Many memoir writers secretly, or not so secretly, want to help other people to write their memoirs. Sometimes they do this informally with a friend or two, and at other times, they get a bit more organized and offer a class at a library or other institution. One thing is certain, launching your memoir teaching […]

Many memoir writers secretly, or not so secretly, want to help other people to write their memoirs. Sometimes they do this informally with a friend or two, and at other times, they get a bit more organized and offer a class at a library or other institution. One thing is certain, launching your memoir teaching will take some attention.

I have taught workshops for decades and can attest to the deep satisfaction I have derived from working with writers. I have formed friendships that have lasted these many years.

If you would like to offer a memoir class here are a few tips to do so more successfully. They are garnered from sound business practices, but don’t worry as they are easy for anyone to implement.

(I have written about the curriculum elsewhere.)

1. Reconnect with people who told you they want to be in a workshop within a few days of having first spoken to them.

Otherwise, they may soon forget about you and your class. Remember that when they spoke with you about their memoir writing, they were not specifically interested in you or your program. They were interested in resolving their need for a memoir. They can get what they need from you.

2. Repeat your offering to them. Tell them you are launching your memoir teaching.

Tell them about how your workshop will help them? Tell them how much they can expect to have written by the end of the series.

Be sure to lay out the tangible benefits of taking your class: “You will have written stories to leave your kids and grandkids.”

3. Make a case for some speed in their selection process.

As you are launching memoir teaching, create a sale, an early registration discount, a limited-time, special price bundling, or a gift offer? Also, remind them of the emotional cost of losing their stories to silence. Tell them how happy their family will be to have their stories. People buy based on avoiding pain or seeking pleasure. Play both.

4. Point out your value over the competition’s. Launching your memoir teaching will require proving yourself.

This is an opportunity to place your classes as the product of choice and the competition’s as merely a second best. The competitor can be TV, leisure or a trashy novel.

In the end, only writing gets a story written and only good writing gets read. Your workshop / class will teach them how to write a better memoir and it will create the accountability they need to keep writing week after week as their classmates expect another story from them.

As you are launching your memoir teaching, you need to position yourself as the best choice.

5. Offer an alternative product—if appropriate—within your line.

Besides a workshop, can you offer coaching or editing? Speak about the possibilities of your services and let the buyer voice his or her needs. Counsel the client then about the better of the choices for him/her. This will give the buyer a sense that s/he has a choice. We all love choices.

6. As you are launching memoir teaching, ask for the sale.

A subtle way of asking for the sale is to say “What would you like the next step to be?”

The prospective client often realizes the rightness of a purchase. “Can I sign you up for the workshop?”

Good luck offering memoir workshops or other memoir services. It’s a wonderful thing to do.