BOOK

"Why write a book? I'm a professional person and I'm already successful, what reason would I have to write a book?"
The obvious, trite and over simplified answer is, because you can. Leaving aside why you should, could, and would write your own book, let's look at one reason that writing your own book would make a big difference in your business life. 

REPUTATION AND STANDING WITHIN YOUR FIELD. You may already be successful in terms of sales and income. You have great knowledge of your product or service, and you are able to find solutions to your client's problems. These are the keys to your success - how risky is it to share them? Won't your competitors learn your secrets and take away your business.

The answer is, yes and no. Yes, you will share some, or most of your skills and assets, but it launches you into a much bigger playing field. You will come to the attention of executives within your own company and in your competitor's companies. Your clients and their connections, however, will now come to see you as the expert in the field. You have written a book. You have established a higher standard. Writing a book automatically confers a status of expertness with it. Your customers and prospects will know this. They want to deal with you, the expert. More referrals, more business, more income - that's the way it works.

You can also  expect to receive invitations to meetings, conferences and conventions and perhaps become a guest speaker or presenter on these occasions. All of this results from using the information you have to create a bigger playing field. Zig Ziglar didn't sit on his hard won skills and information for fear of passing on sales secrets to his competitors - he made his competitors customers! You can too.

There is an easy and fast way to create a book that presents you and your ideas professionally and in a way that will grab attention in those circles that you most want to access.   THE ONE HOUR AUTHOR has been created to accomplish this goal quickly and successfully. It's easy to read and learn the techniques of professionals and move yourself on to the road to success. You can download a PDF to read or print on your own computer here, or you can get a copy to your e-reader, or a printed copy here.

Good luck and keep in mind that writing your own book can replace that tired old business card with a professional and valuable piece of information that your prospects will respect and appreciate for years to come. Some of you are giving away data sticks as business cards - load your book on and make it even more valuable.

Saturday

PUBLISHERS ARE SPEAKING

The publishers appear to be taking a stand in terms of e-books. If you take a quick glance at the top 100 books on the Amazon Kindle listings, you will see that the major publishing houses now dominate the list. What is amazing is that in most cases, the Kindle price is higher than the paperback price and in more than a few instances, higher than the hardcover price.

As a reader, and an owner of a Kindle, I have a hard time justifying the price asked for a digital copy of a new release that is in the 15 - 20 dollar range. Some are well over $20.00. I don't think Amazon minds the prices since they get paid a percentage of the list and the higher the better for them. What does this mean for the early stage author who is publishing independently and doesn't have the marketing support of the big guys? It means the same thing it has always meant, build your own list of followers, connect and communicate with them in a timely and authentic fashion. Build your list one reader at a time - the same way you sell your books.

To be an author, you also need to be a marketer. If you are looking for advice in that area, I strongly suggest that you subscribe to Seth Godin's blog - no question that he is the preeminent marketer in this digital age. I suspect, but don't actually know, that there may be more platforms on the horizon for indie authors, so that they can get noticed by readers who appreciate us. I kind of like John Locke's philosophy for selling his pot boiler novels for .99 as he says that he offers the readers good entertainment and that the "big guys" have to justify why the reader should spend 15 to 20 times more for similar entertainment.

I realize that "name recognition" sells and it always has, but good writing, combined with a marketing plan that suits your needs, persistence, and most important of all, more books, you can get there. Keep writing, keep talking, keep posting, keep the faith baby!

Wednesday

APPRECIATE LIFE

As a creative person, we sometimes get caught up in the business of life. Here's a TED video from Louie Schwartzberg that will help you get back to what's important. Please take a moment to view it and rejuvenate yourself.

TED video

TARGET AUDIENCE

I am guilty of suggesting this to my clients, but now I wonder...  When I was much younger, a great teacher ( hi there, Sister Mary Andrew) told our class that the average reading level was grade 6. I have read, or heard, this same comment many times over the years. Most magazines, newspapers and best selling authors accept this fact and write accordingly. Now, I'm not so sure that we are doing the right thing.

As writers, do we have a responsibility to improve the quality of our work and thus raise the bar in the reading public, or does our responsibility end at the number of copies sold? I am talking to those authors who target the mass public audience and not to the academic writers who target a much smaller group of people who can appreciate the fact that they use words with more than two syllables.

