Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Tuesday Tidbit: Market your published memoir as a Christmas gift


If you’ve already published your memoir, remind people it’s a great gift idea for people on their Christmas list.

Books in general make good gifts, but consider promoting your memoir.

Marketing Christian Books* lists six reasons books make meaningful gifts:

  • Books don’t go out of style.
  • Books are affordable.
  • Books are life-giving.
  • Books are for everyone.
  • Books last.
  • A book is a gift you can open again and again.

Your story is important.* You might never know how much it can bless others.

“As writers we seldom know 
the impact our words will have. 
We might write an entire book 
and then learn 
that a single sentence 
made a difference in someone’s life or thinking.” 

Your memoir can do that.

So, remind your friends, fans, and family 
about your memoir 
and suggest it as a Christmas gift.




My new computer still doesn't work well with links so I'll list them below:

Marketing Christian Books: https://marketingchristianbooks.wordpress.com/2017/09/21/market-your-book-as-a-gift-2

Alton Gansky:  http://www.altongansky.com

Your story is importanthttp://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/05/are-your-stories-important.html

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Holy threads, consecrated strands, hallowed fibers, blessed filaments



God’s footprints alongside ours, his fingers all over our lives: Divine intervention.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? We like having God intimately involved in our lives.

But “...divine intervention is nowhere near as simple a thing as we might imagine,” writes Ravi Zacharias (Grand Weaver: How God Shapes Us Through the Events of Our Lives).

Think about this:

Sometimes those footprints alongside ours are muddy.

Sometimes tattered, stinky, holey shoes left those footprints.

Sometimes those fingerprints all over our lives are sticky, smudged, scarred, bloody.

Divine intervention “cannot be only a journey of unmistakable blessing and a path of ease,” Zacharias continues. “To allow God to be God we must follow him for who he is and what he intends….”

Each of us has heartaches, disappointments, failures.

Too many experience betrayal. Unfaithfulness. Abuse. Bullying. Racial prejudice and profiling.

Some know hunger and sickness and handicaps and homelessness.

We know loss, grief, exhaustion, confusion.

Hopelessness.

Other times our lives seem hum-drum: We’re boring people living boring lives. We wonder if we matter, if we are worth anything of value.

“…Incident follows incident helter-skelter leading apparently nowhere,” Frederick Buechner writes, “but then once in a while there is the suggestion of purpose, meaning, direction, the suggestion of plot….” (The Alphabet of Grace)

That’s what Zacharias calls us to see: “the designing hand of God and his intervention in our lives” so that “we know he has a specific purpose for each of us and that he will carry us through until we meet him face-to-face….”

Yes, sometimes life is blah, but other times life knocks the air out of us. If we let him, and if we work with him, God uses all of it to shape and polish us, to mature and beautify us—though we might not understand it at the time, or even see it.

Zacharias challenges us to imagine our lives as exquisite fabric—vivid, brilliant colors with threads of gold and silver intertwined—and to see God as the “Grand Weaver . . . with a design in mind for you, a design that will adorn you as he uses your life to fashion you for his purposes, using all the threads within his reach.”

You are important to God. You are his workmanship, his treasure. He is custom-making the fabric of your life. Your life is sacred.

While writing your memoir, look back over the years and search for each thread and color—the dark ones and the pastel ones, the heavy ones and the light ones, the coarse ones and the golden ones. Those are holy threads. Consecrated strands. Hallowed fibers. Blessed filaments.

Search for—make it your quest to—discover the excellent one-of-a-kind pattern the Grand Weaver is creating out of you.

Go back: Look for spools of thread, God-designed, for you alone. Watch and listen for the sound of the shuttle going back and forth in God’s hand. He’s making something beautiful: You.

The more you grasp
how important you are to God,
and that he’s crafting you
into his masterpiece,
the better you can write
your God-and-you stories—
and the better you can share them
with your children,
grandchildren,
great-grandchildren,
and generations yet unborn.

