Someone wants me to write his life story

Does it sound like a fun writing project for you? If not, it will tie you up for a long while, keeping you from writing what you really want to write.

Never pass up an opportunity. You don't know where it may lead. Look into what a contracted situation would look like and be prepared with that knowledge. You have till May at least. Then have a meeting with him. Feel out the situation, let him know how you write. Don't make a big deal out of being unworthy because of how long you have or have not written. You may have been writing your whole life and still suck so time doesn't really count here. Talent and a good connection between the two of you do. You may not like this guy and he may not like you. That's important. On the other hand you may hit it off smashingly and he loves your writing style. In which case you just got yourself a limo ride to an agent and publishing. At least go up and kick the tires before you turn it down.

Chumplet said:

You're right, Bluegate. I have a few months to research what's involved. Who knows, maybe I'll even have an agent by then!

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I will wave an envy coated glove at you as you glide by in your limo. Or will that be a private jet? Some people have all the luck!
Seriously, I'm very happy to see you get the opportunity. I wish you the very best of luck, however it turns out.

Be Very Careful. If you decide to go forward, get a contract and have it vetted by someone who knows intellectual property law, not just any ol' attorney or even a contract attorney. An IP attorney.

And, like most other non-fiction, don't write the whole thing. Put together a proposal. Check the Nonfiction forum for help with that. You don't want to spend all that time (and you could easily be looking at a year or more of your writing life) only to end up with something no one is interested in buying. Which is okay if the subject is paying you a good fee, but....

Be. Very. Careful.

(From someone who knows the ways you can get burned in something like this.)

Chumpet,

This could be a great opportunity, but it could be a difficult ride. In order to write a life story, the subject has to be emotionally invested in the work. I'd find out what it is he expects you to portray about his life and see if it's something you'd be interested in writing. I had someone ask me to write a short story about their life. Now, this man has an interesting life, but he wanted me to do a laundry list of his accomplishments. What I found interesting about his life he didn't want me to write about. His version would have been a snooze fest. Of course, he wasn't offering me a lot of money to do it either.

Weigh the pros and cons carefully.
RB

Tell him you want fifty grand upfront, and another hundred thousand when the work is complete. Judging from his reaction, you'll know whether he's serious about having you chronicle his life story. If he is, from there you can easily have a contract drawn up that protects both of your interests.

Whatever you decide, much good luck, Chumplet. Hope he's generous.

Chumplet said:

Thanks guys and gals! I've been checking out his profile & he had started a financial solutions business for the insurance industry back in '89, built it up over the years & sold for a reported $89 Million.

He has a travel blog because he's been touring the world since last spring and he plays polo all over the place. Hopefully I'll be able to pull this off, but it will involve a lot of research and a learning curve on both sides.

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Okay, see, here's a BIG problem: where's the conflict? Unless someone is already in the news, folks don't really give a hoot about their story unless it has conflict up the yazoo. In essence, memoir is like fiction, except true. No one (or at least not enough folks that you could sell it to a commercial publisher) wants to read about a non-fictional Mary Sue.

Let me give you an example. Here's the 'elevator pitch' of the memoir I co-ghostwrote: 'Sam spent the first six years of her life in an orphanage, and that's where all her good childhood memories are from. Then her (birth) family took her home to an abusive environment, where she was regularly beaten by her mother and 15-years-older brother. When she was 13, her mother took her on a holiday to Pakistan, where she was forced to marry a man in his late 20s. She returned to the UK once she was pregnant, and gave birth to her son when she was just 14 years old. When she was 18, she discovered that her family was beating her son while she was at work, so she took him and ran away, knowing her family would try to hunt her down and kill her, which they did...try, that is.' (In case you're curious, the advance for this book was substantial.)

Now, for sure I'd rather live the life of 'got rich quick and now travel the world,' but when it comes to reading a story (even a true one), it's conflict that makes it un-put-down-able.

If your subject's story doesn't have any compelling conflict, I wouldn't touch the job with a ten-foot pole; if it does, and you decide to touch it with a ten-foot (or shorter) pole, make sure your pitch is about the conflict, not about the getting rich and travelling the world.

