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: 

• Title
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Introduction

Today we’ll look at your publishing options—BUT 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

or at SM 101’s Facebook Page.

Lisa Oltmans, a member of our SM 101 family, has published her memoir!

That’s right! Lisa Oltmans has published her memoir, See You Now: A Memoir of Shane’s Triumph Over SMA, and I’m delighted to welcome her here to share her story with you.

Her guest post today will inspire you in two ways:

(1) You’ll be moved by her faith and endurance in what she describes as “a story of survival against all odds,” and

(2) you’ll be motivated by Lisa’s tenacity in finishing her memoir and publishing it—she’s actually holding her book in her hands! Isn’t that what you want to do, too?

Below she shares specifics about organizing, writing, editing, and publishing—as well as working through her grief, which many of us must also do in writing our own stories. You’ll be inspired by the good tips Lisa offers.

Welcome, Lisa!

On my birthday, February 28, I read Linda’s blog about holding your own book in your hands. I knew what that felt like! And I wanted to let her know how much her Spiritual Memoirs 101 had not only inspired me, but led me to go forward and self-publish my own memoir, See You Now: A Memoir of Shane’s Triumph over SMA.

In 1989, my only son was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy at the tender age of six weeks. The doctors predicted he would die before the age of two. The only Scripture that reached out to pull me back to earth was, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Through prayer and a daily walk of faith, my husband and I raised our son to adulthood. I felt that Shane’s story, a story of survival against all odds, had to be written for the young families just receiving such a diagnosis and for anyone in a caregiving role for a family member.

Writing the memoir of my son's life was an act of love. Although I could have written this book in any order, I felt that keeping the chapters in chronological order presented my son's life for others who are in the middle of their own battles.

I used my journals and blogs to get started. I took a large loose-leaf notebook and made dividers for each section representing a year of Shane’s life. I scrapbooked in photos, clippings, ticket stubs, notes, and miscellaneous items to jog my memory. I made a spreadsheet with a row for each chapter and columns for the name of the chapter, year, Shane’s age, Shane’s school grade, chapter summary, important events, our employers, teachers, and nurses. Each year has an associated Bible verse because our relationship with Jesus is the catalyst that made my son’s life possible.

Using my outline, I worked through my grief, year by year. It was not an easy process, but it was a cathartic and healing process. I had my moments of doubt. I started over a few times, and it took five years for me to complete my son’s story. 

I used my spreadsheet to keep track of what I had written and what I still needed to write. I color-coded them with a highlighter, red for writing in process, yellow for editing, and green for completed.

To write, I picked a chapter and imagined myself time travelling, using the mementos and photos to jog my memory. Some revived memories were so sharp and painful that I had to skip them to write later.

Filling in the spreadsheet with green highlighter, I printed each chapter after I wrote it on my computer. I placed them in my loose leaf notebook. I found having the printed pages helped encourage me to keep working.

I knew that editing was an important process. After I finished a set of chapters, I sent them to a dear friend who taught English for over twenty years. She marked the edits I needed to polish the book, and she asked for clarification when I was not clear about some things.

For publishing, I researched all the possible methods to get Shane’s story out into the world. At my age, waiting for an agent and a publisher was too time-consuming. Shane taught me that life is short, and it is best lived in action and not in waiting. An e-book can be published free of charge, so first I published Shane's story as an e-book on Smashwords.

I titled the book, See You Now, which was one of Shane’s favorite sayings. He would never let anyone say, “See you later.” Even at a young age, he lived in the moment. My cover was designed by a professional graphic artist for a reasonable charge.

To publish the book as a paperback, I used Amazon’s CreateSpace. It was very exciting to hold a real copy of the book, review it, and then approve it for print.

I’ve received feedback from other families, and Shane’s story has encouraged them in the middle of their own battles. His example has inspired these families to make the effort and help their children get out into the world every day.

I know some of you have such stories of encouragement to share as well. I encourage you to organize your memories and get your story into print. The light of Christ changed our story from one of tragedy to one of triumph.

The world needs these stories, and these examples of how faith changes everything. God is always faithful to those who call out to him in faith for help. Start my friends, and write.  It is worth every second.

Special thanks to Linda for encouraging us all!

And thank you, Lisa, for inspiring us as well! May God use your memoir, See You Now: A Memoir of Shane's Triumph Over SMA, to help many in their own struggles.

For more information click here to see Lisa's author profile and links to her author website.

