I need help

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

You can go into the Beta Readers section and ask someone to read it for you and see if they like it and what changes they would suggest. If you have any friends who like to read, you can do the same thing. And you can post short sections of your memoir in the memoir/bio section of SYW. (Password is vista.)

Once you get your ms in order, finely edited, then you prepare a query letter. Go into Query Letter Hell in SYW (password is vista) and read all the stickies about how to do that. The difference with memoir is that you need to write your query in first person (I). You can start looking at this process now.

You will also (probably) need to increase your "platform." A platform is your readership or potential readership. You can amp it up by blogging and other such things. If you're doing any of that now and you've got a following, that's great.

You track down appropriate agents. You can go into agentquery or querytracker (which requires membership) and search for agents who take memoir. Then you go into those agents' websites and see what their tastes, requirements and submission standards are.

You may need a proposal, but you probably shouldn't deal with that right now.

The first thing is to get the ms in good shape...really good shape.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Why would a reader want to read that?

Well, that's your job to answer. This doesn't mean that there's no one out there that doesn't want to read the events and what transpired, but why should they?

Have you ever read a blurb of a memior (not of some famous person)? Read them. They will tell you why you should read their stories, even if they aren't famous. That's what you want to accomplish. You want the reader to read your memoir to find out what transpired.

So, go read a couple memiors. I always liked The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. She's not famous (or not really, she wasn't at all before her memoir), but I read it because it was interesting.

I read 90% non-fiction and I love memoirs. For me, it's all about the writing, and I reach for the non-celebrity memoir almost every time.

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls - Yes! One of the best in that genre.

Cassie88 said:

I read 90% non-fiction and I love memoirs. For me, it's all about the writing, and I reach for the non-celebrity memoir almost every time.

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls - Yes! One of the best in that genre.

Click to expand...

Ditto. If the story grabs, it will find an audience. Write your book and be bold!