Kathleen,Thank you for such a forth-right discussion about promoting the memoir. You spoke directly to others and me and I heard you, loud and clear. I am not a celebrity. But I celebrate what I have created and, as a debut writer, I will do my best to make wise use of your suggestions. And, today, I have become a paid subscriber.
I've been doing everything I can to promote my memoir and amazingly good things are happening- yesterday I had a live interview on WBUR and I am selling a *decent* number of books for a debut memoirist.
One important thing here is, I think, that the book should be good. I put six years of work into my book and in a way I am seeing that work manifest as attention in the world- maybe not the big hits but in many small ways that are slowly adding up and building momentum. It's a complex memoir that expands beyond my own life. And I didn't realize how much my publicity is, at a certain point, embedded in the book itself, because I worked so hard to make it my own on every level.
I love hearing your take on things- can't wait to hear your thoughts about Liz's memoir.
I loved your recent piece on Memoirs and promoting, etc. I do have a healthy platform but as a cookbook author which might explain why my somewhat recent tango memoir is only slowly gaining traction :). I agree that celebrity memoirs have an edge because there's 'brand awareness' of celebs. But the new (?) genre of auto-fiction might work for unknown or lesser known talents/emergying authors in that fiction or fictionalized autobiographical works offer a more level playing field - it's easier to pitch and slice through. Of course, not all self accounts lend themselves to being fictionalized.
Thank you SO MUCH for this. It really speaks to me as a writer. I didn't want to write a book to tell my Sister Ex story, but I did want to tell it. Substack was the perfect platform.
My *why* was to celebrate the sisterhood of women who connect over their "mutual mistake." It was really powerful for me:
I have also spent a lot of time on social sharing my life/story over the last 10 years: husband dying, dating as a young widow, only son moving away, a tree falling on my house, mental health leave, layoffs, and using GLP-1s to lose weight.
My why is to create connection and community. To remove shame and stigma. In the spirit of "my words may be someone's medicine" and to feel seen and heard like I wasn't as a child.
Kathleen,Thank you for such a forth-right discussion about promoting the memoir. You spoke directly to others and me and I heard you, loud and clear. I am not a celebrity. But I celebrate what I have created and, as a debut writer, I will do my best to make wise use of your suggestions. And, today, I have become a paid subscriber.
Bernice Proctor Venable
I've been doing everything I can to promote my memoir and amazingly good things are happening- yesterday I had a live interview on WBUR and I am selling a *decent* number of books for a debut memoirist.
One important thing here is, I think, that the book should be good. I put six years of work into my book and in a way I am seeing that work manifest as attention in the world- maybe not the big hits but in many small ways that are slowly adding up and building momentum. It's a complex memoir that expands beyond my own life. And I didn't realize how much my publicity is, at a certain point, embedded in the book itself, because I worked so hard to make it my own on every level.
I love hearing your take on things- can't wait to hear your thoughts about Liz's memoir.
WBUR is great!
LOL, I wrote this and thought "the book has to be good" was a known fact, but I should have said that.
I loved your recent piece on Memoirs and promoting, etc. I do have a healthy platform but as a cookbook author which might explain why my somewhat recent tango memoir is only slowly gaining traction :). I agree that celebrity memoirs have an edge because there's 'brand awareness' of celebs. But the new (?) genre of auto-fiction might work for unknown or lesser known talents/emergying authors in that fiction or fictionalized autobiographical works offer a more level playing field - it's easier to pitch and slice through. Of course, not all self accounts lend themselves to being fictionalized.
Thank you SO MUCH for this. It really speaks to me as a writer. I didn't want to write a book to tell my Sister Ex story, but I did want to tell it. Substack was the perfect platform.
My *why* was to celebrate the sisterhood of women who connect over their "mutual mistake." It was really powerful for me:
https://larastarr.substack.com/p/the-sister-ex-saga
It got me a feature on the Dan Savage podcast, as well few a few other media interviews:
https://larastarr.substack.com/p/wcpt-radio-interview-about-sister (scroll down for the Savage interview)
I was also invited to submit an essay to Open Secrets that I'm proud of:
https://opensecretsmagazine.com/p/facebook-group-analyzing-male-dating-profiles
I have also spent a lot of time on social sharing my life/story over the last 10 years: husband dying, dating as a young widow, only son moving away, a tree falling on my house, mental health leave, layoffs, and using GLP-1s to lose weight.
My why is to create connection and community. To remove shame and stigma. In the spirit of "my words may be someone's medicine" and to feel seen and heard like I wasn't as a child.