1. Determine where your audience resides online.
(more…)Promoting books online is one of the most stressful tasks for authors. At its core, it’s about informing people why they should buy your book, and giving them an easy way to do so. When put that way, online memoir promotion doesn’t sound so scary. As with anything else, the complexity is in the details. If you ever find yourself feeling overwhelmed by all there is to do, take a breath and focus on the following fundamental steps of advertising a book online.
1. Determine where your audience resides online.
(more…)DL— Stories about immigration and citizenship form the backbone of our great American story as much today as in past times. My ancestors were among the millions who came here in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Here is an excerpt about becoming an American from We Were Not Spoiled, the memoir of my mother Lucille Verreault Ledoux as told to me. For many more excerpts of my mother’s life, click here.
Joseph Verreault
My father had not come to the US to stay, but that’s what happened. After working here for a number of years first to support himself and then his growing family and eventually buying an apartment building that was his family’s home, it must have seemed obvious to him that this is where he would spend the rest of his life. So, why not give in to becoming an American citizen? Thinking this way, he was able to make the decision be an easy one. He was a practical man with a lot of responsibilities.
Becoming An American
Today, we wrap up the interview with our guest writer Marilea Rabasa. Her discussion of self-discovery through the hell of substance use disorder continues in Part 2. Her memoir Stepping Stones placed in the International Book Award as a finalist.
For the first half of the interview, click here.
(more…)Today’s guest writer is Marilea Rabasa for whose memoir Stepping Stones I had the pleasure of writing a book blurb. Her story—a journey of self-discovery through the hell of substance use disorder— is a moving one. Today we offer the first half of the email interview we conducted with her. The second half will follow in the next blog publication.
(more…)This excerpt is from Business Boy to Business Man, the memoir of Robert Verreault as told to Denis Ledoux. The memoir was published in 2013.
During the summer, I took a longer supper break and, after returning to the shop — where I had over a hundred and fifty employees — I might stay until the second shift went home at 11. The evening of July 18 was no different.
When I was young, I used to take care of emergencies at the shop myself, but no more. My summer camp’s telephone number was unlisted, and I had given it only to family and friends so I usually had a lot of quiet when I was there.
That night, however, the phone startled me awake at about 3:30. In the darkness, as I reached for the lamp, right away, I had a bad feeling. A middle-of-the-night call was not a compressor gone wrong. It was something much more serious. Could it be one of my parents was sick? Or, my wife’s? We had a lot of salesmen out on the road. Had one of them been in an accident? I stumbled through the camp to reach the phone in the large family room. When I answered, I heard a woman, announcing herself as a telephone operator, asking if I would take a phone call from a police officer. “He said you would want to be disturbed,” she added.
I said immediately, “Yes.”
Had the police caught a thief in the shop? But, what would a thief want with conveyors? I knew, of course, that was not what a thief would have come for—a thief would have been looking for cash in the office.
But it was not a thief the officer was calling me about. What he said next shocked me.
“The Diamond Machine plant is on fire, Mr. Verreault.”
“What?” I shot back stunned.
(more…)Over the years, I have both worked with people to help them write a memoir and have heard from people who have done the work of writing theirs.
Often these people had never written anything before—not memoir, not fiction, not creative non-fiction. They did not think of themselves as writers. One day these people—as you are now doing—decided it was time to write a memoir. They set about to compose a lasting record of their personal and family stories in writing. (more…)
Writing a biography: First Franco: Albert Beliveau
Writing a biography poses specific challenges and research problems that are sometimes parallel to, but in the end quite different from, those involved in memoir and historical fiction. (more…)
The Origins of Christmas—it started with fearing darkness
Early Christians, wishing to remake the December 25 Roman holiday of the Birth of the Unconquerable Sun, adopted the day to celebrate the birth of Jesus. (more…)
5 Fundamental Steps of Online Memoir Promotion
Promoting books online is one of the most stressful tasks for authors. At its core, it’s about informing people why they should buy your book, and giving them an easy way to do so. (more…)
Becoming an American—Why Not?
DL— Stories about immigration and citizenship form the backbone of our great American story as much today as in past times. My ancestors were among the millions who came here in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Here is an excerpt about becoming an American from We Were Not Spoiled, the memoir of my mother […]
How to Write A Successful Memoir: Stepping Stones [Part 2]
Today, we wrap up the interview with our guest writer Marilea Rabasa. Her discussion of self-discovery through the hell of substance use disorder continues in Part 2. Her memoir Stepping Stones placed in the International Book Award as a finalist. For the first half of the interview, click here. (more…)
How to Write A Successful Memoir: Stepping Stones [Part 1]
Today’s guest writer is Marilea Rabasa for whose memoir Stepping Stones I had the pleasure of writing a book blurb. Her story—a journey of self-discovery through the hell of substance use disorder— is a moving one. Today we offer the first half of the email interview we conducted with her. The second half will follow […]
Going Up in Flames: My Dream Shop Was Burning to the Ground!
This excerpt is from Business Boy to Business Man, the memoir of Robert Verreault as told to Denis Ledoux. The memoir was published in 2013. During the summer, I took a longer supper break and, after returning to the shop — where I had over a hundred and fifty employees — I might stay until […]
Write a memoir: practical how-to information to ace it.
As you write a memoir, you will find that you need much more information about technique or about style or about research or any number of other topics. Unless you have been writing much over the years, this is likely to be you. Going to the library for information is a necessary next step for […]
Writing Memoir as Sacred Text
November offers so many opportunities for writers to tell their stories. And we each have a story that will, indeed, inspire someone. Guest blogger Nina Amir offers a process process to help you put multiple-layers of meaning into any memoir, vignette or essay you write that’s based on your life story. It comes from the […]