God can use your stories to teach others
That they, too, are important to Him.
They are his workmanship, his treasure.
He is custom-making the fabric of their lives,
And their lives are sacred.



P. S. I can't get the links to work today. This new computer might be the problem.... Sigh.... Anyway, here are links:

Grand Weaver, by Ravi Zacharias: https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Weaver-Shapes-Through-Events/dp/0310324955/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509044209&sr=8-1&keywords=Grand+Weaver%3A+How+God+Shapes+Us+Through+the+Events+of+Our+Lives

The Alphabet of Grace, by Frederick Buechner: https://www.amazon.com/Alphabet-Grace-Frederick-Buechner/dp/0060611790/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455245629&sr=8-1&keywords=alphabet+of+grace

You are important to God: https://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/05/you-are-important-to-god.html

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers:  https://www.amazon.com/My-Utmost-His-Highest-Paperback/dp/1572937718/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1509047085&sr=8-2&keywords=my+utmost+for+his+highest










Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Tuesday Tidbit: “A lump in the throat and a deep, wordless feeling”


Frederick Buechner says that when he writes books, they “start—as Robert Frost said his poems did—with a lump in the throat . . . with a deep, wordless feeling for some aspect of my own experience that has moved me.” (from Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation)

Do you know that “deep, wordless feeling” that longs to find its way from inside you and into black and white on paper?

If so, you’ll find encouragement and inspiration from Donald Murray’s words in The Craft of Revision:




Begin! 
Write so you can discover what you want to say, 
and then rewrite to make sense 
of that “deep wordless feeling” 
and share your story with others.

Thursday, October 19, 2017

In time for Christmas: Publishing options for your mini-memoir


Following up on recent posts, we’re encouraging you to give an early edition of your memoir as a Christmas gift to family and close friends—even if you’ve written only a few vignettes. Give them what you have completed and promise them a completed memoir soon.

Click on these links to recent posts covering your: 

Today we’ll look at your publishing optionsBUT FIRST: Before you publish, edit your vignettes thoroughly.

Check for errors in grammar, punctuation, redundancy, unnatural dialogue, and confusing passages. Rearrange sentences or paragraphs if they’re not in the right order.

You’ll find a lot of help in Self-Editing Basics: 10 Simple Ways to Edit Your Own Book. The first seven points are relevant for you now. The whole list will be relevant in the future when you do a thorough edit before publishing your completed memoir.

Click on Editing Checklist for Writers for help with common errors writers often make in their first drafts.

Make changes to your manuscript and set it aside for a week or so. When you get it out again, read it aloud. Your ear will catch awkward spots your eyes missed earlier—like clumsy words, pacing, and sentence structures.

Below you’ll find a few options for publishing your mini-memoir, your early edition:  
  • Your local print shop or office supplies store can publish a spiral-bound copy.
  • Print your stories on your own printer and put them in a three-ring binder.
  • Make a chapbook. Click on How to Make A Chapbook—An Illustrated, Step-by-Step Guide.
  • Publish your book through a company like Blurb. I hesitate to recommend businesses, but I have published a couple of small books (with both text and color photos) with Blurb.  Click on Trade Books at this link.

You still have nine weeks to put together a mini-memoir for Christmas gifts. You can do this!

Let us know if you’re making an early edition
of your memoir for Christmas.
We want to congratulate you
and celebrate with you.

Leave a comment below





Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Tuesday Tidbit: If you’re giving an early edition of your memoir for Christmas, it needs a Table of Contents and an Introduction


Have you decided to give an early edition of your memoir to your family for Christmas? I  hope so.

If you haven’t completed your memoir—even if you’ve written only a few vignettesno problem. Give what you have completed. 


Today let’s think about your Table of Contents and Introduction.

Table of Contents:

If you’ve written a collection of vignettes/chapters, give each a title and create your Table of Contents: List those stories and include page numbers.

