Memoirs and biographies have always been popular genres. There is fascination in someone else's story, whether it's personally relatable or vastly different from one's own life. Biography usually refers to someone famous, while memoir is an unknown person. 

As publishers of memoirs in our Tell Your Story series, we have learned a few things to keep in mind as you write your memoir or life story.

Protecting Privacy. Your story will feature other real people, who may or may not want to be named or even written about. But you can't tell an honest, compelling story without them. To avoid libel claims, think about changing names, which means you have to keep track of everyone with a table or spreadsheet. Or write the story with the real names, and go back and change them all before it's published. Either way, you'll need a system to keep track of who's who.

Permissions. Getting permission from everyone in your story is ideal, but that's not always desirable or possible. It's best to keep them unrecognizable, change the names, and not say anything in the book about them that isn't true and isn't derogatory. You may need legal advice if you're not sure if you're being libelous.

Decide whether to use pictures. You should get permission from anyone in a picture before using it, as well as permission from any professional photographers, and give them credit.

Poems, songs or other quotes should be thoroughly cited and permission granted, unless in the public domain. Internet and website searches usually give you this information, or your editor can help direct you.

Book Structure. Plan out your structure in advance, such as time sequencing. Will the book jump among several time periods, or tell the story from beginning to end? Book coaches and developmental editors can help with this. 

Purpose. What is the purpose of telling your story? For your own catharsis? To leave a legacy? To help or inspire others in similar situations? To make money or create a platform and name for yourself or a related business or cause? It will help to know your purpose before you start writing and marketing the book.

We are here to answer any questions about memoir writing and publishing.

Patty and Lonnie 

One of our authors, Tracey Warren, who wrote Six-Word Lessons for Social Media, presented a very informative workshop in July that several of our authors attended either in person or through Zoom videoconferencing. It was a fun, interactive time with a lot of discussion and sharing of ideas. Thank you so much, Tracey, for sharing your knowledge! Here are some of the ideas she shared: 

Real Life Marketing
Find champions and advocates and ask them for help.
Offer book copies as door prizes at events.
Ask to be a guest on podcasts, TV and radio shows.
Send press releases out.
Ask for reviews from anyone you give a book to.
Partner with a nonprofit by giving a portion of book sale proceeds to them in return for their help.
Donate books to relevant organizations that could bring exposure/sales.
Include books for attendees when speaking and wrap the cost into your fee.
Offer free copies to waiting rooms that might bring exposure and fit your book topic

Online Marketing
Post your book in your e-mail signature line with an Amazon link
Use Amazon affiliates for extra profit
Sign up for Help a Reporter Out (HARO) and offer yourself as an expert
Guest blog with relevant partners

Social Media Marketing
Use your 100 lessons as individual posts
Use videos and blogs that Pacelli Publishing created for you on all platforms
Create graphics or smartphone photos with text for Pinterest and instagram 
Ask for reviews on Linkedin, FB, etc.
Create and post graphics of Amazon reviews
Add your book as a "publication" on Linkedin

  

Dr. Tulinda Larsen, drone pilot and founder and CEO of Skylark Drone Research,  has written and published her second book with us, Six-Word Lessons for a Trustworthy Drone Business. She shares 100 lessons on the many facets of operating a drone business, including licenses required and types of business opportunities. It also has great advice for anyone wanting to hire a drone entrepreneur for their company or project. Her first book was Six-Word Lessons for the Drone Hobbyist. 

Our upcoming book is also in the drone category, Six-Word Lessons to Sell More Real Estate Using Drones, by Realtor Kevin Brennan from Maryland. Kevin was referred to us by Tulinda Larsen. It is full of great ideas on how realtors can make their listings more captivating by using drone video and photography. 

We value our authors and want to help them promote, market and sell their books, so we provide them with marketing tools to help with this sometimes overwhelming task. Our Six-Word Lessons authors receive each of the tools below to help them get the word out about their book:

• Video/slideshow trailer - We create this for each Six-Word Lessons book. It features 5 lessons from the book.
• 5 Mini-blogs - we create 5 mini-blogs for each book based on 5 lessons from the book, chosen by the author.
• Posting author blogs on our website - We always have room on 6wordlessons.com for author blog posts or articles.
• JPEG of book front cover - Authors use this in social media posts and on their websites to sell their book. Make it clickable and go directly to Amazon.
• Author profile - Our newest marketing tool includes a photo of the author with a casual, bullet-point bio.

We encourage our authors to use all of these tools by sharing them on their own social media and websites. As well, we promote our authors' books on a rotating basis by sharing these tools on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts. 

New Books and Topics

​We have more than 10 authors working on book proposals or manuscripts on various topics, such as Branding, Drone Use, Bipolar Disorder, Content Marketing, Wine Appreciation, Forgiveness and more. Let us know if you have ideas for new topics that you or someone you know could write.

Enjoy your summer and let us know how we can help you in your book writing and publishing!

Patty and Lonnie Pacelli
 

--By Patty Pacelli and Karen Lynn Maher

Whether your manuscript is self-published, traditionally published, or independently published, you need to know that it's ready for the next phase before it can be published and offered for sale. Along with our colleague, Karen Lynn Maher of LegacyOne Authors, we have defined the three phases of manuscript readiness and what you need to do to move ahead to get your book published.