Have you published your memoir? 

If so, let us know! 

Leave a comment below 

or on SM 101’s Facebook Page. 

Or feel free to send me a private message 

on the Facebook Page.

Tuesday Tidbit: More info about CreateSpace

Sharon Lippincott left this helpful comment

after Thursday’s guest post by Dwight Clough.

(If you missed his post, click on Two self publishing options for memoir authors.)

…CreateSpace is a good option for those who want nothing more than copies for friends and family. You can order ‘real books’ from CreateSpace for less than the cost of printing at home and about the same as a copy shop.

You do not have to list your project on Amazon. Order as many copies as you wish from CreateSpace, then either unlist it or remove it.

Leaving it listed on CreateSpace is a good option though so you can let people who want to read it order their own copies. (You do not have to add a royalty for CreateSpace, leaving the public price the same as wholesale.) If you leave it there and don’t promote it, few will ever order.

You will need to provide tax ID information to set up an account. This is required by their accounting system, but if you receive no royalties, none will be reported to the IRS and you’ll have no extra lines to fill out on your tax return.

Many thanks, Sharon, for that good info.

Sharon Lippincott authored The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing: How to Transform Memories into Meaningful Stories and several memoirs and books. She teaches classes and workshops on Lifestory and Memoir Writing, and Writing with All Your Senses. Click here to check out her blog, The Heart and Craft of Life Writing.

Self-publishing done right

If you’re ready to publish your memoir, self-publishing is one option to consider. Self-pub isn’t for everyone, but nowadays it’s more respectable than it used to be. Why? Because many authors are choosing to write well, edit well, and format well.  (Read more at Your Publishing Options.)

Amber Lea Starfire, who consistently offers good advice to memoirists, recently posted 5 Reasons to Self-Publish, comparing self-publishing with traditional publishing.

She lists reasons self-publishing might be your best option:

• No gatekeepers
• Faster Timing
• Full Control
• More Profit
• Continuous Availability

(Click here to read more about each item on her list.)

She cautions that self-publishing takes loads of work and urges memoirists, in the same way I do, to get manuscripts edited and proofed by others in order to craft the most professional book you can.

If you’re thinking of self-publishing, you’ll want to acquaint yourself with all the valuable information Amber Lea Starfire offers here. Click on 5 Reasons to Self-Publish.

Alicia Rades also writes a helpful post, How to Avoid Self-Publishing Regrets. She could write the post because—you guessed it!—she has regrets about the first book she published. “I wish I had taken the time and money to produce a higher-quality book the first time,” she admits.

She offers the following for those who “want your best work out there for the public.”

First, she says, slow down. Don’t rush into publishing. She then lists the following tips:

• Take a breather from your manuscript after each self-edit
• Get feedback; consider hiring a professional editor
• Hire a proofreader
• Pay for a professional cover

(Click here to read more about each item on her list.)

Don’t miss Alicia’s take on self-publishing. Click on How to Avoid Self-Publishing Regrets, and be sure to read comments readers left at the bottom.

And again, like she said, don’t rush into publishing. Take plenty of time to educate yourself and make a wise choice.

Your publishing options

When you have edited and rewritten and polished your manuscript until it’s the very best you can make it, you’ll want to publish your memoir.

I’m not going to recommend a publisher because in recent years the industry has changed significantly and continues to do so. But you have several options:  (a) traditional publishing, or (b) indie publishing (independent publishing, sometimes called self-publishing, including POD—print on demand), or (c) something else—like photocopied and bound at an office supply store. (One of my friends wrote her stories by hand and that’s okay too. What a treasure that will be for generations to come!)

Some people, especially older ones, turn their noses up at indie publishing—they believe the only respectable publishing choice is traditional publishing. Indie publishing used to have a bad reputation because authors didn’t write well, edit well, or format well.

But indie publishing has improved greatly in recent years. Most companies offer packages that include editing, formatting, and other helps. Some companies are so professional nowadays that a number of established writers are choosing the indie option, including authors who have had previous success with traditional publishing.

If you choose indie publishing, I strongly recommend that you have critique partners and beta readers go over your manuscript. If they do their job well, you can consider both as your best friends and allies—they’ll help you work hard to make your manuscript as professional as possible. (Be sure to read Belinda Pollard’s informative post, What is a beta reader and why do I need one? Don’t miss the additional links she put at the bottom of her post.)