Introduction:

Think of your intro as a letter to your readers. Tell them why you wrote your stories. (See Deuteronomy 4:9 and Psalm 66:16.) Explain that a memoir is just a segment of a person’s life (review the definition of memoir). Tell them what you hope they’ll discover in your stories. Make it personal. Humor is good. Love is a must.

Here’s excellent advice from Frank P. Thomas:

“Avoid making any apologies . . . for your life, for your writing, or for anything else. You are better than you think. So be positive.” (How to Write the Story of Your Life)

For now, make a commitment to give what you’ve written—however long or short—as a down payment, a pledge of more to come. Promise your recipients a finished memoir in the futuremaybe next Christmas.






Thursday, October 12, 2017

Your memoir: Does it have a dedication page yet?


Have I convinced you to give family and friends an early edition of your memoir for Christmas? —as a preview, a sneak peek, a promise of your completed memoir soon? I hope so! (Click on this link: You might already have the perfect Christmas gift for your family.)  

You can do it! Even if you have written only a few vignettes so far, you can print them and make them into a meaningful gifta gift of yourself.

In Tuesday’s post, we looked at your need to pin down a title. (Click on If you’re giving your family an early edition of your memoir for Christmas, it needs a title.)

Today we’ll look at the dedication page.

Do you know what a dedication page is?

It often begins with “For” or “I dedicate this book to…” followed by names of people for whom you’ve written your memoir.

But if that seems too spare and dull, get creativegive your dedication some pizzazz!

Lucille Zimmerman over at Wordserve Water Cooler is fascinated with book dedications. She says the book dedication is not “the acknowledgments page where you thank everyone who ever helped you,” but rather it’s “that mostly blank page tucked in the beginning of a book, after the title page and publishing credits.” Her blog post, 7 Ways to Do Book Dedications, includes charming examples for you.

A book dedication should be personal. Joseph C. Kunz, Jr., emphasizes the emotional connection a book dedication can create and writes, “Whether your book’s dedication is only a few sentences or an entire paragraph, you shouldn’t miss this opportunity to give the reader a small look into your life’s story.” Click here to read his post, Book Dedications to Spur Your Imagination, which includes a dozen sample book dedications for you.

Study dedications in books you have on your shelves, or go to the library, or check out the “Look inside” feature on Amazon.com. These will give you added inspiration.

In crafting your dedication page, ask yourself: Which special people did I write this book for? And why did I write it for them?


Your memoir: A gift that will live long beyond your lifetime.





Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Tuesday Tidbit: If you’re giving your family an early edition of your memoir for Christmas, it needs a title


If you’ve written a few vignettes for your memoir, consider giving your family an early edition for Christmas. (See Thursday’s post, You might already have the perfect Christmas gift for your family.)

Think of it as a preview, a pledge of more to come, a promise that you’ll hand them your finished memoir in the future.

You have about ten weeks to get it ready! You can do this!

In addition to editing and polishing your stories (very important!), begin working on the documents you’ll place at the beginning of your book.

For today, let’s work on just one: the title page, the first page your readers will see. Your title will appear on the front cover of your memoir and also on your title page. Give yourself a by-line. Your title page might look something like this:

From Desert to Mountaintop: A Journey to Joy
by Jane Jones

And remember, you can always finalize your title later when you’ve finished the whole memoir. Consider this first title just a working title. Feel free to use it for your preview edition this Christmas.

Check out these links to my earlier blog posts about titles. They’re packed with good info for you.



There you have it—your Tuesday Tidbit.


Thursday, October 5, 2017

You might already have the perfect Christmas gift for your family


Any day now we’re going to start seeing Christmas decorations in stores. Can you believe it?

That means most of us will soon stress about choosing just the right gifts for everyone on our lists.

If you’re like me, you worry—Is this in style? What size does he wear? Would she wear this color? I loved this book—but would he? Does this style match her dĂ©cor? Does he already have one of these?

Today people own more trinkets and gadgets and junk than they need or can use, or even want, yet when Christmas comes around, we pace shopping malls ad nauseum searching for new trinkets, gadgets, and junk to give family and friends.