Is it good enough, for those of us who write to the great unwashed, to cater to the lowest common denominator or should we assume that our audience can handle something a bit more challenging? I ask you - do you have the courage to write for an audience that will be challenged by your use of language arts? Can we all rise slightly higher and reach for better vocabulary and drag the average reader along with us? Should we? Is the economic risk too high to even bother? What would happen if popular writing was targeted at a grade 8 level - would the reader give up, or move up?

I guess what I am asking is, should we accept the fact that education seems to be changing and the standards (at least, on an anecdotal basis) seem to be dropping? Or, should we support the education system by attempting to push the readers a little higher?

Sunday

GOOGLE BOOKS

 I am trying to learn more about Google Books and whether or not it is a benefit for authors like you and I. I see that one of my first books is listed there, without a cover, and I am not sure whether I authorized this or not.
  • Have you used Google Books to promote, list and and market your books? 
  • What kind of experience have you had?
  • If you decided against listing there, why?
  • What kind of sales increase have you had - or do you know?
  • Do you know any good, independent information sources about Google Books?
On the surface, anything that helps an author market his or her books would seem to be a good thing but there seems to be a lot of controversy surrounding Google's entry. At one point, they wanted to digitize all the books on the planet and make them accessible. I think this project has been tempered somewhat but frankly, I'm unclear where this is going. I have gone on the Google Books site but there is not much information other than the requirement to create yet another account and then upload your books. If you have experience, I and I'm sure everyone else, would benefit from your sharing in the comments area.

Thanks in advance and please consider forwarding this request to other writers that you know so that we can all learn.

Thursday

Just a quick note for my friends - if you have wanted to read MY SECRET MOTHER: an adoptee speaks to the girls who went away, and didn't want to pay $4.99, then go to Smashwords now and get it for 75% off!

here's the link

The sale ends March 10.

Friday

BOOK PRICING

The science of pricing a book is evolving. In the good (?) old days, publishers decided what an author's book would sell for and they pre-printed it on the cover. They would often show different prices for different countries on the same label and assume that the exchange rate wouldn't change. All of this was tantamount to price fixing, but the bottom line was that the content creator had no control over what the reading public paid, and their own income was decided by someone else.
The internet has changed all of that, along with everything else it touches. As authors have begun to find new ways to connect with their audience, and new formats ( e-readers), they have taken pricing into their own hands. The old-line publishers are resisting the change, and in many cases they are keeping their author clients in check by maintaining an artificially high price for e-books. However, as bestselling authors from the legacy publishers discover the freedom and economic advantages of controlling their product ( that is, self-publishing) the pricing of books will begin to find a common ground.
Jackie Collins announced today that she is re-releasing one of her best sellers as an e-book at $2.99. I think we will find that the pricing will almost always be under $9.99 as we move forward. It is just a guess, but I think the "big guys and girls" will start offering their new releases around that price and the rest of us will begin to slot ourselves around that standard.
Once the Stephen King's, David Baldacci's, Dan Brown's and J.K. Rowling's break from the legacy publishers and decide to strike out on their own, the price formula will become much more obvious, to the great good fortune of the reading public.

Saturday

MEMOIRS - ONE MORE THING

I previously offered 3 tips about writing a good memoir and you can find that post here.
One thing that seems to help sales of memoirs is targeting a much smaller audience. Somehow, when it comes to writing a memoir, that seems like a crass statement - "targeting an audience." I didn't, or at least I didn't know I was, when I wrote, MY SECRET MOTHER, and I'm guessing that if you are writing your memoir, you aren't either. However, if you plan to publish, it helps to know that there are people who are benefiting from, or at least enjoying your efforts. For most of us, writing a memoir (or anything else) and hoping the entire world will read it, is nonsense - they won't. In most of our cases, 99.9% of the world don't even know we exist, let alone care to read about our lives. So, how much is .1% of the population - you figure it out. (hint: in the U.S. alone, that's over 350,000)
I have mentioned in other places that I continue to be surprised by the sales of MY SECRET MOTHER and that, other than the links on my blog pages, I don't do any actual marketing for it. Here's what I think has happened. I am an adoptee and have spent much of my life wondering about what that meant and how I should act, react and proceed, based on this fact. I wrote about my own feelings and thoughts around adoption, and I addressed the whole thing to the mother that I have never met. I don't think that many writers are writing specifically to birth mothers from the post WWII era, although there is lots of info out there about adoption in a general sense. Sounds like a very small market doesn't it? Maybe that accounts for the success, in terms of sales.
A few readers have passed on the title to other people they know who are connected to adoption in one way or another, and it gets mentioned in relatively (in a marketing sense) small groups of women, and so the word spreads among them. A small sliver of the population still represents a lot of people in a numerical sense.
You might consider looking at your memoir in order to find the unique part of your life and experience, and making that your focal point.
If you concentrate on the uniqueness and use even a small amount of SEO to create your title, or sub-title, and use similar search engine optimized phrases in explaining what your book is about (what your book is about - subject of a blog in the near future), then you should expect to make some reasonable inroads into that marketplace. If my personal experience is any indicator, it would appear to work.
You might want to look for the life experiences that may not be shared by many, or the little-known hobbies and interests you enjoy, maybe the small corner of the world that you grew up in, something that sets you apart, but not alone, from the teeming masses. It will give your memoir a unique flavor and ring a bell with a group of readers that share a curiosity about that slice of your life - and perhaps theirs.

