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.

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.

WELCOME TO THE RESOLUTION

Here we are again - another year past and another year ahead. If you had spent one hour per day everyday during the past year writing 500 words, you would have written 182,500 words or about 2 average size novels. Yes, you can argue with that stat but instead, go write your 500 words.
I don't particularly like the word "resolution" and prefer the word "intention" because I think it is stronger. So, I guess that means it's time for this year's New Years Intentions:

1. I intend to write 500 words per day
2. I intend to take at least 2 vacations (but I'll write my 500 words)
3. I intend to belly laugh at least once per day
4. I intend to stop having "seconds" (notice I didn't say desserts)
5. I intend to shake hands less and hug more
6. I intend to dream bigger
7. I intend to go to bed earlier
8. I intend to "unsubscribe" from more sites than I "subscribe" to
9. I intend to seek happiness in every situation
10. I intend to see possibility instead of impossibility
11. I intend to listen more actively and talk less frequently (unless being paid for it)
12. I intend to create life rather than watch it pass
13. I intend to take a few minutes first thing every day to read something inspiring 
14. I intend to listen to my "gut" more and follow its path
15. I intend to spend more time with people and businesses who support me, and less...
16. I intend to make 2012 the springboard to my best life

If you would like to share, I would like to post it, or perhaps you will use the comment section to list your one, most important New Year's Intention and please feel free to share these thoughts with others. It's easy to use the buttons below to send it to your friends.

AN INCOMPLETE LIST

Writing a book is one thing but publishing/marketing/selling it is quite another. Planning, organizing, researching and writing are commitments that compete for our time and resources and there is soooo much information out there that we could spend all of our time reading the offerings of others and don't actually create our own book. I thought that regular readers of this corner might be interested in a list of people and resources that I have found helpful in the past year or so: this is incomplete and I have only included people's websites rather than email addresses for obvious reasons. In a few cases, I have recommended that you send me an email since the person does not have their own website that I know of. I will forward their contact information to you and yours to them. I should note that I have no financial arrangements officially or otherwise (except for one - can you guess?) with any of these people, but have found them to be reliable and honest.

Printers and Publishers
BlitzPrint www.blitzprint.com
CreateSpace (Amazon)  www.createspace.com
Our Little Books www.ourlittlebooks.com
Polished Publishing Group  www.polishedpublishinggroup.com

Editors
www.thewritesupport.com
send me an email for others

Cover Design
 send me an email

Illustrators
Janice Blaine

Layout
send me an email

Distribution
Sandhill


E-Book and Digital platforms
Kindle Direct
Smashwords


Portrait Photographer
Insight Photography

Videographer
Jillian Lee

Word of Mouth and Relationship Marketing
Theresa de Grosbois


Workshop and Meeting promotion
send me an email

If you contact any of these organizations, mention my name. I doubt that you will get any discount but it makes me look good...maybe you too.

CREATE A BEST SELLING TITLE

THE 7 STEPS TO A BESTSELLING TITLE

This is an excerpt from my book THE ONE HOUR AUTHOR: non-fiction book writing for busy people, that shows aspiring authors how to create a non-fiction book and guide them from the thinking and planning process to the fully prepared manuscript.

Bestselling non-fiction books have several common characteristics, but the title is arguably the most important of these because the potential buyer will be drawn to your subject and your solutions, information and opinions, or not. Today, many non-fiction books are offered in an e-book format only and other than the marketing material, there is very little to differentiate your offering from the many others available. So, that leaves us with the title and leaves you with the task of creating one that exhibits as many of these winning characteristics as possible.

I suggest that you read through and make a list of ideas that pop into your mind as you are doing so. Often, it is the first thought that is the most powerful and successful.

Having a working title near the beginning of your project helps you as the writer to stay on focus and so this will be a good time to introduce you to the seven characteristics of an excellent title.

1. Juxtaposition - this is more important if your book is going to be found on a traditional bookstore shelf. The books that stand out have titles that do not seem to fit on the shelf the buyer is looking at. The potential buyer walks into a store looking for something on Italian cooking and on the shelf with the other cookbooks, they cannot help but notice one with a title that just does not seem to fit.

“You put WHAT in the Sauce?” is probably more attention getting than “Cooking Italian.”  The point is to get noticed enough to have the potential reader pick up your book instead of the one next to it.

2. Address the issue, problem or need that you are writing about. Give the reader the opportunity to know what you are writing about - nothing cutesy, but at least one word in the title should mention your topic. This might be in the sub title rather than the main one.

3. Keywords - once again we talk about search engine optimization but if you can possibly get a few search-able words connected to your main topic, it will go a long way toward being found in the various search engines and databases. There is much more to this science than we are going to cover here and it takes much more than just a word or two in the title, but that will at least support your further efforts to create and locate your audience. Do not get carried away in this need for SEO but simply be aware, especially if you intend to self publish.

4. Promise - your title should inform potential readers of something they will stop doing, start doing or start doing differently as a result of reading your book. This is why your audience will buy your book, because they want something as a payoff for their hard-earned dollars. They will pay for your book in exchange for receiving a benefit for themselves. There are personal benefits to reading an altruistic book that offers world change because it makes the reader feel better, even though they might not personally benefit.

5. Tease the reader with something provocative, eye catching, controversial, shocking, humorous, unexpected, and challenging or over the top in the title. You are seeking attention in the face of thousands of other titles that are competing with you. Some authors have had great success with NURDS. This is the art of creating a word that does not exist but mashes other words into a new one - sometimes it will even enter the language if the book is very successful. e.g.. Freakenomics or a word that is totally unfamiliar like, Outliers.