Chumplet said:

That's exactly what I hope to find out, Terie, when I meet with him. The details I found were all I could glean from the internet. If he doesn't have an unusual or high profile story, there won't be a market for it.

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Well, you should also find out if "market" is important to him at all. Some people just want to have their story written down for family and friends and... posterity or whatever. (My husband's boss wrote his life story and got it printed up on Lulu or something just so he can hand it out to friends. Awkward! ) When you meet with him of course you can see what his expectations are in terms of publication.

Chumplet, you got great advice here. And I have none. Just saying best of luck with it, keep us posted, and be glad it's not my neighbor, Mr.Manly-Man, who once asked me to write his biography.

JoNightshade said:

Well, you should also find out if "market" is important to him at all. Some people just want to have their story written down for family and friends and... posterity or whatever...

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That's what I thought this thread was about: some rich dude who wants to have his life chronicled and bound in book form for his own pleasure, not for the general public to read. That's the reason I mentioned a dollar figure for Chumplet to consider for her efforts, which is a bargain considering what the man is worth in a monetary sense.

Association of Personal Historians might help

There is an organization of people who do this for a living, Chumplet. If you decide to go down this road, perhaps you should reach out to them and see what sort of training or resources they have to offer. If you join, you can pick the brains of fellow members.

http://www.personalhistorians.org

I'm a member, but I don't write memoirs for hire. My main interest is in encouraging people to write their own stories.

Jerry

You could probably grab some similar books and talk through them with him.

You might be suprised how niche markets can still have a lot of interest.

Heck - people buy books on the History of Ukranian pottery.

Here are some books about reasonably successful businessmen that have been successfully published - they are all written in very different styles too.

These books, for example, focus on a particular period of the person's career :

* "Jabiluka: The Battle to Mine Australia's Uranium" - About Tony Grey who ran a small mining company who suddenly discovered Uranium.
* "Patient Zero" - Largely about a guy running a biotech company during a patent dispute
* "On a clear day you can see General Motors" - Basically about the politics behind running an automotive company
* "The soul of a new Machine" - Basically about the development of an uninteresting computer back in 1978 that was a total commercial flop. (But the book about it is still in print today because it's written so well !)

Even if you focus the book around a single event you can still talk about earlier influences (how college days/parents affected him, how his first wife scarred him, etc) but it gives it a beginning, middle and end.

Personally I prefer this kind of books to the 'personal memoir' approach - it would certainly be worthwhile seeing if that would be an option.

Another BIG advantage for him is that by not making it cover everything, it is a lot easier to make him the 'hero' of the story, rather than the 'subject' of the story. (I know that sounds tacky - but you know what I mean) By covering only a tiny portion it is also easier to have other books on other parts of his life, later.

Good luck !

Mac

Chumplet said:

A question to throw out: Would I be the one to shop proposals to agents, or should he since he has the platform/contacts? I don't even know if he knows anyone in publishing! His grandfather was supposedly an editor at the Globe and Mail, but that's all I know so far.

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I don't know if the way we did it would be considered standard, so take this with a grain or three of salt and accept the word of other, more experienced folks over mine. But here's what we did.

I wrote the original manuscript and edited it to a submittable standard, and wrote the one-page synopsis. I also wrote Sam's cover letter. When an agent expressed interest in signing her, first thing she did was say she had a ghostwriter. The agent wanted to bring in a more experienced ghost (I'm a YA fiction writer, not an adult memoir writer), and since I'd just signed a contract for a four-book series, I told Sam I was okay with this. Long story short, the other ghost added his own stuff to my MS and we both have byline credit on the title and copyright pages.

Thought about shopping it

Chumplet,

That's a fascinating question about who pitches it. My understanding is that the agent/publisher will want to see your whole plan spelled out in the book proposal.

You need to sell them not only on the idea of the book, but also on the reason why people will buy it. In the book proposal you would explain his platform and your writing credentials. That way they see the whole package.

I'm sure there are all sorts of nuances to how it is actually done, but IMO you should be taking a careful look at the book proposal when trying to imagine how you are going to present all the information.

Jerry