Let me suggest an alternative, something much better:

Give relatives a copy of your memoir. If you haven’t completed it—even if you’ve written only a few vignettesno problem. Give what you have completed.

Give them a gift of yourself.

Your stories—and your family’s unique part in them—
will never go out of style,
and you don’t need to worry about
buying the right style or size or color.

Tell recipients it’s an early draft, just the beginning, and that you’ll add more stories later.

Have I convinced you yet? I hope so.

And I have good news: You have about 11 weeks to revise and edit and polish your vignettes.

To help with that editing, ask a qualified person to critique your manuscript. Avoid enlisting family and friends. Frank P. Thomas advises:

“…Choose that person carefully. Remember that friends or relatives tend to overpraise, and others may criticize merely to impress you with their knowledge.”

Instead, he says, “Pick someone who cares about writing besides caring about you, such as an English teacher, a teacher of writing courses, or someone in your local writers’ club.

I agree with Thomas. In a local writers’ group, critique partners can give you impartial, objective, and often professional feedback. I treasure my critique partners.

Thomas recommends asking our critique partners questions such as, “Are there any passages that will not be clearly understood? Are there any omissions or inaccuracies? Are any parts of the manuscript repetitious? What parts do you like best? Least? Are there any glaring errors of grammar or spelling?” (Frank P. Thomas, How to Write the Story of Your Life)

Refuse to get defensive when you receive feedback. Don’t take suggestions as personal insults. Critique is not the same as criticism.

A critique is an evaluation, an assessment, an analysis. It’s not criticism or disapproval.

So, when you receive your critique partners’ responses, remember: Usually at least some of their findings will help improve your manuscript. If any comments don’t “fit,” ignore them and move on.

Revise your vignettes as needed—but don’t print them yet.

Come back Tuesday for tips on assembling your stories as well as key components to prepare and include in your published memoir.

For now, make a commitment to give what you’ve writtenhowever long or short—as a down payment, a pledge of more to come. Promise your recipients a finished memoir in the future—maybe next Christmas.

Be sure to return Tuesday for more helpful tips.





Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Tuesday Tidbit: Are you afraid to use social media to market your memoir?


If you hope to sell your memoir to more people than just your family and friends, you’ll need to learn about marketing—you’ll need to learn a lot about marketing.

Most if not all authors use social media to market their books

But the world of social media is huge—it’s more like a universe than a world. And it keeps changing.

Using social media can intimidate those who haven’t leaped into that universe. It can even cause lots of angst.

But don’t let fear of social media hold you back because I have good news for you:

You have lots of opportunities to learn about social media, and you can educate yourself for free if you want to.

For example, you can learn a great deal by following Laura Christianson’s blog, Blogging Bistro. Just check out her blog’s left column and you’ll see a long list of How-To-torials and past blog posts. I’ve followed Laura’s blog for years and she consistently offers a treasure chest of helps!

Laura’s recent guest blogger, Janis Fisher Chan, will encourage all who are stressed about starting to use social media, including those who want to market their memoirs. In My Social Media Marketing Fears and How I’m Overcoming Them, Janis discusses:

  • You can’t farm it out (at least not completely, not in the beginning)*
  • If you start at zero, be ready for a steep learning curve
  • Apply what you’re learning
  • Make a plan to achieve your goals
  • To put your plan into action, you might need help
  • Keep learning!

*Regarding Janis’ first point above, she hired consultants to help her get started. I recommend that you learn as much as possible from reputable websites online (which you can follow on Facebook) before spending money on consultants.

At the bottom of Janis’ post, you’ll find a link to a free action plan to develop your marketing strategy. Check it out!

Go ahead—be brave! Get started on your social media marketing. Start small. And remember, “Don’t despise small beginnings because God rejoices to see the work start…” (Zechariah 4:10).

On Facebook, I post many
links to helpful articles
and other resources
for those writing, publishing,
and marketing their memoirs.

If you’re not following Spiritual Memoirs 101 on Facebook,
you’re missing a lot!