Today I’d like to talk about writing your memoir and give you some tips on how you can do that. I am an author of several titles, both fiction and nonfiction. All my books, regardless of the genre, have to do with some form of women’s issues.
My love for writing started at an early age. Writing and English were my favorite subjects in school and are the ones I most excelled at. I remember being in college and raising two children as a newly divorced mom, money was tight. I tried to find many ways to make money to pay for school and came across a website called Fastweb.com. It is a website that will ask you profile questions to determine if you qualify for certain scholarships, grants, and monetary awards. One of the entries I came across was a short story contest for Playboy Magazine. This was back in 1999. The top prize was $1500, and I won that top prize.
Before I even discovered Fastweb, I had already started writing my first novel. It was called My Daughter’s Keeper. I finally finished the book and started college at the University of Phoenix in San Diego. Then, I had done a little research but was still uneducated on the ins and outs of publishing a book, so I let my friend help me publish my book, using one of his ISBN numbers. We’ll get into ISBN numbers later in the podcast. But being excited about publishing my first book and thinking this person was my friend, I allowed him to let me publish it under one of his ISBNs. I later found out that it meant, he had rights and power over my work. Needless to say, the book went nowhere, and I was devastated to do a search for my book a few years later only to find that he was selling it from his website without my permission and without even telling me, which meant for any of my books he sold, I would receive nothing.
I quickly made a few changes to my book and republished it under another name, Circumstances, and this time, I used my own ISBN. Although I made a few mistakes along the way, I was proud of that book. The next book would be Revelations, the next 27 Flagship Cove, then 3737 Grim Avenue, and then The View from the Window. I sponsored and participated in anthologies that include Crimes of Passion: The Anthology, She Has a Big But: Get Past Your Excuses and Realize Your Dreams, When Women Become Business Owners: Solid Business and Faith-Based Advice from Real Female Entrepreneurs and Love Knows My Name: Aspiring Love Collection Volume 1.
I am currently working on both fiction and non-fiction titles. One happens to be a memoir. Once you reach fifty years old, you’ve lived a lot of life, right? You’ve made some mistakes, you have done some things right, you’ve learned, you’ve taught, you’ve laughed, and you’ve cried. I’m all for “us”, the elders, passing on tips and our experiences to future generations.
Now, I know some of you might be saying, “I can’t write a book. I have no idea how to do that.” Let me tell you, you can. I’m going to give you the basics on how to do so, the rest is up to you. You can do it. Let’s get started.
Pick Your Topic: The term memoir refers to the telling of your story, your truths. As it pertains to your life. Everyone has a story to tell, and everyone’s story is different, right? That being said, will you write about your entire life? Or will you write about a specific part of your life? Or will it be about a traumatic part of your life? Many memoirs are about overcoming obstacles. Whatever it is, the choice is yours. Once you start writing, you might surprise yourself. You might end up with more than you’ve set out to do.
Just Write Your Story: As a former literary consultant, publisher, and author, one of the things I stressed to my clients was to just write. So many people get caught up in the technical, less important aspects of writing. They get hung up on if they are using the right font, tabbing, spaces, period, order of events, etc. I can tell you, if you concentrate on this, you will become distracted, and you’ll never get your book written. Just write! Everything else will come at its appointed time. Don’t worry about if your thoughts are in order or if you got something wrong. Just write. You can use an outline and perhaps that will help you to organize your thought, but don’t’ spend too much time on your process.
Read Over Your Story: Now that you’ve gotten your story written, here is where you can go back and organize events and thoughts. I use a software called Scrivener (not sponsored) which is affordable writing software to write my books. However, there are other free to low-cost ways to organize and put your book in order. Whether you are a subscriber or an owner of Microsoft Office Software, it comes with OneNote. OneNote allows you to add notebooks, notes, photos, and organize that data. Or you can just use Microsoft Word or a similar product.