6. Alliteration or rhyme will help the title roll off the readers tongue; helps make it repeatable and memorable. Be careful here because, depending on your topic, a cutesy title could easily work against you. You will want to test this idea with an objective advisor or two before you commit to it.

7. No superfluous words. Keep the title as tight as you can, try using a verb or action word in the title - some recent releases use just one verb as the main title and rely on the sub title or the author’s name to carry the day. This is not a hard and fast rule since there are many exceptions that have long titles, but the first couple of words are the key to remembering the book.

bonus: try to work numbers into the title if you can such as, the 5 habits, the 7 secrets, the 3 most important...  You get the idea; it is part of the promise that you, as the author, are making to the reader and you are telling them what to expect as a result of reading your book. This has worked very well for some multi-million selling books and it might for yours, too.

The bottom line is that you will not be able to work all of these characteristics into your title, but the more you can use, the better chance you will have of being noticed. The idea is to encourage your potential reader to take your book off the shelf, examine the cover and decide to investigate further.

And just one last word of caution, if you are going to sell your book to a traditional publisher, they will have the final say on any title. Spend some time in your local bookstore perusing the titles both in your genre and outside and see if some ideas start to occur to you.

HOW TO WRITE A HOW TO

Writing a "How To" book has changed forever. Now, before you write and tell me that you prefer to have a hardcopy book to refer to and how you will never use any other source of information to learn how to do something new, or different, or better, or whatever, let's look at the facts.
The cost of information today is virtually zero. If you have "access," which means a connection to the internet, then you have more information than any one person could digest in 10 lifetimes, maybe that should be 100 or a 1000. How to change your life, learn Spanish, fix a leaky faucet, make cookies, make love, write a book, take a picture, build a bomb, paint a house, travel cheap, lose weight, cure illness, play Sudoku, improve a golf grip, plant a tree...you get it - anything is available...for free. It may be a bit unruly, trying to organize all of the information and sort through the accurate and inaccurate, but it's all there.
This is a bit self-defeating in my case, but writing a book to show people "how-to" is going the way of the dodo bird. For those tasks that require pictures, there is You Tube, the second biggest search engine in the world and besides clandestine videos of partiers gone wild, there is also an unbelievable number of factual and informative videos posted by professionals and amateurs alike who will show you exactly how to perform a task. Can your self-published, hard copy book that suffers from under-financed marketing and promotion compete - maybe..but yours will be the exception. BTW, thank God for exceptions but really, from a business point of view, there are thousands upon thousands of videos, blogs (like this one) and other online resources who are giving it away for nothing.
Most of the people who read this offering are writers and I realize that my tone today is rather cynical but reality is hard to sugar coat and besides I read a blog saying that too much sugar isn't good for us - writing a book for simply "informative" purposes is rather risky. Assuming of course, that you are also writing to make a living or at least return your investment of time, perhaps we should consider some alternative projects to write about. Now, sometimes there is SO much information available that is contradictory, ill-informed or unreliable (think climate change) that it begs for a reasoned, objective and updated approach and perhaps you are the person to tackle it - go for it! But, to simply offer a plain "how-to," full of lists of instructions is unlikely to start any viral marketing fires.
So here is a thought, if we truly want to change the world, provide "access" to the third world so that they can learn to fish and feed themselves for a lifetime - of course, we might also create competition for those of us comfortably ensconced in our safe worlds of information at our fingertips. OK, I'm climbing down from my soapbox but their are still millions of opportunities to write non-fiction and make a difference - what are you writing?
I have also heard a rumor that there is information online about punctuation and grammar - a new search starts!!!

5 QUESTIONS TO ANSWER BEFORE YOU START WRITING

You have decided to create a book. You have decided that finally, you will write your own book. Good for you! You could not have picked a better time in history to write a book and offer it to the world. So, now what? Do you grab your laptop and head to Starbucks, buy a latte and find a corner and begin writing - after all, didn't J.K Rowling do something similar when she created the Harry Potter series. What will your opening sentence be? How will you create the perfect teaser to grab the attention of your reader? You have taken the creative writing courses and have tons of ideas so do you just take the plunge and start that attention-getting first paragraph?
Sometimes that will work. Occasionally, a J.K. Rowling or a Stephen King will break out of the pack and hit the big time - is that your hope, prayer, intention? Regardless of whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction, writing is a business and you will invest a lot of time, energy, emotion, sweat and tears into creating your own book. It will be torn apart by editors, critics, interviewers and the reading public - if you're lucky. If you accept the fact (and it is a fact) that writing is a business - your business, then shouldn't we take a slightly more business-like approach before we invest ourselves?
Before you order the latte, take a look at the five questions that follow and when you can answer them, you will be ready to begin the writing process. What is the point of writing a great book if you don't sell any and no one gets to read it? There is no point - great literature be damned. There have been thousands of great writers tossed on the scrap heap of publisher's refusals, but those days are over. You have complete and total control of your writing and so it is time to start treating what you do as a professional rather than a hope and a prayer. Start with these five questions and your book will be better written and just as importantly better received, purchased, shared and enjoyed.

Who are you writing to?
How will you find them?
Why will readers buy your book?
What is the main message, theme or storyline?
Can you define your book in terms of genre and purpose?

If you want some help in answering these questions and many more, my book The One Hour Author: non-fiction book writing for busy people will definitely help you. If you have read this far and see some benefit in buying my book, let me help you with that, too. Use this code and buy a copy to download as a PDF or load on to your e-reader or computer and pay only $4.99, a $5.00 saving. Here's the code and the link:
THE ONE HOUR AUTHOR: non-fiction book writing for busy people

at the checkout use this code to get your discount CV54N
This is available only on the Smashwords version of the book, it won't work anywhere else.