Monday

3 THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT WRITING A MEMOIR



MEMOIRS DON'T SELL.    Anyone who has ever broached the subject of writing their memoir with an agent, publisher, coach, editor, anyone, has heard the same reply - "Don't bother, memoirs don't sell, unless you are incredibly famous." So what to do if you are not a former president, A-list celebrity, or much publicized convicted felon? What if you have an interesting story to tell, or you witnessed an event that you feel compelled to write about or simply want to leave a legacy for family and friends? What if you decide that you are going to go ahead and write a memoir, regardless of the advice of all of the so-called experts? First of all - good for you!
Heeding the advice of experts leads to committee-based decision making in which mediocrity becomes acceptable.
So, if you have decided to write your memoir anyway ( it's a great place for early stage writers to get their feet wet), then let's see if we can make it the best that it can be. Good principles of both non-fiction and fiction writing can be applied to help the process and we will deal with three of them here:
  1. WHO WILL READ IT AND WHAT VALUE WILL THEY RECEIVE?    Before you start any writing, consider who will be your target readers and what should they expect your book to deliver in the way of value. How will it make their life better, easier, more interesting? What will it cause them to stop doing, start doing or do differently? Include this thought process even if you are writing your memoir purely for the benefit of your offspring and don't expect it to ever find a public audience. There's nothing worse than taking your children for granted with a boringly told tale without a purpose.
  2. LIST FIVE HIGHLIGHTS THAT YOU WILL WRITE ABOUT.    Name the highlights or events and target your writing to revealing the interesting or unknown parts about them. I was once asked to work with a man who had written a 650 page family history but could not name the major events. He was also convinced that he didn't need an editor because he had "spell-check." I promise you that no one will make it through your opus unless you respect their need to be not only informed, but entertained, as well. If your life has been so eventful that it requires dozens of separate and unconnected events to be explained fully, consider a follow up book. "FIVE" is a target but a reasonable one to offer your readers a glimpse into your story. No, I didn't take on the "family history" project - he knew better than I.
  3. USE DRAMATIC TENSION TO MOVE THE BOOK FORWARD - JUST LIKE A NOVEL.    So, you need to be careful here - if you make up something in the story that is not true - it's not a memoir, it's fiction based on real life events (see A MILLION TINY PIECES for what can happen here). The only way to keep the reader interested is to create, or reveal, the drama in the events so that they can understand that the protagonist ( you?) ran the risk of either losing something significant or not getting something that you really wanted or needed. Maintain the idea of suspense throughout your writing and let the reader be relieved or peeved with the results. They will want to read more if the outcome is in doubt.
Memoirs are kind of a hybrid writing project based on actual facts and events but in desperate need of a good dose of excitement, challenge and plotting. Start with an outline and look carefully for those ways of pacing your story like a novel with suspense, and the possibility that life doesn't always work out the way you planned. Have fun with it - who knows where it could lead.
One last thing, write from who you really are rather than that public persona you have been wearing and your readers, no matter who they are, will become your fans.

Tuesday

READING ISN'T DEAD, BUT...

Seth Godin, one of the pre-eminent marketers of our generation and clearly a thought-leader in the field of writing and publishing, has a few comments to make about the current state of reading.
As writers, we might want to pay attention.
Go here and read his brief blog - it's worth your time, if you are writing in this market.
As always, I welcome your comments and please forward this to people you think might be interested.