Proofread Your Work: Now proofreading and editing are two different things and I’ll explain each process as it pertains to publishing. Proofreading is, you, going back through your manuscript and repeating the “read” step, making sure everything is in its proper place. In addition, you will make sure the spelling is correct. Things like names, street names, and so on, as well as correct dates and other pertinent information. You will do a basic spell check, but I can guarantee you, unless you are a professional editor or a language or English teacher, you will have some typos or spelling errors after this step, but that is just fine. Just catch as much as you can. I suggest reading your book, first, frontward, then backward. What do I mean when I say read backward? I mean start from the very last word and read your work backward. Why do I suggest this? Think about it. When you are reading something, you are so familiar with, something so close to you, and you know how things are supposed to be, it makes it difficult to separate that from actual spelling, grammar, and other mistakes that are easily made. You’ll graze over mistakes because you have the material in your head. This brings me to the next step.
Hire an Editor: This is a taboo topic for many. When first-time authors approach and price an editor, they panic. Editors are not cheap by any means. There are so-called editors that will say, “I can edit your book for $100!” These are not true editors; these are folks looking to make a quick buck at your expense. On average, what you’re going to pay an editor will depend on factors that include the type of editing you need, but also whether the editor charges, per word, per page, or per hour. You’re looking at between $2000 – $5000 total dollars depending on the length of your book. Now there are ways around this price tag, but I would advise that you be careful. You don’t want to produce a piece of junk that no one will want to buy, let alone read. You could hire a proofreader as opposed to an editor for less, but you won’t get the developmental aspect that an editor can provide. If you know an English or Grammar teacher, you could see how much they would charge to edit your manuscript. I would advise being careful having family or friends edit your work, or even seeing it before you publish. If there are unresolved issues or damaged relationships, and especially if one of these people makes an appearance in your life story, you could be met with resistance and that may not end well. If you forgo any of my suggestions and feel that you can do it yourself, just keep in mind, that if there are any errors in your book after it is published, you will may about it from your readers. But perhaps the contents between the cover will be so intriguing, they’ll give you a pass.
Purchase ISBNS:
This is a very important part of publishing your memoir that you do NOT want to skip over. I repeat, DO NOT skip over this stuff. Earlier I mentioned that I used my buddy’s ISBN to publish my first title, only to find him selling it on his webpage without my knowledge, while pocketing any profits he may or may have not received. Mark my words when I say there is no way around this process. You may have people telling you they have an extra number sitting around that you can use, etc. Do yourself a favor and go to My Identifiers, or Bowker and purchase your OWN set of numbers.
ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. ISBN numbers are identifiers. They are to books, what your social security number is to you. This book identifies books in bookstores, both on and offline, and libraries. Every book has an identifier, and I want to be clear when I say, as far as I know, Amazon is the only book publishing platform that does not require an ISBN (let me know if I am wrong). The Amazon publishing platform uses its own identifier, which they call an ASIN. ASIN stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number. Even though Amazon will provide this number for you, I would suggest using an ISBN if you plan on publishing across platforms. An ASIN will only work on Amazon.
You can purchase one (1) ISBN at a time up to a group of one thousand (1000). My suggestion is to purchase ten (10) at a time. The reason you do not want to purchase just one is that if you would like to publish your book via various types, i.e., paperback, hardcover, e-book, or audiobook, you will need an ISBN for each format. So to reiterate, even though it is the same manuscript, you will need a separate ISBN number for each platform. So already, off the bat, you’ve used four (4) of your numbers. To put this into perspective, one (1) ISBN costs you $150. While ten (10) will cost you $295. If you bought ten ISBNs separately, you’d end up paying $1500. Buy them ten (10) at a time. You’ll thank me later.
Pick Your Cover Art: When picking the cover art for your book, you have free reign over what you choose. However, my suggestion is to use a self-portrait of some sort. If you’re writing a book about yourself, why shouldn’t you be on the cover? You can have a photographer take a nice photo of you that better gives a preview of what is in between the cover, who the book is about. Having a photographer will give you a high-quality, high dpi photograph that will be in line with cover creation, which we’ll get into next. I challenge you to look at other authors’ biographic or memoir book covers to get an idea of what might work for you.