In addition, consider hiring a professional editor before you publish your memoir. This is pricey, but if you’re striving for professional quality, hiring an editor is, in most cases, a must. And, like critique partners and beta readers, you can consider an editor another of your best friends and allies in helping you craft a professional manuscript. (If you are already skilled in editing, critique partners and beta readers might be all you need. Watch for more on editing in a future blog post.)

Explore the internet for indie publishing companies and you’ll find a variety of options, packages, qualities, and prices. It’s mind-boggling. Get recommendations from other published writers.

If possible, get an in-person look at a book published by each company you’re interested in. You might be surprised at how different the finished books are when it comes to (1) paper quality, (b) font choice and size, (c) spacing of lines and margins, and (d) photos.

For example, take a look inside a few indie books:

In the photo below, notice that the paper is so thin you can see writing on the back side of the page. In fact, you can even see the print on the page before it! This might be #20 or #24 pound paper like you use in your printer at home.  In my opinion, 70# paper is the best. Don’t settle for anything less than #50.

In this next picture, the author typed his manuscript on a manual typewriter—the letter t in the word “often” gives it away.  Bless his heart! (In my youth and young adulthood I typed thousands of pages on manual typewriters so I know what a task that was for him.)

Notice that sometimes he left one space between words, other times two spaces. When you format your manuscript, be sure you’ve put only one space between words and only one space between sentences.

Compare the above picture with the one below which was not typed with a manual typewriter; this looks like Times New Roman  font, which is  popular. Once in a while you’ll run across a book using one of the sans-serif fonts like Helvetica.

Also notice this page has more space between the lines than the one above. Such spaces make reading easier.

In this next picture, notice the smaller spacing between lines as well as the margin, which is only 3/8". That narrow margin is something to avoid.

  

In the picture below, you'll see a good space between lines and a good margin at 9/16". 

In the photo below, notice how close the lines are together as well as the very narrow margin, only 3/8". It doesn't look user-friendly to most people. 

Include plenty of white space on your book's pages. Compare the photo above with the photo below.

Strive for quality photos. Below is an example of a poor quality photo and it's from my first memoir. I made the mistake of not checking with the publisher as to the quality I could expect. I won't do that again!

Compare that with the good photo below. Night and day difference!

It’s not easy to choose a way to publish your memoir. If you choose indie publishing, you’ll have to decide how much money you want to spend. Click on links below to compare the following companies. (If you want less pricey options, soon I’ll write about a couple of more affordable POD options, that is, Print On Demand.)

HIS Publishing Group

Gold Publishing Package 

Silver Publishing Package  

Basic Publishing Package    

Westbow Press packages  

iUniverse black and white packages 

In making your decision, note such things as whether the indie publisher does cover design, provides editing services, an ISBN number, a US copyright, and book distribution.

Also check to see if color photos are an option; if not, ask yourself if you’re okay with black and white. Either way, check out the quality you can expect from each company by asking to see, with your own eyes, one or more of their books. Strive for quality photos. Make it your business to learn how to use a photo editing program to make your photos the best quality they can be. Poor photo quality is the most irksome problem I’ve seen in indie books.

Once you choose your publisher, you’ll still have a lot of work to do, but if you’ve done your homework well and strive for a professional product, if you write well, edit well, and format well, you could be very happy when you hold your published memoir in your hands and when you give copies to your family and friends.

Samantha’s memoir: “among the toughest, most draining, most rewarding things I have ever done”

Today we welcome Samantha White, psychotherapist, Positive Aging Coach, and memoirist. If her name sounds familiar, it’s because she shared a story with us last December. Today she tells us about writing and publishing her memoir, Someone to Talk To. Be sure to check out her blog, too, Peace, Purpose, and Joy.

Welcome, Samantha!

I’m honored to be a guest here. Linda invited me to write about my memoir, Someone to Talk To: Finding Peace, Purpose and Joy After Tragedy and Loss; A Recipe for Healing from Trauma and Grief, and about the inspiration I received from the Book of Job. Obviously, I don’t keep my sentences or my book titles short, but I’ll do my best to say a lot in a small space.

One of the ingredients in my book’s Recipe for Healing is a spiritual belief system, a sense of some kind of meaning in life. When tragedy and loss—my  husband’s mental illness, the end of our marriage, betrayal by the next man I loved, the violent death of my daughter—piled up and left me flattened, unable to function and wanting to die, I had no spirituality to support me. How to move from a complete lack of faith to finding something I could believe in?

