- When you tell stories from you life,
do you always hear you need to write a book?
Well, if you're hearing that all the time
or you just know your story needs to be told,
you might be thinking about writing a memoir.
That might be a fantastic idea.
Memoirs can be a great way to share experiences,
help others see they aren't alone in their struggle
and pass on stories from generation to generation
but memoirs are very challenging to market
and I think a lot of self-publishing authors
dive into writing their story
without thinking about who will buy their book or why
and then they publish a book that nobody ever reads.
So if you're working on a memoir or thinking about it,
this video really is for you.
(exciting music)
Hey, I'm Julie the book broad from Book Launchers.
We're your professional self-publishing team
helping you write, publish and promote a nonfiction book
that will impact your reader, grow your business
and make you money.
Our superpower is caring more about you and your book
and what we do differently is work incredibly hard
to get your book into readers' hands when it's done.
The best part, you keep all rights and royalties
and have full control over your book.
Okay, no preamble here.
Let me just dive right into mistake one
and two with an example.
Try this on for comparison.
A book starting like this.
I grew up in a house attached to a 20 room motel
that was built on the side of highway 1 in Alberta, Canada.
I had one brother.
Although, when I was a teenager,
my parents took in another kid giving me a second brother.
My parents worked hard at the motel
and never really got a break from work.
It was a seven day a week 24 hour a day kinda job.
I think we took three family holidays my entire childhood.
My mom was active in the community
sitting on the local school board, dot, dot, dot, dot.
Typical memoir.
Now, compare that to this.
The doorbell rang. It was the middle of the night
so I just peeked out my bedroom door
to see my dad putting on his housecoat
and grabbing the baseball bat.
I heard him walk down the stairs
so I scurried back to my room.
I listened intently to hear the intercom
that he had left on so my mom could also listen
and call the cops if there were any problems.
Most nights this happened there was nothing to worry about.
You see, my parents owned and operated a 20 room motel
on the side of the highway.
People would get tired of driving
and need a place to stay at two in the morning
and there we were.
They would simply ask for a room, pay,
get their key and go to their room
but sometimes when the doorbell rang at two in the morning,
it was someone drunk and angry
or maybe even someone looking for an easy target to rob.
As an eight year old kid, this was terrifying and exciting.
Okay, which book do you want to read?
They're both something I could have written, yeah,
that's my story but the first one
is what most people writing a memoir do.
They sit down and they literally write their story.
They focus on themselves.
In the second version
which by the way these are really rough,
they're not something I'm actually writing,
I did it for an example but in the second one,
I started to write the story for the reader
focusing on grabbing their attention.
The first mistake is writing your story
and not writing the story the reader will enjoy.
The second mistake is telling your story
in chronological order
and not starting with a powerful moment.
I get it, a memoir by definition is a histrionical account
or biography that you've written from a personal experience
or knowledge or close encounter.
That's a book about your life.
How you were shaped into the beautiful human that you are
and the lessons you wanna pass on.
It's a great gift to others but for goodness sakes
you don't need to take the reader through every darn detail.
There are your days you can skip in your story.
Darn near every single memoir that has come to us
written out tries to play out the story of their life
in chronological order starting with their childhood
building to the pivotal moments in their life
and then trying to wrap it up in a nice neat bow.
I can think of only one example
that didn't start at the beginning
and build their story from there and that's so boring.
Think about movies or TV shows.
They usually start in the middle of a bank robbery,
in the middle of a couple having a fight
or somebody having an affair
or the central character being faced with a big decision.
Once you see that action filled situation,
things calm down and you start to learn about the person
and what's happened to make them the way they are today.
Here's the challenge.
Most people don't understand story arcs
and the author is often too close to their story
to see what makes their story good
and what details just aren't that relevant for the reader.
My best advice besides hiring someone
who has experience with memoirs like Book Launchers
to guide you is to start your story
in the middle of a pivotal moment for you
and hook the reader before you give them any backstory.
Mistake three, determining what lesson
you want your reader to take from the book
or not doing that.
Writing a memoir can be a gift to others
but only if you seriously consider
what's in it for the reader.
I wanna help people with my story.
Very common.
It's very generous but that's not enough.
You went to jail for a crime you didn't commit.
A powerful story but what's the lesson?
Many people write a book
because they were wronged in some way
and that is the makings of a powerful story
but for it to be a book,
you need to be clear on what's in it for the reader.
What's the emotional journey you're gonna take the reader on
and what do you hope they take away from that story?
Ultimately, you wanna craft your story
around giving people a reason to read it
and something to say when they talk about it
after they've read it.
Think about how you want your reader
to fill in the blanks on this statement.
This was such a good book.
This story taught me blank.
You might have an incredible story
but without this core message, you don't really have a book.
What do you want them to say about your book?
That's your hook by the way.
Something we've talked about here on the channel a lot.
I could go into more mistakes
but embedded in each of these three common mistakes
are the smaller mistakes we see all the time.
I have to let you know, you really are brave and generous
for wanting to share your story to share others.
I would high five you or hug you if you were here
but when you bare your emotional soul for others to benefit,
you also wanna be sure that you know who you're writing for
and what they need to know to get your message
so that all your hard work serves the purpose you desire.
Of course, if you want help developing your story
into a book and then publishing and promoting it,
we'd love to help.
Give us a few details at booklaunchers.com/application
and someone from my team will get back to you
with the best next steps for you.
Do you wanna write a memoir or maybe you already have.
I'd love to learn more about your story.
Let's chat about it in the comments below
and when you comment the day a video is released,
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It's been really delightful hanging out with you
and I would be absolutely honored
to spend a little more time with you
and I think you really might like this video
on Are You Writing the Wrong Book but if you've seen that
or you're feeling like watching the newest from the channel
then this video right here is for you.
Go ahead, I'll get the coffee started
and then we can hang out in the next video.
(exciting music)