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Be a Memoir Professional FAQ

Q. I want to be a Memoir Professional, but I am concerned about how much could I earn?

A. How much you could earn will depend entirely on how much outreach you do, how effective it is, how good you are at retaining students and converting prospects into coaching/editing/ghostwriting clients and workshoppers. For some, this is the fun part, and for others, this is difficult.

Your earning power will depend on your ambition, your skills, your drive, your focus. While some localities may be more conducive to higher earnings, generally with the variety of memoir services you will be prepared to offer with the guidance of the Memoir Professional Package, you can overcome the limitations of a particular locality.

For many who want to be a Memoir Professional, the workshop is the cornerstone of their memoir work so I will proceed with the workshop model as a way of helping you to estimate your income. Start by identifying local and regional presentation venues (senior centers, clubs, book stores or cultural groups). How many of them lie within a reasonable driving distance for you to travel to them? Does this seem enough? (These are the same venues where you also ought to present a speaking program if you are interested in coaching, editing and ghostwriting.)

Look through the calendar of events in area arts / culture and community news magazines and newspapers. (These are the “freebies” you will find in libraries, bookstores, boutiques, etc.) They list workshops, lectures, and activities being offered in your area. (These are the places where you can also offer memoir workshops and programs.) Read the listings with the eyes of someone who wants to be a Memoir Professional and is looking for viable venues.

Select those venues whose workshop fees are feasible for you. (Centers that offer nearly-free programs may be attractive while you’re gaining experience, but they will not support your work in the long run. (The most successful Memoir Professionals do not undervalue their work with low fees!)

Call venue directors to assess their interest in having you present a memoir-writing workshop.

Here are two “how to be a Memoir Professional” blog articles: how to assess your income and how to launch yourself successfully.

I expected the Memoir Professional Package to be full of information—but not this full. You guys know what you are talking about. It felt like I was in good hands to launch myself as a Memoir Professional under your guidance. I feel confident now. It’s been good.

—Lynda McDaniels, Memoirs for Life, Miami, Florida

Q. Is a Memoir Professional Package appropriate if I do not need to earn income?

A. We have had many people buy the program without having much need for it to provide income—either because they are on a pension or because the are working elsewhere.

You have much to contribute to your community and whether and how much you charge or do not charge is up to you. There are many ways to assess worth that does not include money. But… for those who need to earn income: that’s fine too. We have a variety of people who want to be a memoir professional

Whether you are pushing for income or not, you need to fill your classes. The Memoir Professional Package  will help you to attract the right clientele for you.

Q. Do I have to use the text Turning Memories Into Memoirs / A Handbook for Writing Lifestories?

A. This a book that will organize and facilitate your class instruction. You will be able to refer to it to make a point and your students will be able to review material easily when they get home. With these benefits, why would you not center your workshops on it?

Turning Memories Into Memoirs / A Handbook for Writing Lifestories will also be an attractive source of complementary income for you as it simplifies and enhances your task of teaching the best lifewriting workshops in your community. You receive a commission of up to 50%. Turning Memories Into Memoirs / A Handbook for Writing Lifestories will also inform your editing and coaching. Here’s an article on offering back-of-the-room sales successfully.

Interestingly, university teachers who do workshops have no problem assigning texts—they have done so every September and January for years. They know that assigned texts facilitate the work for teachers and for students.

Q. Once I buy the materials to be a Memoir Professional, can I say I teach the Turning Memories Into Memoirs workshop?

A. We ask that you say you teach using Memoir Network Memoir materials or method, but not say you teach THE Memoir Network Memoir workshop. We do not have a certification process at this time—although we did have one for years. Only certified teachers can say teach THE Memoir Network Memoir workshop.

I took online classes from Denis a few years back and then began teaching The Turning Memories into Memoirs classes to older people in Florida. It has been an outstanding experience.

— Cindy Davis, Hollywood, FL
Cindy Davis Memoirs

The Memoir Network

We can also launch you as a coach, editor and/or ghostwriter. If you want to help people to write their memoirs, but you do not want to buy the full package, you can buy the following materials individually by title:

Outline Your Goals to Grow a Better Memoir Business

By on March 25, 2020

In order to grow your memoir business, you will need to outline your goals. It’s likely that there are some skills (teaching, business, or writing) you would like to improve, so you can be more successful. Organizing your plans to build your skills will help you attain them more quickly. (more…)

Becoming a Memoir Professional – Be Very Adept at the Memoir Genre

By on February 26, 2020

To create a successful business of helping people to write their memoir, you must be familiar with the memoir genre itself. Being a good fiction writer or a poet or an essayist is not enough. You must have read many memoirs and have written in the genre. Your clients will rightfully expect no less from you than you be expert at both memoir writing and the theory behind memoir writing. (more…)

Tips to Grow Your Memoir or Writing-Based Business

By on February 12, 2020

Writing and memoir professionals too often have little sense of what a memoir or writing-based business is or how it functions. Too frequently, when people think of a business they imagine a machine shop, or a dry cleaning store, or a computer repair place rather than a writer’s office. But…writing as a business? (more…)

Teaching a Memoir Workshop – Easy Is Usually Not Best

By on January 28, 2020

In teaching a memoir workshop, the teacher’s task is to help individuals to go through and beyond two kinds of barriers to their writing: the technical and the psychological blocks that keep them from success. Our job is to facilitate our participants’ arrival at a point where they are able to “own” their stories, to acknowledge their life stories as they are and to accept themselves as they are.

(more…)

Memoir Writing – Five Tips For Jazzing Up a Life Writing Group

By on January 15, 2020

A good writing group can give you invaluable support and see you through to the end of your project. Regular meetings essentially become writing deadlines to complete portions of your project. Group deadlines can be very stimulating (after all, who wants to show up at a meeting and be the deadbeat who hasn’t brought any writing to share!) (more…)

Making a Success of a Memoir Business – Get Over Back-of-the-Room Sales Phobia

By on October 2, 2019

“Selling? I just can’t do it!” says the sales phobic. Why is it that some people cannot ask for a sale, cannot sell products from the back of the room, when promoting their memoir business, etc.? Perhaps it’s a struggle between values and rules!

Does this sound familiar: “I just can’t ask my work-shoppers or people who attend a presentation to buy books and tapes from me. It feels too… too-” (Screw up your face here and think nasty.) (more…)

Make a Business Plan for Your Memoir Writing Business—Basic Elements

By on September 18, 2019

What do you want your memoir writing business to accomplish in the next 12 months? Take some time right now and make a business plan.

You don’t have time, you say. Planning is an indulgence? Think of this parable:

A person is sawing a tree and is obviously harried. A second person approaches and asks, “How long have you been sawing?”

“Oh, all day and I’m exhausted. Look at how much I have left to do!”

The second person suggests, “Your saw is dull. You need to sharpen it.”

The first retorts wearily, “That might be a good idea for some other people, but I just don’t have the time to do that. Don’t you see how much tree I have left to cut! Get real.”

Take the time to sharpen the “saw” of your business life. Make a business plan. (more…)