Ironically, Spirit—or God, the Great Invisible, the Force—found me instead, and planted Itself right in front of me. I heard someone say, “God works through people,” and a light went on somewhere in my head. I realized that even if I didn’t believe in a Heavenly Creator, I could believe in the loving acts of people. A gift from a friend, a subscription to a gentle, non-dogmatic magazine of daily spiritual devotions, offered me an entrance to a spiritual belief I could accept. I became more aware of the acts of love bestowed upon me every day by caring people.

Then there was the Book of Job. All I knew about it was that it was a long, tedious read about suffering. But when I was looking for something to listen to in the car, I came across a recording of the play J.B., a modern retelling of the story read by the author, Archibald MacLeish. I started listening to it in snatches. It gripped me, pulled me in, held me to its great surprise finish. I had never known that Job’s suffering ended, that his life became filled with joy and riches, his pleasure in life restored, all because he persisted in his faith!

So I opted to believe that there was a Divine force that would manifest through the people in my life and carry me to a state of healing. The climb was hard and long, and throughout it all the story of my journey was forming. The words and sentences gathered in me for many years, until I felt driven to express and share them with others who might find hope and courage in my eventual healing and joy, as I had found in Job’s.

I wrote feverishly, driven from within, compelled not to waste all the pain from which there was so much to learn. I was overtaken by an urgency to get it published, dogged by the fear that I might die before completing the project, and repeatedly told my husband how to treat the manuscript if I didn’t live to finish it. To avoid losing time writing book proposals and seeking an agent or a publisher, I opted to self-publish.

When it was finally completed, a great weight lifted from me. I had learned and grown from tragedy and loss, captured my experience in words, and offered them up to share with others. To my utter surprise, the book received a 2012 Nautilus Book Award in the category of Grieving/Death & Dying.

To me it is not as much about Grief and Death as it is about Healing—mine, and that of its readers. People tell me that they find it hard to put down, satisfying to read, and inspirational. I like to think it has wings taking it wherever it needs to go, recommended and given as gifts by those who find something in the story that speaks to them, that feels worth passing along.

Writing it was among the toughest, most draining, most rewarding things I have ever done. The only thing greater in all those aspects was the actual experience it relates. Taken in totality, it justifies and honors the pain that motivated all of it.

Do you have questions for Samantha? If so, leave them in the comments section below, or send an e-mail to grandmaletters [at] aol [dot] com (replace [at] with @ and replace [dot] with a period) and please write “Question for Samantha” in the subject line (so I’ll know it’s not spam). Thanks.

Your finished memoir: How do you envision it?

When you close your eyes and picture your finished memoir, what do you see?

Have you chosen a title for your book? (If so, let me know!)

Imagine your memoir’s cover. What will it look like?

Dream big!

These days we have a myriad of publishing options. We’ll cover them more fully in the future but for now, you can start thinking about a few:

• a published hardbound or softbound book (either self-published or with an agent and/or publishing company)
• a three-ring binder
• a scrapbook-like format
• a spiral-bound book from your local print shop or office supply store
• a digital book compiled on the Internet (Is that the same thing as an e-book? I'll let you know.)

While you mull over your title, cover, and publishing options, pray for a clear sense of what you want your stories to accomplish in the lives of your readers—children, grandchildren, and other special people.*

Then, grab hold of that vision and make a plan.

This week your finished memoir might seem only a blurry dream, but planning for it now will help speed you toward that glorious accomplishment.

 

“Little is accomplished by those who dillydally.”

Donald Grey Barnhouse

Strategize, organize, and establish short-term and long-term goals for completing your memoir.

Get out your calendar and schedule weekly writing times.

And remember the beauty of memoir.*  It’s not autobiography!

In memoir, you don’t need to start with the day of your birth and include details about preschool, elementary, middle school, high school and college.

Facts that are imperative for a résumé are optional in memoir.

Memoir is a slice of life, a story or collection of short stories along a specific theme.

In Spiritual Memoirs 101, our theme comes from several Bible verses that tell us to remember what we’ve seen God do and be sure to tell our children and grandchildren. (See Deuteronomy 4:9 and 6:4-9, for example.)

And do this: Circle a date—probably on your new 2012 calendar—to finish your memoir’s rough draft.

Yes, go ahead! Do it!

Do it now!

And have fun!

*Related post: What is a memoir

http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/04/what-is-memoir.html

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