Memoirs

MEMOIRS, can they be successful in spite of what “they say”? (This post is in response to the opinion of some traditional publishers about which books are likely to sell and which are not.) What’s the difference between a memoir and an autobiography? I looked that up because I love biographies. Of course, an autobiography is the story you write about your life, and a biography is the same thing but written by someone else, but what is a memoir? It is typically only about a certain portion of your life, maybe something special you went through for a time. For my part, I would like reading any of those as long as it’s relevant and not so introspective that the reader feels uninvited. The Diary of Anne Frank brought us in to what she was experiencing which we would otherwise never imagine! She did not seem to just be talking to herself, but to us. Make sure you have a great title that makes us want to read, and a subtitle that adds interest or even asks a question! The cover design should match the subject and the emotion of your book. (You may need an editor to help with story flow and character development - that’s normal even for a professional writer.) If you’re doing all of that, I do think you could make a profit from that memoir!