Hey everyone -
First I just have to say I am very happy to have found this forum. I spent large chunks of the last three or four days reading old posts in this forum, and I cannot even begin to describe the enormous sense of relief I felt. (I'm not the only one who worries about having an audience that might hate me? Other people are concerned that their families will disown them upon publication? THANK GOD.)
I'm in the process of revising my memoir, which is based on a zine I self-published several years ago, called I Was a Teenage Mormon, which was about, as you probably guessed, about my adolescence in the LDS church and my eventual falling away from the church, and how that intersected with my life on every level. (For instance, how I tried to reconcile being an inquisitive thinker and a feminist with a religion that didn't really value either aspect of my identity.)
I got so much positive feedback - from YA librarians, Harvard divinity students, ex-Jehovah's Witnesses, siblings of LDS converts - that I finally decided to turn it into an actual book, for actual publication.
So I have this manuscript that is shaping up to be something I actually believe in, which is shocking in and of itself as I am one of those horrid perfectionists that thinks everything I've ever done sucks no matter what anyone else says, but I find myself running into technical issues like platform. I am not really sure how to handle this. I don't have a blog or a radio show, and I would hardly consider myself an expert on the LDS faith. I'm just a chick who wrote a zine a bunch of people liked seven years ago. I do have connections within my local journalism market, as I work with a news organization, have a degree in that field and have either interned or worked with people at all of the other outlets. That's about it, and truth be told, I don't really feel good about going to my producer and being all, hey, would you mind squeezing a package about me and my book in between the spots on the double murder in Treasure Island and the drug bust in Lakeland? No, I don't think that would fly at all.
So tell me, is platform really essential for a memoirist? I can see how it would be for someone doing a straight non-fiction book, but are the rules different for someone writing a book like mine? And is the limited platform I have - contacts in my local journalism world, the zine world, the bookstores and libraries that distributed my stuff, a handful of blogs - enough?
I look forward to any feedback I get from AWers, because seriously, you guys are awesome. You've already given me a ton of help without even talking to me, so I know whatever responses you have will be beyond helpful.
First I just have to say I am very happy to have found this forum. I spent large chunks of the last three or four days reading old posts in this forum, and I cannot even begin to describe the enormous sense of relief I felt. (I'm not the only one who worries about having an audience that might hate me? Other people are concerned that their families will disown them upon publication? THANK GOD.)
I'm in the process of revising my memoir, which is based on a zine I self-published several years ago, called I Was a Teenage Mormon, which was about, as you probably guessed, about my adolescence in the LDS church and my eventual falling away from the church, and how that intersected with my life on every level. (For instance, how I tried to reconcile being an inquisitive thinker and a feminist with a religion that didn't really value either aspect of my identity.)
I got so much positive feedback - from YA librarians, Harvard divinity students, ex-Jehovah's Witnesses, siblings of LDS converts - that I finally decided to turn it into an actual book, for actual publication.
So I have this manuscript that is shaping up to be something I actually believe in, which is shocking in and of itself as I am one of those horrid perfectionists that thinks everything I've ever done sucks no matter what anyone else says, but I find myself running into technical issues like platform. I am not really sure how to handle this. I don't have a blog or a radio show, and I would hardly consider myself an expert on the LDS faith. I'm just a chick who wrote a zine a bunch of people liked seven years ago. I do have connections within my local journalism market, as I work with a news organization, have a degree in that field and have either interned or worked with people at all of the other outlets. That's about it, and truth be told, I don't really feel good about going to my producer and being all, hey, would you mind squeezing a package about me and my book in between the spots on the double murder in Treasure Island and the drug bust in Lakeland? No, I don't think that would fly at all.
So tell me, is platform really essential for a memoirist? I can see how it would be for someone doing a straight non-fiction book, but are the rules different for someone writing a book like mine? And is the limited platform I have - contacts in my local journalism world, the zine world, the bookstores and libraries that distributed my stuff, a handful of blogs - enough?
I look forward to any feedback I get from AWers, because seriously, you guys are awesome. You've already given me a ton of help without even talking to me, so I know whatever responses you have will be beyond helpful.
