Seeing a book all the through to the shelf takes enormous time and labor. Most authors in contemporary publishing climes know that at some point, they will need to invest in their book project. Investment can take many forms, including our time, emotional energy and labor, and money towards professional help in various stages of the process from development, editing, and design. Our time and our labor are usually solitary efforts, but they still need careful consideration in how we invest them. Most of us are not in positions where we can invest all of our time and energy to go 100% full throttle on writing a book. There will be times where we take big jumps forward, and times where it mostly sits in a proverbial drawer most of the time. Our time and our labor are finite, but for many authors, the investment of money is the most nerve-wracking. So, how do you know it’s time to invest in your memoir?
In this week’s video below, Amanda reviews five big signs that its time to strategically invest in your memoir so that you can share your story with your audience.
What do we mean by “invest in your memoir”?
Of course, you will invest your time and passion into your project. Most authors we work with understand that especially in today’s market, memoir writers will probably need to invest some money at some point in the project. Most authors assume that this stage will come when it’s time to hire an editor.
It’s true that an editor is a hugely valuable investment for any memoirist, but it may not be the only time investing in your project will pay off in significant ways. There are many other ways to get professional support, from book coaching, a developmental editor, classes and group support, or working with a hybrid press. Each of these forms of support can address different obstacles and can be utilized strategically to help bring your story into the world. If any of the below situations apply to you, it might be time to invest in your memoir.
#1-It’s been 2-5 years since you’ve seen significant progress
If you find yourself looking back on the time you’ve spent working on your memoir, whether that has been a continuous effort or sporadic pushes, and find that it’s been 2+ years, you’re far from alone. It’s not uncommon that writers will spend even much longer. We’ve seen writers who’ve been plugging away for 10, 20, even 30 years.
It’s amazing how easily this can happen. You gave a great start on your book, but then life happens. You have to move to change jobs, and the transition takes 100% of your focus. You have a newborn. Illness in the family. Or a pandemic throws everyone’s routine out the window. Or all of these things, one after the other. You put it away for a bit, pull it back out, and more life happens. This is totally understandable, and to be totally honest, we should expect it to for any long-term project.
There does come a tipping point where it becomes harder and harder to pull out that manuscript again. It’s been a long time since you had first the idea, bright and shiny in your head. Every week or month that you don’t look at it all, it becomes a bit more dusty and faded. When months turn into years, the harder it gets to find your momentum again. You feel worse for each period of time away from it as it stacks up.
Such was the case for one of our clients, Michael Studeman. In consulting with Michael on his project, we decided that book coaching was what he really needed. We were able to look at his progress, refocus on his main goals, develop strategies for keeping on track, and review his progress week to week in order to stay on track. In Michael’s case, he did not end up investing in an editor because he had professional eyes throughout the process. His book has been accepted by a traditional publisher and will come out in late 2025!
#2- You’ve written a lot, but you’re not sure where it’s going
Perhaps you have the opposite of Michael’s problem. You’ve been writing consistently and find yourself with pages and pages and pages. But you’re not sure how they will come together or when you’ll be able to call them a finished book.
If you’re a follower of this blog, you know that we are big fans of having a clear plan and outline. Nonfiction, including and perhaps especially memoir, needs to have a cohesive theme and direction. Otherwise, it feels more like a loosely connected set of facts or true stories, and readers are left with the feeling that they are digging around, trying to find your point. Many writers know they have a story to tell, so they just just writing and hope that the golden thread that pulls it all together will reveal itself. Often, eventually, this will wind up getting you in the same boat as situation #1. You haven’t really made progress in years, even though you’ve been consistently adding to your work count.
If you find yourself in this situation, where you need to invest in is planning and structuring your book. There are some free resources, including this blog. If you find yourself at sea, however, it may be time to invest in book coaching or in a group program, like our Memoir Method.
#3- You have to navigate contentious relationships
Many writers who are telling their life story will also be pulling in other people into that narrative, and some may not like what you have to say. In a previous post, we’ve talked about how to write your memoir’s villain without burning bridges. There will dozens of choices you have to make as you write your book. When it’s a memoir involving contentious relationships, it can be difficult to have clear eyes on what possible impact that representation will have.
If you have this contentious relationship at the center of your book, there is no better recipe for self-doubt. Your vacillate between different decisions of how much you want to reveal, which can completely stall you. A perspective on your book from someone who has no personal stake in that conflict can help you see clearly how the narrative and the people involved are coming across to an objective reader.
#4- You have a complete first draft
Havin a completed first draft is a wonderful thing, but most writers quickly discover it’s also a scary thing. You probably know it’s not publication ready–but is it editor ready? What will the editor do, exactly? Part of this confusion and uncertainly comes from the fact that “editor” is a very general word that encompasses so many kinds of jobs and steps in the full process, that it’s not always clear what it means, kind of like “journalist” or “doctor.” It helps to clarify a few terms related to the actual services you’re buying from an editor.
A “developmental edit” is a an extensive and close read of an manuscript. There will often be revisions and suggestions for large-scale or even structural changes to your manuscript, made both with in-line comments and an extensive letter. With a developmental edit, there is the expectation that the author will be taking at least one more pass on the manuscript and executing the changes themselves. A “copy edit” largely assumes that the content of the book is relatively set. It looks at the the details and line-by-line wording clear, correct, and consistent. This is usually considered one of the final passes a manuscript receives. Both of these services are time consuming, and therefore costly.
It can be difficult to know if you need to invest in both rounds of these services, but it may help to know there’s another option many are unaware of. A manuscript review is a more affordable service. An editor will read your work and give you an overview of what are the primary revisions needed. It will also give you an idea of what strengths of the work need to be preserved. This can be very helpful in guiding you as you set about your revision stage.
#5- You have completely integrated your experiences
Memoirs often come from overcoming difficult and even traumatic experiences. We may experience a period of time where this trauma feels like it has happened to someone else. Our minds create space for us to heal by making a bit of distance between “ourselves” and the person who went through that experience. Integration is a psychological term that refers to when we feel fully as one with all of our experiences in life, including the worst. If you are trying to write your story, but feel as though you’re writing about someone else, or if you are struggling with defining the cohesive message you want to convey, then you might need more time on your own. The investment to make in this case is time.
