This week, I’m offering the 5 worst pieces of advice a memoir writer can follow if they want to land a publishing deal. #1. Think of your memoir as a project that will occupy you for the next year. Wrong! You need to be so passionate about your memoir that you will spend the next decade thinking about it, writing about it, and talking about it. #2. Write your memoir for yourself, no one else. Nuh-uh. Unless your memoir appeals to an audience beyond your close friends and fami

You’ve written your memoir, you’ve produced your book proposal. Now it’s time to reach out to your chosen literary agents and/or editors. To do that, you need a query letter. Sounds simple? Some writers find this one of the hardest elements of this process. The query letter is a one-page distillation of your book proposal. It is most often sent as an email, and it is the very first written approach you will make to an agent or editor. Your book proposal and query letter go ha

Let's be brave and tackle what some writers consider to be one of the hardest parts of a book proposal: the Platform & Marketing section. I’m referring especially to memoirs here, but the sample principles apply to most kinds of nonfiction. In your memoir, you have a fascinating story. You have written it beautifully. But unless you get that story out there, it will stay on your desk unread and utterly unappreciated. Don’t let that happen! Your book proposal is your pathway t

The day has come. You’ve written, polished, and honed the manuscript for your memoir. Go you! Now it’s time to get that baby out there, and for that you need your beautifully crafted book proposal. But does the thought of writing that beautifully crafted book proposal fill you with dread? Let me help with that. In my last two posts (here and here), I looked at what a book proposal is and why you need one. Now—what about the how? In essence, a book proposal consists of eight d

If you’re pitching your memoir to literary agents, the million-dollar question is this: how do you catch an agent’s eye? Impress the agent For the agent, their first step is figuring out why should they read your manuscript, out of the thousands on their desk. They want to know, “Does this writer have the chops? Can they actually write?” If you can affirm that with your beautifully crafted book proposal, then they will be excited to read your manuscript. What is it? Think of

This week I’m launching not one, but two new courses to help writers who are wrestling with their book proposal—whether they’re already writing one, or wondering if they even need to. Baby number 1: How to Write a Book Proposal for Your Memoir—A Webinar I’ve teamed up with memoir guru Joanne Spataro to present a webinar specifically about writing a book proposal for your memoir. In this 90-minute, on-demand webinar, we answer all of the pressing questions like: · How ca