Phase 1 - Content Ready
Karen works with authors as a coach to help them with much of this phase. We work with Six-Word Lessons authors to help them through this phase as well. Here are the main steps you need to have your content ready:

• Clear message - Know what you want to say and make sure it's very easy for your target readers to understand.
• Purposeful - Know your specific audience and write only to them with the purpose in mind.
• Compelling - Set your book apart by evoking interest and attention. Make your message irresistible and fascinating to your readers.
• Well-researched - Avoid mistakes and inconsistencies by doing thorough research for all aspects of your book.
• Copyright diligence - Make sure everything is your own original idea, and get necessary permissions for any outside information, including appropriate citations and attributions. 

Phase 2 - Manuscript Ready
In this phase, you will work with peers and professionals to contribute to preparing the book for publication.

• Peer/audience review - Ask 3 to 5 colleagues or experts in the field to read a PDF copy of the book. Listen to their suggestions, but make changes as you see fit. They are not looking for typos, or doing copy editing, but giving overall advice about content, based on their knowledge of the subject. Friends and family are not recommended as they will tell you what you want to hear.
• Professional editing - This can be done before or after the peer review. It may involve developmental (big picture) editing, or only copy/line editing for grammar, punctuation and clarity. 
• Title choice - This important part of your book must be finalized before going into the next phase of production.
• Front and back matter written - Don't forget the extra parts of your book, such as acknowledgements, dedication, introduction, foreword, testimonials, or anything else you would like to put before and after the main body of the book.
• Jacket copy written - This is the text that will go on the back of the book, and can be used for the book description on Amazon.
• Author certainty - Make sure the book is exactly how you want it and has no mistakes before proceeding to the next phase.

Phase 3 - Production Ready
In this final phase, your publisher will work with you to make decisions about the final physical book product and help produce it and get it up for sale. Whether you do it yourself or use various teams of publishers or vendors, the goal is to make the book look like a traditionally-published book. The Independent Book Publishers Association has an Industry Standards Checklist for a Professional Published Book that will help in this phase. 

• Trim size - Decide what size and shape you want your book, considering number of pages, cover design, number of pages and more.
• Cover design - This includes the front, back and spine and must be coordinated with the interior book design and follow specifications of your printer. 
• Interior design - Decide on typography fronts throughout book, paper color and other design features. There are templates available on createspace.com and other websites.
• ISBNs assigned - Your publisher will have access to an International Standard Book Number, which must be assigned to any published book. If you publish with createspace.com, you can have them assign one for free. 
• Professional proofreading - You should have someone outside of the author, publisher or editor proofread the final version, both cover and interior, for any last-minute errors. This is not a time to make major content changes. 
• Author approval to print - You are responsible for giving final approval that you are ready to print and publish your book.
• Key words - If publishing on Amazon or any e-book platform, you will be asked for 5 to 7 key words. Do some research to find the best key words someone would use to find your book. 
• Establish accounts - You will set up author accounts with whatever online Print-on-Demand or e-book publisher you use, such as IngramSpark, Createspace, Kindle Direct Publishing or Smashwords. Your publisher may help with this.
• Author and book marketing plan - Make a plan for how you will market and sell your book, starting with an Amazon Author Page if your book is on Amazon. 

For help or advice with any of these phases, please contact us here at Pacelli Publishing, or Karen Lynn Maher at [email protected] or 206-913-8883 and we would be happy to answer questions or discuss in more detail. Good luck with your writing and publishing! 

Patty and Karen

As you probably know, video is getting more relevant and common in all types of marketing, and it generally gets more attention than still images or text alone. Have you used it to promote your book? There are several different ways to use video, some of which our authors have done. Here are some ways that Pacelli Publishing authors have used video:

Facebook Live - This is fairly easy. You must use Facebook from your phone and having some type of tripod is helpful. Our author Tracey Warren uses it frequently to share about her business, which is connected to her book about Social Media. Jenni Butz also did a series of Facebook live videos featuring lessons from her book on Communication. Lance Carter regularly shares Facebook Live and other forms of videos, including a video of himself opening the first shipment of his new book!

To start your Facebook Live video, proceed to share a post as usual, but look for the video camera and touch that. Then start recording. You can share it if you're happy with it, or start over.  

Webcam Video - This uses your computer's camera, but works similar to Facebook live. Just record yourself in any setting you'd like to talk about your book and/or business. Lonnie has used this in combination with PowerPoint to have text and graphics along with his own comments on video. Nikki Rausch, author Six-Word Lessons on Influencing with Grace, regularly uses videos in her office setting to share tips. The benefit of this method over Facebook live is that it can be stored on YouTube and used for other purposes, such as archived on your website, or shared on other social media.

 Animation Video - We have used Fiverr.com to have someone create "Whiteboard Animation" videos to promote specific books, and our latest, the Six-Word Lessons series. We posted it on our YouTube channel and can share it in many different ways. Here is our latest describing our Six-Word Lessons process.  

Audio books are becoming more popular and easier to buy for customers, so adding an audio version of your book is something to think about. We recently met Kris Keppler, who does voice recording of books, creating an MP4 file that you can publish as an audio book. Check out her blog post for more information about audio. 

If you are working on writing your book, set aside at least 20 minutes a day, for as many days of the week as you can realistically commit to. This will keep you in the habit of writing and you will get better and more comfortable with it. Keep track of how much you can get done in each session and estimate your time for finishing your first draft. This will help you determine when the book can be published. Allow several weeks for any peer reviews you want done, and time to make your reviewers' changes. Lastly, you will submit the manuscript to an editor, and it will enter the final phase of editing, formatting, and publication. Just remember, at least 20 minutes a day!