Create Your Cover: This can be a little tricky for the first-time author if you are doing it yourself. You can also hire a graphic artist to do one for you. You’ll pay anywhere from $250 to $1000 depending on the difficulty of the cover. Keep it simple. Again, if you decide to do it on your own, there are tools that can help you with making sure your cover fits the correct specifications. Since I am an influencer and product ambassador for Amazon, I’m going to use their book publishing platform as an example. Amazon Publishing is a place where you publish books with little upfront cost. They will provide you with tools and specifications to make sure your book is ready for print. Keep in mind, there’s more to a cover than just submitting a photo. There is the front cover, which has photos, and words, there is the back cover that has a photo, maybe, words, bar code, ISBN, publishing imprint, etc. Your spine will include the title, author, and publishing imprint. The spine is a little tricky because it is based on how many pages your book will have, and whether you’re going the paperback or hardcover route. If you increase or decrease your page count by even one page, the measurement specifications of that book will change, and if it is not correct, the printer will either reject it, or you’ll have a horrible-looking book.
Format Your Book: Not only do you have to make sure your cover is formatted correctly, but you must ensure that the pages are also formatted. You can do this with Microsoft Word, which isn’t foolproof, or you can hire someone else to do it for you. If you’re not trying to spend money to do this, find out the specification via the platform you are using and make sure everything is where it needs to be before you send it to the printer. However, you have the option to get a proof copy of your book before it is published to see how it will look. You can make changes then. But I suggest you catch any changes before this process. You don’t want to have to continually order proofs trying to chase mistakes. That will cost you.
Find a Printer: Now that you’ve gotten all your formatting taken care of, you can select an independent printer, which usually charges a discount for mass printing, or you could go other routes. Keep in mind, a mass printer might mean they will charge you $3.50 for 500 books, but where will you keep 500 books? With Amazon Publishing, you can order your books at a discount, but it might be slightly more. Let’s say $4.50, but you can just order 10, that way you don’t have a storage problem. When you publish and list your book on Amazon, a reader will order directly from Amazon and Amazon will then, in turn, send the book directly to the buyer. Less work for you to do. Platforms like Ingram will do the same, but the prices are higher and there are more fees involved. Now would be a good time for me to mention that you should check with WHICHEVER platform you choose to use to find out how much your royalties will be. Your objective is to get your story out there and keep as much money in your pocket as possible.
Get the Word Out: Finally, you’re going to pick a release date. You can publish the same day you upload your manuscript to a printer, but keep in mind, you won’t have your book that day. I advise picking a date one to three months into the future just in case anything needs to be adjusted and just in case you want to plan a release event.
Start telling everyone about your book and its release, and start scheduling speaking events, book signings, interviews, etc.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that you will need to keep a thick skin once you publish your book. It’s realistic to know that not everyone is going to be happy for you. Not everyone is going to be happy that you told your story, and you will get some backlash. Turn away from that and keep your head towards the positive. I can guarantee you that there is someone that your story will touch.
I can remember when I first published my book. Even in my fiction titles, there are tidbits of truths. Most authors write fiction books based on some parts of their lives or someone they know. Then, I hired a literary agent. I don’t quite remember the reason for the falling out, but I do remember firing her and her telling me, “You’ll never sell another book. I’ll see to it.” My response was, “If I can help just one person, then I’ve done my job.” This was in 1999. I’ve gone on to write and sell other titles. But I remember in 2001 a young lady sent me an email. She had endured several types of abuse since her early childhood and she was contemplating suicide until she read my book. She thanked me for writing the book. God showed up on time. So, as I said, you never know who your story can touch and help.
I challenge you to get that memoir written. You don’t have to tell all your business. Maybe pick a particular event and expound upon it, or just go all out and tell people about the trials you faced and how you overcame them. Or maybe your life was peachy keen, and you have a story to tell or tips on how you were able to keep it all together.
I just challenge you to add published author to your name, on the other side of your dash.
